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Wonder what you guys think is the best way to level an old bathroom floor? We’re adding a bathroom to the second floor of a 160 year old Greek outside boston. Floor drops about 1/2 inch to one corner. My current plan is to put a full inch of new floor on top of the existing sub (which are 7/8 old pine planks). Likely 1/2 inch ply 1/2 Durock/Cement Board as a base for tile. Would an extra sheet of 1/4 in. ply in the sinking corner do the trick, or is there some better and/or easier trick?
This is my first post to the FHB forum, though I’ve subscribed to the magazine for a long time. Really one of the best online discussion groups out there.
Looking forward to your thoughts.
Brian
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Hi Brian,
To fix the uneven floor you should use a floor leveling compound that you can pickup at Home Depot. This is a really neat self-levelling product that you pour and the result is that your floors will be perfectly level. I'd recommend that you lay your new plywood sub floor and then put down the 1/4" ply wood in the low spot and then pour the floor leveler over the entire floor. Then put down the Durarock with thin set. Some may say that pouring it over the entire floor might be overkill but you can be assured that you'll have a nice level floor that will make tiling a "helluva" easier.
Good Luck
Brian
*Floor leveling compound is wet, messy, it leaks all over, and not very strong.May I suggest that you simply float a new floor with deck mud? Strong, dead level, and a perfect substrate for tile.
*Here's my two cents:I leveled my bath floor by ripping up everything down to the floor joist, stringing a level line from one wall to the other, measure the distance from the bottom of the string to the top of each joist and cut shims to size accordingly.Glue and screw shims to joists, 3/4" ply, 1/2" cement board and your ready for tile. Brian (Cinski) :)
*Thank you for the thoughtful (and quick!) responses. Floor leveler sounds like it might be a tad messy. What is Deck Mud? An FHB article on showers refered to it, and I think we may need to use it in the copper pan as tile base anyway. The final recommendation seems like the sensible move in the direction of less mess/more work. Ultimately, I'm probably better with managing wood than mud, personally. Tough call. Does the deck mud, more or less, self-level or would level lines be required? Anyway, thanks again for the ideas. I guess if it were easy it wouldn't be called work!
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Wonder what you guys think is the best way to level an old bathroom floor? We're adding a bathroom to the second floor of a 160 year old Greek outside boston. Floor drops about 1/2 inch to one corner. My current plan is to put a full inch of new floor on top of the existing sub (which are 7/8 old pine planks). Likely 1/2 inch ply 1/2 Durock/Cement Board as a base for tile. Would an extra sheet of 1/4 in. ply in the sinking corner do the trick, or is there some better and/or easier trick?
This is my first post to the FHB forum, though I've subscribed to the magazine for a long time. Really one of the best online discussion groups out there.
Looking forward to your thoughts.
Brian