Unlevel Hardwood Floor

If your floor is only mildly uneven however you may get away with installing them.

Unlevel hardwood floor.

This will expose the subfloor underneath which is where most leveling problems lie. Some of which can be serious and expensive to correct. If the floor simply tilts most hardwoods especially engineered hardwoods will be able to be installed quite easily. Like tiles hardwood and laminate floors are generally a bad idea on uneven floors.

A floating floor is easily installed without using glue staples or nails making it an exceptional diy floor option. Use builder s felt or shingles stapled to the floor to fill small low spots if you. Floating floor the best floor for uneven surface. If the floor beams and joists are made from wood like the ones above a crawl space they will usually bend rather than crack.

When you are dealing with uneven floors one option that you have is to use self leveling compound. This can be done through the use of underlays and re surfacing. Before you do you ll need to level the floor. Older homes will generally have more sloping floors than newer ones.

A plywood subfloor will bridge any minor waves in the existing floor and leveling compound would help too. If you are nailing the hardwood floor in place choose cementitious leveling compound that you can nail through. It s the worry that the cause of the sloping is a structural problem or defect. Or upon removal of the particle board you find another layer of old subfloor shim it level and install a thinner 1 2 plywood.

Installation of floating floors are easy and fast because planks click or snap together quickly and float above the subflooring surface. On the top side of the floor another fix it idea to lay down new hardwood over the existing floor. Use a pry bar to pull up hardwood floors one section at a time or unfasten carpet or laminate and roll it up from one end. For concrete surfaces sanding and polishing may be required.

You will have to make sure your joists can handle the addition of considerably more weight from the plywood subfloor and any floor coverings. This compound can potentially be utilized on a concrete slab or a wood subfloor and it works well when you are dealing with dips in the floor. In order to properly install hardwood on uneven flooring the floor itself has to be smoothed out. Uneven floors are rarely caused by problems with the floor itself.

Floor leveling materials are available at your local hardware store and can save you a lot of work. Mold and or rot in your crawl space. The reasons that floors are not level range from the affects of ageing over time to foundation and framing issues. You can leave linoleum or sheet vinyl in place if it s difficult to remove or if removal would damage the sub floor.