Home Reno

[Russell]

I posted a few months back about installing a TV above a fireplace, well the TV is on the wall but I have create way more of a mess for myself. I started with the TV and kept going removing my flooring, repainting my walls, and was just getting ready to pull out my kitchen when I found a small problem. Turns out my floors are not very flat which made installing my new floor very very difficult so looks like I am having to pay someone to come in and level my floor. Anyways here are the pictures of what has been done.

The leveling room when I first moved in







The start of the TV install







Started to patch the wall



Installed the TV and painted the walls



I then figured it was time to update the fireplace hearth







Getting ready to install the new floor







Cleaned up the house and lived with the sub floor for a few weeks when I went on vacation



The start of the floor install









I then found out after walking on the floor that I did not have a flat floor. The problem is that the floor is level from joist to joist but is not FLAT, which is needed when installing any floating floor. When I started installing the floor I checked a few spots around the house to see if it was flat and it seemed fine. It was not until look at each part of the floor that we found this out.



At this point we decided to sand down the floor and try to remove some of the high points on the joist. We got a big floor drum sander and went to town on the joist making sure we did not sand to the point that you would break the board.



*My dad sinking all the nails so we did not break the sander


The aftermath of the sanding on the main high joist. Turns out that this really did not fix the problem 100% so I looked for other solutions. One way that installers get around small dips in the floor is using Roofing Felt which allows you to shim up the floor in spots. This worked as long as it was not a large area, which is what I had seeing as it went from joist to join.





It was at this point that I have decided to call in the pros, I am having a company come in and level all my floors for me. We played with the idea of using EZ flow flooring leveler but the cost is crazy and may crack over time and create new problems. I also thought of installing new sub floor and shimming up the OSB to create a flat sub floor but this would take a lot of time. So we will see what the flooring company has to say about it.

Has anyone else had this problem?

So everything has been put on hold as I wait for the floors to get finished, I have slate to install on the hearth, re surfacing the fire place, and installing a new kitchen left.

[Circuits]

Re: Home Reno

Crappy about the nice level flooring... but overall it's going to look great when it's done!

[aliencurv]

Re: Home Reno

this summer i was replacing carpet with linoleum in my cabin. the structure has been modified a great deal over the past 80 years. The carpet hid the flooring defects.

With the uneven floor, the linoleum was either going to crack or generally make the edges noticeable.

I used a floor levelling putty that i got from Home Depot. There were a few different kinds. The one i used was a powder that you add water too.

I certainly didn't level the entire floor, as that would use a lot of putty and increase the chance of cracks and squeeks. As suggested, i levelled just the areas that were a visual concern.

I also learned while talking to people that there is something we forget when trying to level floors 100%. It's that our homes are built to withstand a certain degree of shifting. This prevents our walls from cracking and joints breaking apart. So if you use too much putty then it will crack. And once you level it today, there will be unlevel parts in the winter

So your best bet is to SLANT off only the areas that are a concern using putty. What i mean by that is, don't use a level. Use the flooring you are applying. Place the flooring down and recognize trouble areas. Mark the areas with a sharpy. Apply the putty to those areas. Sand the putty down. Re-apply the flooring and repeat until it's making your eyes happy.