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My wife and I live in a 115 year old house. It has been added on to at least two times that I can be sure of. When they added on the second time they set a beam an inch too high which is causing a high area across the entire kitchen floor. I'm trying to level the floor so that I can install new tile, am wondering if it's possible to use concrete leveler to fix the problem, kitchen is approximately 19x10. I've got a lot of time invested in this project, had to tear up half the floor and add new joists due to extensive water damage, so I'm in it for the long haul. Any help you guys can offer would be greatly appreciated.
Its likely the house will shift around during the seasons, humidity, etc, thus cracking all the grout and maybe the tiles. Do something else. My suggestion for such an old house would be Hardwood to match the character. Next choice would be a single sheet vinyl, no seams.
Its likely the house will shift around during the seasons, humidity, etc, thus cracking all the grout and maybe the tiles. Do something else. My suggestion for such an old house would be Hardwood to match the character. Next choice would be a single sheet vinyl, no seams.
I have to agree with this poster. My house is only 90 years old and almost all of the floors slant in one direction or another. Even though the crawlspace is conditioned there is still some slight movement (shrinking) of the heart pine floors in the winter (the gaps between the boards get a little larger), so I have heavyweight vinyl in the kitchen and real linoleum in the bath. Both look very vintage, so they "go" with the house a lot better than tile would anyway.
My wife and I live in a 115 year old house. It has been added on to at least two times that I can be sure of. When they added on the second time they set a beam an inch too high which is causing a high area across the entire kitchen floor. I'm trying to level the floor so that I can install new tile, am wondering if it's possible to use concrete leveler to fix the problem, kitchen is approximately 19x10. I've got a lot of time invested in this project, had to tear up half the floor and add new joists due to extensive water damage, so I'm in it for the long haul. Any help you guys can offer would be greatly appreciated.
The house is 115 years old. It has MULTIPLE ADDITIONS. Why in the world would you assume that the crew that did the addition was SO INCOMPETENT as to not correctly place a beam such that the ENTIRE KITCHEN FLOOR has a "high area"?
It is almost certainly far more likely that there is BIGGER ISSUE that has resulted in whatever happened AROUND THE BEAM has not been stable!
You claim to have ALREADY "torn up half the floor and added new joists" to deal with issues related to extensive water damage -- WHAT CAUSED THAT DAMAGE? Any chance that is still the root cause of the unlevel floor?
The fact is without a whole lot more detailed investigation of the existing situation and a better understanding of the range of potential solutions it would be foolish to proceed.
I have to agree with this poster. My house is only 90 years old and almost all of the floors slant in one direction or another. Even though the crawlspace is conditioned there is still some slight movement (shrinking) of the heart pine floors in the winter (the gaps between the boards get a little larger), so I have heavyweight vinyl in the kitchen and real linoleum in the bath. Both look very vintage, so they "go" with the house a lot better than tile would anyway.
Same! Bought a house built in 1915, none of the floors are level, and many of the actual slats have separated from each other over time. I'll probably sand it all down and refinish it at some point (the previous owners had a dog that left a ton of scratches) but it's part of the charm.
Plus, the cats love the fact that you can put a ball on the floor and it rolls all around on its own accord.
If the top surface of a beam is too high compared to the ones next to it, pull up the subfloor and plane off the top of the beam.
Personally I would use either a "slick" which is essentially a giant chisel, or a scrub plane. It will take some time and elbow grease but the job will be done. This is how the builders would have leveled out something like this 115 yrs. ago when the house was built.
If you just want to buy something expensive, you can buy powered hand planes, but they scare the daylights out of me due to spinning sharp blades. I would rather sweat and spend more time and be sure of keeping all 9 1/2 of my remaining fingers (long story there...)
I believe there is also something called a "floor plane" which has a socket for a long handle, so you can stand up and push it, but it would probably be hard to find one of these. If you have a cheap scrub plane you may be able to convert it to something like this but it would have to be very solid. I would be able to do it easier than I could tell you how to do it.
With some thought and making of **** you could probably also use a router to get the top of the beam down to the correct height. It's just basically a vertical milling job, only in wood rather than metal.
If the top surface of a beam is too high compared to the ones next to it, pull up the subfloor and plane off the top of the beam.
Personally I would use either a "slick" which is essentially a giant chisel, or a scrub plane. It will take some time and elbow grease but the job will be done. This is how the builders would have leveled out something like this 115 yrs. ago when the house was built.
If you just want to buy something expensive, you can buy powered hand planes, but they scare the daylights out of me due to spinning sharp blades. I would rather sweat and spend more time and be sure of keeping all 9 1/2 of my remaining fingers (long story there...)
I believe there is also something called a "floor plane" which has a socket for a long handle, so you can stand up and push it, but it would probably be hard to find one of these. If you have a cheap scrub plane you may be able to convert it to something like this but it would have to be very solid. I would be able to do it easier than I could tell you how to do it.
With some thought and making of **** you could probably also use a router to get the top of the beam down to the correct height. It's just basically a vertical milling job, only in wood rather than metal.
1) Apparently I am not allowed to type the word "j...i" ..."g...s" even though it's a perfectly ordinary word in this context.
2) If the floor and its support structures have settled around a beam and the beam has not settled, leaving a hump down the middle of the room with the floor sloping away from it on either side, you need to raise the support structures that have settled.
3) If you have an old house with lots of movement it probably is not a good idea to install ceramic tile flooring which requires a stable base. I expect the period correct choice would be sheet linoleum or linoleum tiles. I am not a fan of wood floors in kitchens because sooner or later something's going to leak and there will be water everywhere, which is bad for wood floors but no problem for the flooring materials usually used in kitchens.
4) 115 years isn't really that old; that's 1900. Depending on where you are and the type of foundation, you really shouldn't be seeing that much movement. My guess is that the foundation under the add-on was not done well and needs attention. I have a similar problem with a poorly done add-on but fortunately the joint between old and new is not spanned by a single room as it appears is the case with you.
If the top surface of a beam is too high compared to the ones next to it, pull up the subfloor and plane off the top of the beam.
Personally I would use either a "slick" which is essentially a giant chisel, or a scrub plane. It will take some time and elbow grease but the job will be done. This is how the builders would have leveled out something like this 115 yrs. ago when the house was built.
If you just want to buy something expensive, you can buy powered hand planes, but they scare the daylights out of me due to spinning sharp blades. I would rather sweat and spend more time and be sure of keeping all 9 1/2 of my remaining fingers (long story there...)
I believe there is also something called a "floor plane" which has a socket for a long handle, so you can stand up and push it, but it would probably be hard to find one of these. If you have a cheap scrub plane you may be able to convert it to something like this but it would have to be very solid. I would be able to do it easier than I could tell you how to do it.
With some thought and making of **** you could probably also use a router to get the top of the beam down to the correct height. It's just basically a vertical milling job, only in wood rather than metal.
I think you missed the part in which OPer said the beam is 1" too high. I assume that means there's a 1"/5'0" or 1"/10'0" slope from the crown to the perimeter of the room.
I think you missed the part in which OPer said the beam is 1" too high. I assume that means there's a 1"/5'0" or 1"/10'0" slope from the crown to the perimeter of the room.
Any slope that great almost certainly is the result of shifting foundation. The cause of that really should be determined before any effort to put down finish floor hides a potentially serious issue.
There is nearly no chance that even the most incompetent of workers back when the beam was laid would have seen it be an inch to high and just continue with the framing and flooring! They could have reset that beam or at planed off the high spot(s).
The OP really ought to investigate the situation more thoroughly ; covering up a potentially serious issue could lead to a cataphoric failure or at the very least an unstable subfloor that shatters all the file laid atop it...
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Let's think this through...
