"HELP - Need Leveling Advice," in the Hardwood and Laminates Q&A forum, begins: "Hi there.
Many of you have seen my other posts re: my hardwoods. Separate from those, I ran into a ..."
Many of you have seen my other posts re: my hardwoods. Separate from those, I ran into a bit of a snag in leveling my subfloor in one place. I have attached pics below to help. The first pics shows 2 red circles. The one on the left shows a slight hump in the floor - should I sand this down? And the second circle on the right shows the difference that I need to get up to to get the floor even. I checked, and the tile is perfectly level. The second pic is just another view of the same.
I am trying to level in one area coming up to the tile and my instructions say not to use leveling compound. It says I can use up to 6 layers of #15 builders felt, but think I would need more as looks like I need to come up about 1/4".
Location: Today....Under the Wainbow , Tomorrow...Who Knows?
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Re: HELP - Need Leveling Advice
I would recommend a transition strip, you could even put a reducer in, but reverse the direction. A T-cap will cover both edges too. If you shim or raise the level of the floor you will have too much of a slope.
Not sure if that would work though because the board coming up to the tile would be uneven from left to right, so I would have to level it somehow before hand or even my T-molding would be uneven. I am trying to get the same taper off from the end piece of hardwood onto the tile without the t-molding as well.
I have heard of leveling compounds, my manufacture instructructions (Bruce) state not to use any (not sure why), but recommend shims?
Any thoughts on this info.
Thanks.
rgfloor said
I would recommend a transition strip, you could even put a reducer in, but reverse the direction. A T-cap will cover both edges too. If you shim or raise the level of the floor you will have too much of a slope.
couldn't you just ramp it out with arditex, if you go far enough out ,you wont feel or see the the differance.one thing i should have said-arditex is mixed with latex to allow a little movement without breaking up,.
Actually both. The circle on the left is a sort of hump in the floor that I want to sand down to get level, but not without bringing up the surface in front of the tile as it is actually low (right circle) when compared to surrounding area.
Jerry said
Carmine, are you trying to get it flat or are you wanting the wood to flush out with the tile there?
This is some of what I found in the PDF installation instructions:
Use of stain, filler or putty stick for touch-up and appropriate products for correcting subfloor voids is accepted as part
of normal installation procedures.
The last part of the statement specifically mentions "appropriate products for correcting subfloor voids" but is ambiguous as to what would be appropriate to them.
In another part of the document is states:
Flatten low spots with a maximum 6 layers of 15# builders felt, plywood or shims (not leveling compounds).
Six layers is a lot of layers and my belief is that so many layers would compress some. I don't know what the rate of compression would be, but it could cause some minor movement issues.
I think the 2 statements are contradictory, although they would argue that they made it clear what would be acceptable in their second statement. I can't remember the last time I installed a Bruce product and I very rarely ever installed a ¾" material (although I did install some ⅞" Junkers). But I always filled low spots with a good quality Portland Cement based leveling compound. I hope some of the wood flooring gurus (Like cproader, Jerry and several others that my failing mind makes me forget) will let us know what they do in a situation like this.
But this doesn't prevent you from sanding down the high spot. Wear a dust mask.
Today 10:39 AM
Woody1
Re: HELP - Need Leveling Advice
What are you installing on the "low" side?
I am installing the 2 1/4 x 3/4 hardwoods on all sides.
Today 11:05 AM
Jim McClain
Re: HELP - Need Leveling Advice
Quote:
Originally Posted by carmine View Post
I have heard of leveling compounds, my manufacture instructructions (Bruce) state not to use any (not sure why), but recommend shims?
Any thoughts on this info.
Thanks.
Are you referring to the installation instructions I linked to in another topic concerning your job (Installation Instructions for Solid Wood Flooring ¾" Strip and Plank)? Or is this something that was packaged with the product?
Yes, I am referring to the downloaded instructions you linked in a previous post Jim.
Am going to sand down the high spot to start, and then considering shimming up the other areas and sanding to a flat level...Thoughts??
If you sand the high spot you can use a piece of shingle
on the ends and a piece of tar paper to feather the shingle .. use a strait edge to see if you are flat ..
Time-out.... With that much difference in height, have you looked at if these two different "planes" move independently from each other? Looks as if you would have to weave in strips to match the other floor. If you interact with this other portion of floor material, regardless of what you use to bring the two within the same "plane" , will the movement of everything, the two different areas, move separately from each other? Different amounts of movement? See what I am getting at? I cant tell if the substrate is all within the same "plane" and the other room has been built up more than the other off of the same substrate, or if the two were not built as one and depend on movement(s).
I think you need to look at this harder.
I hope some of the wood flooring gurus (Like cproader, Jerry and several others that my failing mind makes me forget) will let us know what they do in a situation like this.
Jim
GURU LIKE JERRY !!!! Carmine, I would either underlay the area recieving the hardwood to get the height right at the doorway. If that isn't an option, I definitely would use felt verses a porland patch. With the felt you can start your slope 3 ft. out from the doorway and gradualy add layers stepping them up to the tile and this creates an easy slope. A porland that thin over the subfloor and that spread out, is going to have a tendency to eventually break up and crumble under the hardwood. So what is the exect height of the tile floor.
Ok ya gotta raise it up 1/4 in. You can use 30# felt as well and this would make it about 4 layers. That isn't alot for felt. I say that is yer solution. Sand down yer high spot, and yer off and runnin. I'm on the edge of my seat waitin fer some progress photos, so chop chop.
Just to be clear about my advice, it wasn't meant to apply to raising a floor to be level with another. It was only as regards leveling low spots in a spotty subfloor. If there was a quarter inch or more difference in finished heights that you wanted to level up, I would recommend installing another layer of underlayment and not to use any material to do any kind of ramping.
Another method I might use to adjust for differenses between two floors is to use a threshold piece and slope it to meet the height of each side. If the product is a prefinished one, then the cut would be made from the back to match a lower height of the oposing floor. This might also require kerfing cuts to be made on the back as well - and of course, the groove and spline on the hardwood side. If it's a sand and finish product, I would shave the top side. If the oposing side is higher, then a filler piece should be fabricated to shim the low side.
I just wouldn't recommend ramping unless there was no other acceptable way.
Ok, so with some of the advice, here's what happened. We shimmed up the very high spot, glued and nailed to set in place. Then used the builders felt to build up the remaining areas to get it level (as per the pics below). On top of all this will be the final layer of builder's felt all in accordance with the manufacturer's requirements
GURU LIKE JERRY !!!! 
Carmine, I would either underlay the area recieving the hardwood to get the height right at the doorway. If that isn't an option, I definitely would use felt verses a porland patch. With the felt you can start your slope 3 ft. out from the doorway and gradualy add layers stepping them up to the tile and this creates an easy slope. A porland that thin over the subfloor and that spread out, is going to have a tendency to eventually break up and crumble under the hardwood. So what is the exect height of the tile floor. 
