Bedroom floor is uneven - levelling project

[lizziecupcakes]

Hi all

Has anyone levelled off their suspended floors themselves before?

My bedroom floor is slightly uneven. By “slightly”, I mean that it’s still noticeable and it’s irritating me a bit. It’s about an inch lower on one end. There is no structural issue (the living room floors directly below) are level and so is the ceiling.

I am thinking of levelling them off myself. I plan to do this by raising the floorboards and adding some wood (not sure what yet) to the joist ends where it’s lower, to raise them up until level. I guess it’ll be a bit like doubling up the joists.

Something like this (from 03:43):

My main questions are:
- is this doable? The room is a little over 8metres sq.
- what type of wood do I use for the levelling off?
- anything else I should do/know?

Thank you

 

[aockenden]

Yes sadly I can say we’ve done that across 80% of the floor joists on our 1st floor. We “sistered” 4x2’s onto the side of our existing under-strength and totally unlevel joists. We definitively improved the levels and moderately improved the bouncyness (helped by new 3/4 inch plywood screwed down into the joists and a ton of new noggins added between the joists).

We bolted the sistered 4x2’s through the old joists with heavy duty bolts and used loctite on the nuts so they don’t loosen up over time. These pics will hopefully tell a thousand words.











Those were dark days for me, it was very scary to me tearing everything up and losing the use of most of our first floor with a heavily pregnant wife only able to help with the lighter-duty stuff. But looking back, I'm glad we didn’t settle for sloppy, bouncy, uneven floors upstairs.

 

[Gothichome]

Floors that are not wonky? Well that’s unheard of, goes against all laws of old home ownership

 

[Flyfisher]

My bedroom floor is slightly uneven. By “slightly”, I mean that it’s still noticeable and it’s irritating me a bit. It’s about an inch lower on one end. There is no structural issue (the living room floors directly below) are level and so is the ceiling.

An inch? An INCH???

I'm guessing everything else in the house is absolutely perfect and you're now just twiddling your thumbs looking for something to do

Seriously, we have some bedroom floors that slope by about 4-6 inches and we have wood blocks under the beds and wardrobes to make them level.

 

[Kearn]

An inch? An INCH???

I'm guessing everything else in the house is absolutely perfect and you're now just twiddling your thumbs looking for something to do

Seriously, we have some bedroom floors that slope by about 4-6 inches and we have wood blocks under the beds and wardrobes to make them level.

We’re just reinstating our bathroom floor as the joists were mostly shot and the spine beam wasn’t attached at one end…! At the same time we took the opportunity to level things out, the new fall is a mere 40mm massive improvement…

 

[Stevers]

a ton of new noggins added between the joists

For maximum bounce suppression you'd want the noggins (or herringbone bracing) to be tight and as deep as the joists.

 

[aockenden]

For maximum bounce suppression you'd want the noggins (or herringbone bracing) to be tight and as deep as the joists.

Yeah unfortunately I couldn’t make them the full depth of the joists, as I needed to recede the ceiling on the ground floor in between the joists halfway up the depth of the joists to gain extra functional headroom.

 

[paulc]

An inch? An INCH???

I'm guessing everything else in the house is absolutely perfect and you're now just twiddling your thumbs looking for something to do

I have one joist running the length of the landing - It sits 1/4" higher than all the others in the middle, causing floorboards to creak every time someone walks across them. Screwing the boards down rather than cut nails has helped.. Tempted to get the electric planer out, but it would mean having to lift all the affected boards again.

 

[Cubist]

Hi LCC,

On the assumption that the cloud of dust I see disappearing toward the horizon is not you burning off the soles of your Nikes like the proverbial Road Runner after avoiding the pratfall stories of all the other Wily Coyotes here, then let me offer you a little positive encouragement while answering your questions.

Has anyone levelled off their suspended floors themselves before? Yes. The master bedroom here had height variations up to 200m or 8 inches in old money but the bathroom and dressing dressing room floors varied only by 20-30mm.

Your main questions are:
- is this doable? The room is a little over 8metres sq. Yes
- what type of wood do I use for the levelling off? Its treated pine usually and of the same thickness as the joists cut into what are called 'firrings'.
- anything else I should do/know? Yes... Lots, and you need to answer a number of additional questions before you even begin to tackle this job.

Now my questions for you include;

1. Does this bedroom floor directly meet another adjacent floor like a hallway landing or another room?
2. How many doors open into (i.e. open over) this floor?
3. Where are these doors sited in relation to the slope?
4. Do the floorboards run in the same direction as the slope or at right angles to it?
5. Does this floor meet any stairheads?
6. Is the height variation at the lowest point consistent across the nearest wall?
7. Are any of the walls forming this room partition type structures, e.g. lath and plaster or are they all brick?
8. Is there a fireplace in the room?
9. Are central heating pipes or other, say electrical services, provided to the room from beneath the floor?
10. Are there any fitted wardrobes or cupboards in the room?
11. Are there any floor length windows?
12. Can you completely vacate the room for at least a week or perhaps two?
13. Can you empty the room of ALL its contents for that period?
14. Must you use this room to access say a bathroom?

There are many others.

Let us know if you still want to proceed.

 

[lizziecupcakes]

Hi all, thank you so much for your responses! I am literally in awe of the work a lot of you have done with your homes!! How?! It’s incredible.

My one inch (ish) slope sounds so so minor! Lol. I don’t think I could even do what a lot of you have done, so hats off to you all.

Old homes seem to be for the brave!

Thank you @Cubist for the questions - I need this! (some of them I hadn’t even thought of!).

1. Does this bedroom floor directly meet another adjacent floor like a hallway landing or another room?

Yes, if I understand you correctly here, it meets the hallway. I’ve attached a photo to show this. The more orange-y floors are in the bedroom; the browner floors are the hallway.

1. How many doors open into (i.e. open over) this floor?

Only one.

1. Where are these doors sited in relation to the slope?

On the sloping side.

1. Do the floorboards run in the same direction as the slope or at right angles to it?

At right angles. So, I think they would just appear slightly lifted up on the end I will raise with the treated timbers.

1. Does this floor meet any stairheads?

No, thankfully!

1. Is the height variation at the lowest point consistent across the nearest wall?

I will need to check this.

1. Are any of the walls forming this room partition type structures, e.g. lath and plaster or are they all brick?

I believe they are all brick, but one wall (shared with the bathroom) might be lath and plaster. I will double check this!

1. Is there a fireplace in the room?

No, there is a chimney breast. It’s completely blocked off. We found the old fireplace tiles in the floor though (turquoise green), after we pulled up the carpets.

1. Are central heating pipes or other, say electrical services, provided to the room from beneath the floor?

Yes, definitely the electrical wires - going through the joists. I am a bit worried about this. There are heating pipes too, but i’m not sure their position. I will double check this.

1. Are there any fitted wardrobes or cupboards in the room?

No, nothing at all apart from the chimney breast.

1. Are there any floor length windows?

I wish, but no. There’s only normal sized sash windows.

1. Can you completely vacate the room for at least a week or perhaps two?

Yup

1. Can you empty the room of ALL its contents for that period?

It’s completely empty already

1. Must you use this room to access say a bathroom?

No, thankfully, otherwise this would be a nightmare.

(Sorry they all renumbered to 1. Despite being a millennial techie person, I have no idea why I can’t fix this grrrr)

Thank you again

 

[lizziecupcakes]

An inch? An INCH???

I'm guessing everything else in the house is absolutely perfect and you're now just twiddling your thumbs looking for something to do

Seriously, we have some bedroom floors that slope by about 4-6 inches and we have wood blocks under the beds and wardrobes to make them level.

Oh gosh, the house is far from perfect. I wish I had less to do, but this thread has truly made me see how much work many of you have done in yours, in comparison I have done very very little! It shows how deeply experienced you all really are too. I knew you all did big jobs in your homes, but this tops it for me! I am so glad I found this forum

 

[lizziecupcakes]

Yes sadly I can say we’ve done that across 80% of the floor joists on our 1st floor. We “sistered” 4x2’s onto the side of our existing under-strength and totally unlevel joists. We definitively improved the levels and moderately improved the bouncyness (helped by new 3/4 inch plywood screwed down into the joists and a ton of new noggins added between the joists).

We bolted the sistered 4x2’s through the old joists with heavy duty bolts and used loctite on the nuts so they don’t loosen up over time. These pics will hopefully tell a thousand words.

View attachment 16023

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View attachment 16025

View attachment 16026

View attachment 16027

Those were dark days for me, it was very scary to me tearing everything up and losing the use of most of our first floor with a heavily pregnant wife only able to help with the lighter-duty stuff. But looking back, I'm glad we didn’t settle for sloppy, bouncy, uneven floors upstairs.

You did an incredible job. How old is your child now? I’m sure they are so so proud of you both!

 

[fernicarry]

Do you feel like you are going down/up hill when you walk across the floor? With only a 1" run over, what, 9', I don't think you would notice.

The second flat my parents bought had quite a noticeable run on the floor in my bedroom. You really felt like you were speeding up when you walked towards the window. Old mining area. But then pretty much everywhere in central Scotland has been mined at some point. When they came to sell, the surveyor for the prospective buyer arrived early(ish) and since I was still asleep in bed he didn't go into my room. Extremely fortuitous for my parents!

Usual caveats regarding getting old boards up intact, skirtings off intact, boards running under internal partitions etc. apply. The bottom of the skirting boards will be scribed to follow the existing floor profile so if that changes you will have a job getting it all to line up again (assuming the skirtings are fit to go back on, which they probably won't be). Big, disruptive job for not much gain IMO.

I did take a bit of the run out of our bathroom floor because otherwise the floating bath panel would have had a pretty obvious wedge shaped gap under it. Did that with 4x2's screwed onto the side of the existing joists.

 

[aockenden]

You did an incredible job. How old is your child now? I’m sure they are so so proud of you both!

Thanks! The kid is 2.5. We're just about to finish his bedroom 3 years into this project

 

[Cubist]

Thanks for your responses to the questions LCC. The photo of the doors threshold confirms that the joists run at 90 degrees to the door opening. As any slopes of a suspended floor will usually be associated with the run direction of the joists then the doors threshold will be either on the high or low side of the slope. If the threshold is on the high side then all well and good, your plan may be feasible. If though it's on the low side, then... the job just got a lot bigger and maybe too big to consider.

 

[Cubist]

I have one joist running the length of the landing - It sits 1/4" higher than all the others in the middle, causing floorboards to creak every time someone walks across them. Screwing the boards down rather than cut nails has helped.. Tempted to get the electric planer out, but it would mean having to lift all the affected boards again.

A good while back I was helping my kid brother with a restoration project in his old farmhouse home. He had been laying a new floor on one of the landings and had found a joist that stood proud of its neighbours by about 10mm and was considering using his plane to reduce it. When he asked, I pointed out that the joist was old oak of 4x4 dimensions and that it would most likely defy and then destroy the blades of his plane before he could cut more than an a few inches of the 8 foot length needed. He'd already tossed out the worm-ridden boards he'd lifted without noticing that all them had a 1/2 inch channel down their undersides which would have sat neatly over the proud joist.

Theres always more than one way to skin a cat.

 

[lizziecupcakes]

If the threshold is on the high side then all well and good, your plan may be feasible. If though it's on the low side, then... the job just got a lot bigger and maybe too big to consider.

thanks for this @Cubist . Apologies, but I’m not sure I understand. The (only) door to the bedroom is on the sloping side. Some additional information (incase it helps): The door itself runs along the floorboards (not at 90 degrees). The door itself is 90 degrees to the joists.

I’m not surr if I fall into the category of “feasible job” or “this is going to hurt”.

 

[lizziecupcakes]

Do you feel like you are going down/up hill when you walk across the floor? With only a 1" run over, what, 9', I don't think you would notice.

We didn’t rrally notice it at all until we started inspecting the floors. In fact, the electricians noticed it first when they were doing the chasing - because I wanted my sockets a certain amount away from the skirting boards. The surveyor didn’t mention it either and the report says all floors seem fine (although there was carpet over the floors which we pulled up). Tbf it’s not noticeable unless you really look. But I think it will be more noticeable (by a bit) when we get furniture in.

Usual caveats regarding getting old boards up intact, skirtings off intact, boards running under internal partitions etc. apply. The bottom of the skirting boards will be scribed to follow the existing floor profile so if that changes you will have a job getting it all to line up again (assuming the skirtings are fit to go back on, which they probably won't be). Big, disruptive job for not much gain IMO.

Oh! I hadn’t even thought of the skirting boards. Gosh. I think I should theoretically reverse engineer this on paper and see what issues we will face.

I did take a bit of the run out of our bathroom floor because otherwise the floating bath panel would have had a pretty obvious wedge shaped gap under it. Did that with 4x2's screwed onto the side of the existing joists.

That’s great! Has it helped? And I’m guessing you used treated timber right?

Where would one get treated timber from?

 

[Cubist]

thanks for this @Cubist . Apologies, but I’m not sure I understand. The (only) door to the bedroom is on the sloping side. Some additional information (incase it helps): The door itself runs along the floorboards (not at 90 degrees). The door itself is 90 degrees to the joists.

I’m not surr if I fall into the category of “feasible job” or “this is going to hurt”.

If you were to stand immediately in front of that door when its open;

• Is the floor at the threshold higher or lower than it is on the far wall directly ahead of you?
  • If its higher at the threshold that's good.
  • If its lower that's a PITA!
• Or,
  • If the line of slope runs Left to Right or Right to Left of the doors threshold then that's a PITA too.