I am renovating an older building and the floor in the kitchen is out of level at least an inch and a half over a six foot span. It seems that the floor joists had rotted and sunk. When the new joists were installed they just pushed the new 2×10’s up flush to the floor and attached then to the new rim joist instead of jacking the floor level and installing. Now, even though the floor joists are new ACQ’s they are out of level.
Would it be possible to shim the floor level over the top of the existing subfloor and lay new 3/4″ sub floor over the top of the old? This way I would not have to tear out what is there. I was thinking of laying shim strips over the top of the existing sub floor at the joists and then power planing the high spots to level. I am replacing all of the entry and interior doors so that the extra 3/4″ won’t be a problem with clearence.
Any comments or suggestions? Any info you all can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Replies
I s there a reason you can't detach the new joist from the rim joist and jack them up until you have your floor level and reattach the floor joist to the rim joist. it would be a lot less expensive then a new subfloor and a new finished floor.
The customers are doing a new finished floor anyway. It would just be the cost of shimming up the floor to level and adding the sub flooring. Is there a problem with shimming over the existing sub floor?
Detaching the joists from the rim would be a real pain. Working in a small, very wet and muddy crawl space. The structure is on a barrier island so anything under grade is a wet mess.
The new 2x10's are ACQ?
Is the floor out of level 1-1/2" from an outside wall to a main girder?
If you raised it up 1-1/2" to level how many opening are there?
Joe Carola
Edited 9/11/2004 6:03 pm ET by Framer
The kitchen is only a small portion of the area from the rim joist to the main girder. The entire structure is an old hotel which was constructed in the thirties and was recently turned into condos. The dip in the floor is actually between three of the joists and not along the joists themselves.
Another idea might be to use a gypcrete self leveling compound. I just saw it done on a place with the same problem, where the second floor had already been leveled, so jacking to level the first would have messed up the second. Worked like a charm.
Hope this helps. Rich.
You said that you could deal with the height issues (door clearance, toe kicks on cabs, ceiling height, etc.) so I can't see what is wrong with your plan.
I would crawl under the floor to see if you could easily jack up to fix the existing. If not just rip some strips of differing thickness and level with those. I would not use a planer.
Jon Blakemore