Leveling old porch floor -now dining roo
I am looking at a job in the near future, part of which involves leveling a floor which was an old porch floor, but is now the dining room floor. It slopes about 1 1/2″ in 7′. The customer wants to pull back the carpet and level the existing floor some how. I have considered cutting shims to be placed about every 12″ and flowing in a self leveling fill. Dealing with the slope from the foundation looks to be out of the question because of duct work in the way in the basement, and a shallow pitch shed style roof above which would be affected by bringing up the sill plate. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Replies
What kind of finished flooring?
How much drop from the main room to the porch floor? Would you like to make an even transition from one room to another?
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
The finished floor is carpet. The slope starts where the inside of the house once was, and drops about 1 1/2" to what was the outside edge of the porch. This area is now enclosed as a dining room. Yes there needs to be an even transition, as the carpet which now is covering the entire area will be laid back after the floor is leveled.
With no step down onto the existing porch floor I suppose the self leveling compound idea is the way to go. My only concern would be fastening the tack strip through the leveler. What does a carpet layer say about that? You might get away with drilling and screwing it down. Best of luck.Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
There are urethanes that you can streach to in 2 hrs work nice even holds finish moulding to raised hearths.
How much work are you willing to do?
If this is a more or less standard porch, then the slope was deliberately built in to shed water. However, the porch should have had a stepdown from the main floor level so you might consider an exploratory cut to see if some one put in sleepers and new flooring without adjusting for the slope.
If that is the case, then you could remove the flooring, install new sleepers, adjust for the slope and put the flooring back. You would end up raising the outboard end of the room the 1 1/2". Then replace the baseboard (if there was any).
Even if the porch never had a step down I would still remove the flooring and level the joists with long tapered shims or new joists sistered to the old rather than pouring on a leveling compound which might crumble with the first nail in the tack srip.
I hadn't thought of removing the existing floor and shimming the joists. Although the idea of long shims on the top on 16" centers, with leveling compound in between would have given someplace to nail tack strip without cracking the compound, your suggestion is probably a better way to go. It would indeed be more work, but better in the long run. Thanks to all for your responses. Fred.
Why is is sloping? what is sagging?
You may need to get to the basement and put a beam across a few of the floor joist and install a couple steel column