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I'm installing a new laminate kitchen floor over the good condition, but dated vinyl floor. The sub floor has alway sloped a full inch toward the wall that separates the kitchen from the dining room. It appears the building contractor ran out of 3/4" sub flooring and used 5/8" or 1/2" to complete the framing.
The floor is over a basement, and shows no signs of sagging joists or foundation settlement, and all the joist show positive when checked with a level. So the frame work is level and the walls plumb, but just the sub floor is not level.
As the walls sit on the sub floor it will hard to cut out the old floor and reinstall the correct thickness for this small section which measures about 16 feet by 2 feet, and I'm afraid the concrete leveling compound will be to heavy.
Is it possible to lay down a sub floor over the low area to shim it to the level of the main floor. If I do that, what is the best way to level the floor as the two pieces come together forming a ridge.
As the walls sit on the sub floor it will hard to cut out the old floor and reinstall the correct thickness for this small section which measures about 16 feet by 2 feet, and I'm afraid the concrete leveling compound will be to heavy.
Is it possible to lay down a sub floor over the low area to shim it to the level of the main floor. If I do that, what is the best way to level the floor as the two pieces come together forming a ridge.
Any advice would be helpful.
If I'm understanding this correctly and it were me, I wouldn't want to use any type of concrete, I would want to replace the "lower" floor (less thick subfloor). Can't you just remove the subfloor nails, then set a circular saw to the correct depth and cut out the old floor up to where it goes under the wall, then replace with 3/4" to match the rest of the floor which is higher? I wouldn't want to mess with trying to shim a floor but that's me.
Timster48 There is a few ways to do it. Yes we haved used floor leveler its called from home depot its expensive like 25-30 per bag. Like scott said shimming a floor is going to lead to a hassle. If you do replace the whole subfloor and you have a wall running parallel to the floor joists make sure you install some blocking below the wall. It wouldnt be bearing if its not setting on a joist but you dont want the floor to sag or move when you walk near the area. Also I wouldnt recommend installing new vinyl on top of old. Scrap it all off or if there is a thin layer of underlayment remove that and install new.
Thanks guys, I don't like to piece meal anything, so cutting out the old floor and replacing it with matching decking sounds like the best way to go. Any Ideas on how to cut flush with the wall?
It'll be extremely difficult to cut the old subfloor exactly flush at the walls. Fein makes a saw that will get it close, but it's an expensive little saw ($600.00) You can use a skilsaw to cut it fairly close, then use the self-leveling compound (like Ardex) just at the perimeter.
The general conscenses is to cut, pull, replace, buy this tool or that; you're talking about a MAX FACTOR job..
That's a lot of work for a 2X16' area. Use leveling compound. Your talking a 1/2" max. in thickness spread over a 32sq/ft area. That weight is nothing. You would not compremise the integrity of the floor system at all. It's probably less than 100lbs.
The only thing I see having to do over and above: move up the baseboard.
The concrete finishers did a horrible job and we need to level several areas in our house. My husband tried a floor leveler in a bathroom and did a bad job. He needs to take it out and has tried several things and it only makes it worse.
We live in an area where there are few people who do this job and we have been unable to get any help.
Also in our kitchen there is a hump in the floor and the rest slopes toward a rear wall. In some areas the slope is as much as 1 1/2 inches.
We were wanting to put down a wood floor but now I'm wondering if we can. The area is about 2000 sq ft. that will need repair.
Help!
You can do it by putting in a new subfloor over the top of say 1/2" sheeting overall or whatever thickness that will work. Then use some wooden shingles like used for roofing or siding and make beveled strips of the proper shapes to even out all areas. Use the shingles to correct the bevel shape in between the old and new floor. Sort like reshaping the floor joists and then putting a new sheet over it. Don't have too and normally don't remove any of the existing flooring.
I've done it to even out floors, kind of time consuming but it can be done. The entire floor does not need to be corrected by shingles. You can just go over the joist areas to set the proper bevels, The shingles are wedge shaped so you slide shingles into position over each other to get the proper thickess / slope / shape over each area. Can just check the fit with a level. Basically you can get something like the proper wedge shaped insert to make the new subfloor be something like level. Tack the shingles down as required once you are satisfied with the fit up. Maybe not super exact but you can get a pretty level overall result.
This technique also lets you find a way to deal with the interface levels where the floor has to meet up with other existing rooms, floor areas. One advantage you can do a lot of fit up, jiggle things around, cut and try before it all becomes final, including test trying the floor sheets. This also is pretty nice where interference like doors openings must be predicted in advance to prevent something or binding up on the new floor levels.
Another trick is to set the shingles a bit high overall and then tack them into place, use a belt sander with coarse belt to fine tune each bevel correction into a much better fit up for the particular area. Use of levels makes it pretty easy to check all your work from many directions before you are committed to putting in the final floor sheets.
Does give a fair final result with reasonable amount of cost and labor. You can decide on the amount of spacing between correcting bevel sections. The entire floor area does not need to be covered but it could be if you choose to do so. You can also glue the shingles / flooring in place, works good if you use the sandng trick so don't have to be that picky when setting the shingles initially.
I have used this method a number of times to even out sections of floors before installing a new floor if areas are way out of level or alignment. Final results were always pretty good, I do like the way it allows a lot of tuning before things become totally final. Can do the same thing if you need to shim out walls or ceilings or any other interior surface before installing a new surface.
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Floor leveler
