HELP! Hardwood flooring installation problem

[Greg Ladd]

Hello everyone,

I am going to install a solid prefinished hardwood floor in my house. I would have preferred a traditionally installed and then sanded and finished hardwood floor but my wife said no - maybe for the next area.

At any rate I have discovered a significant rise of about 1" in the last 6 feet of the floor. This is coming up to a wall and I believe the contractor may have se a floor joist on top of a section of chimney in the room below thus creating a large rise in the floor.

I was able to lay down a 7/16" layer of OSB over the balance of the floor and remove a 7/16" layer of OSB that was in the area that was the highest.

So now I have the new area level with the highest point in the room but I cannot figure out how to level out the 6' distance between these two points. This remaining part of the floor slopes upwards and in many areas places there is not enough room to put a 1/4" piece of plywood down. I can terrace in narrow strips of 1/4" ply but I am still going to have a significant amount of places where there is still filling needed.

Does anyone know of a good floor leveling compound that would hold up to a pneumatic flooring nailer and not break up over time as I am afraid a cement-based floor leveling compound would?

Some one suggested using asphalt shingles in multiple layers if needed. Does anyone know if this is a good solution?

I hope someone can help. I am desperate!

Thanks,
Greg

[tim langford]

http://www.askthebuilder.com/486_Get...or_Level.shtml

[Greg Ladd]

Tim I had looked at the site earlier today!.

I was hoping some of the Creekers had some input or suggestions as to whether the asphalt shingles was a good way to go or if someone had a better solution.

If I don't get any better ideas, that will probably be the way to go. It certainly won't be to difficult to do.

Thanks again for taking the time to look for information for me.

Greg

[Joe Chritz]

What about using cedar shakes. I have never used them under hardwood because I haven't put hardwood in a remodel yet. I have them as a sort of ramp in the three rooms I have carpeted. They seem to work just like builders shims only much wider. The ones I used were not the split style there were sawn and cost about a hundred per square as siding/shingles.

I hope it wasn't a new construction. That is not acceptable for flooring of any kind.

Good luck

Joe

[Greg Ladd]

Joe,

I thought about cedar shims but I thought something else would work better and be more solid. The area to be leveled is really too large to deal with easily with single, small pieces of wood.

Thank you very much for the suggestion though.

The house is not exactly new. We built home on this site in 1987. It was destroyed by fire in 1996 and unfortunately had a huge amount of problem getting the insurance company to be reasonable (IMHO) regarding the reconstruction of the replacement home. My adjuster suggested that I get in contact with a contractor who would work for the amount he felt was reasonable.

Unfortunately, the adjuster was more interested in saving money than doing what was right and the contractor was not very good at all. We felt that we were squeezed form both sides and the stress was sometimes seemingly overwhelming. There were multiple mistakes made and this flooring was only one of many.

I know have a severe distrust of insurance companies and I need to get over it. I will stop the rant now...

Greg

[Per Swenson]

Greg,

Yes, Asphalt shingles are a time tested remedy.

We do 2, maybe 3 floors a year on complete renovations for

our installs and this is the method we use.

Per

[Greg Ladd]

Per,

How thick can I lay these shingles? Would thicker weight asphalt paper (such as 90lb.) work?

Have you ever used something like West System epoxy with a low density filler or is that simply too expensive?

Greg

[Per Swenson]

Greg,

Here is what we do.

We add a whole new subfloor using 5/8 osb (oriented strand board),

this we level with the shingles. So we are working off of a clean level subfloor.

Self level patch or bondcrete is a nightmare because the cement will break

upon nailing. A epoxy patch, seems to me would cost more then the floor.

The only problems with this application is the height at your transitions.

This can be overcome with some creative threshold work.

If you go this route, the osb is screwed down 4" around the perimiter of

each board and 6" in the field. Then rosin paper then your prefinished floor.

I hope this helps and I am clear whith what I am trying to say.

Per

[Steve Evans]

Greg

Depending on the size of the area, I'll lay down the thinnest ply that I can, using a few staples and construction adhesive, and then feather out the edges using a 4" electric plane, and a decent straight edge. Makes a pretty good mess, unless you hook your vac up to the dust port, and takes a little bit of time, but if you set for a light cut you can't go too far wrong.

Steve

[Brian Parker]

Greg,

I'm concerned about the use of OSB. Most manufacturers say that OSB is s a no no under the hardwood planks. They say definately not to use particle board, I would double check with the maunfacturer that OSB will work ok. Sure you can nail into it now but it might start to squeek shortly down the road due to the nails not wanting to hold the OSB.

That's just my two cents. When spending the money for hardwood it doesn't pay to skimp on the underlayment/subfloor.

[Greg Ladd]

The problem is that the 3/4" subfloor was too high at the very end of the room. I was able to add another layer of 7/16" OSB over the remainder of the room. I now have an area about 6' wide that I need to fill in and feather out to match the high end of the room. I don't have enough difference left to put shingles down and add underlayment over.

The only other way to go would be to remove the existing subflooring and cut down the floor joists which seems like a huge job to me.

Can I use multiple layers of builders felt or shingles under the flooring without problem?

Greg

[Greg Ladd]

Steve,

I am already to the point that I cannot add anymore plywood without removing almost all of it to get it feathered out.

I like the power planner idea though. I hadn't even thought of that. If I decide to go ahead and remove the existing subflooring, that would definitely be the way to go.

Thank for the tip.

Greg

[Greg Ladd]

Brian,

I am forced to use the OSB. My subfloor and the underlayment are all OSB with construction adhesive betweent the layers. The floor is actually very solid.

I am using a Port-Nail 421 pneumatic nailer for the job when it gets to that point. Hopefully, the nails will hold without problem.

I understand that particle board is a no-no.

Thanks for the heads up. I will just have to hope that it works.

Greg