different flooring levels

9 years ago

I need advice and hope someone out there can help. We hired a contractor to frame a small addition onto our tiny ranch. We left the exterior walls in place while he was working, he did cut through in a corner to calculate floor heights for the foundation and sub floor. He is done with the shell now and we are finishing the work. When we removed a section of the wall between the old and new construction to install a door, the sub floor of the new construction was 3/8 " HIGHER than the FINISHED FLOOR of our existing structure! We still have to install underlayment and finish flooring in the new work, and have no idea how we will blend the two floors. We are thinking we will now have to build up the floors in the old work and recover everything, something we did not plan or budget for. Anybody got anything out there? HELP!

Comments (4)

millworkman
9 years ago
Have you asked your contractor why or how this happened and what he plans to do about it? What does the blueprints show? How is it worded in the contract so you have something to push against with him?
live_wire_oak
9 years ago
Does the man not own a level and know how to use it? It's HIS problem to correct, not yours.
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weedyacres
9 years ago
I agree, your contractor needs to fix this. I'd probably opt for removing the subfloor, planing down the joists, and reattaching the subfloor.

What kind of flooring are you putting down? Will this all be one big room?
lonae
Original Author
9 years ago
We have two areas of the addition--a master suite which is accessed by a 36" interior door--that is where the sub floor is 3/8 higher than the existing floor. We could use a threshold there, not great but an easy fix. The other area is a 6 ft extension off the south side of the house which is a living/dining/kitchen area, 24' wide. The sub floors there are about 1/2 to 3/4 " lower than the finished floor, which is still high. He was supposed to match up to the car decking of the original structure, which is covered by 1/2 particle board and then engineered hardwoods. Honestly, he was a difficult person to have around and I hate to have him back to do anything. He has been paid off, but the work is warrantied for one year according to contract and he also mentioned that verbally more than once. I was hoping we could avoid having to rip things up as all the interior wall framing is complete. We were planning to use a floating floor in the bedroom wing and then we were going to try to match the engineered wood in the living/dining area, but that would be too thick now. We are now wondering if we can just use a self leveling cement product over the 1" OSB T&G subfloor as underlayment and then glue down a resilient flooring such as marmoleum over top, and cover the existing glued down engineered hardwood with the same product for continuity. Does anyone know if this is possible? Do we have to apply sheet goods (hardboard or ply) for underlayment over the subfloor? All advice is appreciated!

This post was edited by lonae on Fri, Dec 26, 14 at 23:12