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levelling bathroom floor

brooklynia373 | Posted in General Discussion on May 7, 2011 02:20am

thanks for help in advance.  

 

i’m laying tile in a small 5′ x7′ bathroom in an old city home.  the floor is out of level 1″ over 5′.  i thought about sistering to existing joists to level it up but the plumbing makes that difficult.  whats my best choice here?  should i use self levelling cement?  should i accept that this is an old house and rebuild the floor out of level?

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  1. DanH | May 07, 2011 07:43am | #1

    If you have the floor up, it seems like the logical thing to do is to cut shims to sit on top of the joists.

    Otherwise, level it with some sort of cement product.

  2. calvin | May 07, 2011 08:08am | #2

    anything is possible in an older home

    The real question is why it's out of level.  Is this the only room not right?  I've seen "additions" that were built like that inside the old footprint.  On occasion more space was borrowed by enclosing a small porch area.  Floor on that porch sloped intentionally and the kitchenette or bath was built right over that.  It's always been "not right".

    Have you looked below?

  3. brooklynia373 | May 07, 2011 12:14pm | #3

    old age

    im a novice but i figured in a hundred year old apartment building that this kind of sagging and settling is not unheard of.   do you think this can be a serious structural problem?

    1. DanH | May 07, 2011 12:39pm | #4

      No, an inch in seven feet or whatever is darn good in most cases, but  you should try to determine the cause nonetheless, and consider all your options for correcting the problem.

    2. calvin | May 07, 2011 12:43pm | #5

      Is this a house or an owned apartment?

      In a house, you might have recourse.

      In an apt, you might be limited by the size of the structure and other tenants.

      An inch can be corrected or disquised.  Knowing your work won't be compromised my continued movement might be something to find out.

      What are the conditioins in the surrounding rooms?  Are there cracks in the walls?, corners by the ceilings, around the doorways?

      1. brooklynia373 | May 07, 2011 07:13pm | #6

        using slc

        this is an second floor owned apt.  no cracks or signs of continued movement are showing in the surrounding areas.

        this is getting a little off topic. 

        my question is: is it ok to use self levelling cement over plywood in this situation? do i then thinset and tile right to the slc?   or should i resort to the more tedious task of shimming the joists?  if using self levelling cement how do i seal the perimeter and around the drainage pipes in the floor?

        1. calvin | May 07, 2011 08:06pm | #7

          I tend to take the hard road.

          I'd shim joists in this situation, there can't be many.  I'd use my line laser to measure the needed add on for the end with the most drop.  If at the ends of the joist run, I'd place a rip across them to bring that line to level.  Now it's just a matter of connecting the dots-from zero to an inch (or whatever it ends up).  If there's a dip, I'd account for that by ripping to size, glue and screw that strip to the top of the joist and continue on to the next.

          Then plywood rated for the tile I intend to use (thickness-usually no less than an inch subfloor-strive tor an inch and a qtr.  The if I elect to use cement board-I'd thinset the ply then install the cement board.

          If I could only get to proper thickness with plywood and can't add the cement-I'd use the proper thinset to set to the ply.  There is no structural strength for cement board.  So, that doesn't figure into the subfloor equation for strength. 

          Of course, the joists should have no or minimal deflection-for this install to last.

          Best of luck.

          The John Bridge forum has a good selection of install tips etc.  A good place to stop for a read.  http://www.johnbridge.com/

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