Had a job in a 1920s house in Pasadena where the floor was anything but flat

Last month, I was working on a big living room install in this old house. The owner said the floor was 'a bit uneven', but that was the understatement of the year. My 6-foot level showed a 1 1/2 inch dip across the main area. I spent almost a full day just on floor prep, using a mix of floor leveler and plywood shims to get it close. The tricky part was the transition into the hallway, which was on a slight slope itself. I ended up using a lot more adhesive in the low spots than I normally would, and I had to really work the carpet to avoid any ripples. It added a full day to the job. Anyone else have a good method for dealing with really bad old floors without tearing everything out?

3 comments

3 Comments

green.grant24d ago

Ever think you could just float a floor over a bad subfloor? I used to... until a job like yours. I tried it on a 1910s bungalow with a 2-inch valley. The floating floor felt like a trampoline in the middle, no matter what I did. Now I'm with you on the leveler and shims. It's slow, but it's the only way to get something solid you can actually work on.

matthewkim16d ago

Wait, didn't some flooring companies try to sell that foam underlayment as a fix for uneven floors? I remember reading a forum where a guy used like three layers of the thickest pad he could find, said it was a total waste of money. It just hid the problem for a month before the joints started busting. That trampoline feeling is the worst, you can't live with that.

gray_carter9624d ago

Man, my buddy had a nightmare like that. He tried to just slap laminate over a wavy floor in an old farmhouse. Said it felt like walking on a boat deck, creaked and moved everywhere. He ended up having to tear it all out and start from scratch.