My wife and I are getting ready to install flooring in a new house. Our flooring will be ceramic tile, hardwood, carpet, and commercial grade laminate flooring. How do we ensure that all our floor heights end up the same? Thanks, Don.
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Assuming your subfloor and framing are adequate for the tile.......
Most likely your hardwood, if 3/4", will be the determining factor and you will add various underlayments to bring up the other flooring material to the finished floor height you desire.
For instance, 1/4" hardie on a bed of thinset will bring that to approximately 3/8" and tile on that could add another 3/8".
Even if you are off a little, that's what transition pieces are made for.
Ralph is close. You need to estimate the height of each material, and then work toward the highest number. Carpet pad is 3/8" and the carpet might be another 1/2", but you need to allow for some crushing, the total height might be 3/4". Go from there.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
That can get tricky Don. I`m a stickler for keeping floor heights even from room to room....not a fan of saddles or reduction strips.
First thing to do is determine which floor will be highest off the existing subflooring. Be certain to include any and all substrates necessary for finished product. You`ll need to have chosen the finished products beforehand. Don`t aproximate.....know for certain. Example....most floor tile is in the neighborhood of 3/8" thick...however, I`ve seen inexpensive ceramics a tad thinner....close to 1/4", while I`ve installed natural stone tiles that are 1/2" thick...even had one that was close to 5/8". Laminate floors run from 3/8" to 3/4" as well. Choose your products ahead of time even if you won`t be installing them immediately. Any of the rooms that will recieve thinner flooring can easily be built up with apropriately sized underlayment.
Its also very important to keep in mind staircases. You don`t want the first step height to vary significantly from the rest of the risers. 1/4" at most.....not at all from the top step. This risks at trip hazard.
I do make exceptions to my even heights rule where rooms are seperated by doors. A saddle at a doorway is much less offensive than one at an open passway.
On a personal note.....I dealt with this scenario with my own house. Finishing one room at a time, with months (if not years) in between projects. Proper planning at the outset has paid off now that all six rooms on my first floor are perflectly even.
J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
"DO IT RIGHT, DO IT ONCE"
How did you deal with height differences in your own home? The addition I added was built 34" higher than the existing floor where it joins the house, I plan to put hardwood in part of the new addition and also in an adjioning room which is in part of the original house. House subfloor structure is 34" partical board over 1/2" plywood on 2 X 10 floor joist that are 16" apart. Addition subfloor is 7/8" tongue and groove OSB on floor trusses made with OSB that are 16" apart. If I just add 34" OSB over the partical board then I will have to deal with the transition throughout all of original house. Also, can I put hardwood flooring on top of partical board?
The addition I added was built 34" higher than the existing floor where it joins the house...
Ugh....thats why I was stressing planning all well in advance....you`d have been better off coming up short as opposed to higher. But hindsight is 20/20.
Is the existing room to become part of the addition, or are they seperate rooms?
If they are seperate rooms I`d have to bite the bullet and use a reduction strip where they meet.
If you`re enlarging the existing room via the addition, I`d add 3/4" underlayment to at least make the one room all of one level, and reduce at another entrance.
If time and money are not an issue, add the 3/4" throughout. I ended up doing this (although with only 1/4" in my own home)...My FIL thought I was nuts at the time....but now that its done he agrees it was worth it.
As to the hardwood flooring over particle board....I would not. I`d replace with plywood. I don`t know that it can`t or shouldn`t be done, but I wouldn`t. I`d recomend speaking to a flooring specialist....he may very well tell you its fine....I have a habit of overkill.
Best of luck!J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
"DO IT RIGHT, DO IT ONCE"