I’m about to undertake our first major gut-and-redo project on our house. I’m going to be gutting our bath completely except for the original mosaic floor, the tub, and toilet.
The floor we like, even though it has shown it’s age (house built in ’29) the bath and hallway outside of it have sagged a bit over the decades and the tile floor in the bath has a crack down the middle.
We don’t mind this at all, and just chalk it up to ‘patina’. But, now that we’re about to do a complete gut, I was wondering if it would make sense to level the floor a bit.
It’s not a major sag…maybe a 1/2″ dip total from the center of the house (steel i-beam) to the foundation.
The catch is that the subfloor for the tub is not only ‘built up’ but also ‘built down’. If you look at the floor joist in the basement, they ate up about 4″ with a ‘sub-subfloor’ that goes below.
So, I can’t just sister new joists.
Should I even worry about this slight dip? I assume after 70 years, it’s sagged as much as it’s ever going to…plus, leveling it may introduce new cracks to the floow and/or mess with the cast iron tub? Or, should I consider leveling now…and, if so, what options would I have short of lowering the ceiling in the basement to add full joists below the current ones?
Replies
In an old house a dip like that would not bother me considering the work involved and how crooked the rest of the house is. What type of flooring are you planning to install?
One solution is a pourable self-leveling compound. It can go over clean tile and can be used under vinyl or tile (or carpet, if it were another room). When mixed and placed precisely according to directions they work well. Of course, it adds more weight to the floor.
You could bust up the whole thing down to the joists and start over, too.
to clarify, the floor is staying. It's the one element (besides the big cast iron tub) that we like in the bathroom and want to keep.The floor is cracked but it's not an ugly crack...if that makes sense...and is maybe anothe reason NOT to level the floor (as it may add more cracks.)
If I`m following you here, you shouldn`t need to sister the joists.
Jack the steel "I" back to level.......more cracking is possible though.
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Jaybird...the Ibeam is as level as can be. I think the issue is just insufficient floor joists for the bath (heavy tub, heavy tile floor). The 'dip' is actually between the ibeam and the foundation...it's the joists that are sagging a bit.I think I'll leave it as-is. As Dinasour says 'old houses are like that' ;o)
It might be a good idea to shore things up a bit to prevent any further sagging. If it's just in the area of the bath, solid blocking to adjacent joists would help a little, or you can sister joists somehow.
I'd leave it alone if you like the tile the way it is, crack and all. You are quite likely to introduce new cracks that you may not like by jacking the floor level.
A half-inch is nothing. If the tub being out of level bothers you, shim it level but leave the floor alone.
Old houses are like that....
Dinosaur
A day may come when the courage of men fails,when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship...
But it is not this day.
A half-inch is nothing. It makes some of the other work a little more difficult (eg, wall tile has to "understand" the slope), but is barely enough to notice and it's really just part of the "character" of the house.
From my experience trolling a tile forum extensively, the more important consideration is flat. Level isn't as relevant. If it's slightly out of level, but you have less than 1/8 inch deviation in any place, youre in pretty good shape. any dips can be filled with some floor patch before tiling, and any high spots can usually be leveled.