A few weeks ago, when we were really getting into building walls and prepping everything for electrical and plumbing work, we decided to level up the floor in my bedroom.
The floor in the bedroom itself was not out of level, but there was a pretty good drop off between the kitchen and the bedroom and the floor in the original closet sloped quite a bit.
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| The drop off between bedroom and kitchen. This is where I fall on my face. |
As we tore out the old walls and removed the old ceiling, we found the area that was used as a closet was originally part of the laundry room, which, again, was originally a porch. In an effort to help the porch floor shed water it was sloped toward the backyard. When the porch was later enclosed and that space annexed for the master closet, the floor was left as is.
All of this wouldn’t have been a problem, had we not moved the closet.
We moved the closet for a few reasons. First, and most importantly: the door to the bedroom was small in height and width. We wouldn’t be able to do anything about the width because of the adjacent pocket door to the bathroom and a sewer vent pipe running up through the wall on the other side of the bedroom door opening.
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| Small bedroom door to the left. New opening is just to the right of the old opening. |
Because of these challenges, we elected to move the door to the “fridge wall” in the kitchen – this will afford me a larger door while allowing the vent to remain in place, but you would then enter into what used to be the closet. So, we moved the closet over to where the bedroom door was originally and provided an additional buffer between the bathroom and the bedroom. Now, I won’t hear guests singing in the shower while I’m trying to sleep AND I’ll be able to move furniture in and out of my bedroom (without tripping!) much easier than before.
Leveling the floor:
We could only do this in good conscience because the floor was in solid shape. If there were settling or rot issues, the right thing to do would have been to remove the floor entirely and deal with those issues appropriately.
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| Notice how thick the strip is here.. |
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| ..and here. In roughly 8', the floor dropped almost two inches in the old closet. |
Using a level, find the highest and lowest points in the room. Starting from the high point, establish a level point using shims, furring strips, or two-by-fours depending on how out of level you are. As you progress across the floor toward your low point, the strips will get thicker, so take that into account when establishing your high point/first row. Secure those pieces to the floor using construction adhesive and screws to minimize future squeaking. From there, it’s as simple as ensuring that each strip is level in its own right, but also level with the surrounding strips.
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| I feel bad about covering these floors.. |
It probably sounds complicated because I’m horrible at explaining things like this without talking with my hands. I promise, it’s simple. Once you’ve got your mind wrapped around it, it goes pretty quickly.
From there, we used ¾” tongue and groove plywood to provide more rigidity to the floor while also helping bring the bedroom floor into level with the kitchen floor at the new threshold we had created. The plywood was glued and screwed into the strips – again for rigidity and to eliminate future squeaking.
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| Vent pipe (center) with the new doorway to the right. |
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| Good to go! |
Once this is done, lay your level down, watch the bubble, and drink a beer to celebrate your accomplishment! Once your beer is finished, you’re ready for dancing on your new floor J
