How To Level A Floor Before Installing Hardwood

Drop a few marbles onto the floor in various areas around the room and then watch them roll.

How to level a floor before installing hardwood. Pass a long carpenter s level or. Use a pry bar and hammer to remove baseboards to create an expansion gap a space that allows the new flooring to expand from heat and moisture. A good general rule of thumb is that the foundation shouldn t slope more than 3 16 inch 0 48 cm every 10 feet 3 m.

Pound nails into the subfloor with a hammer and set screws slightly below the surface of the subfloor with a screwdriver. Remove the existing flooring pull up the current floor. Check your wood flooring manufacturer s recommendations and sand any high spots with a concrete grinder.

Then vacuum the floor with a wet dry vac or sweep it with a broom. Clean it well with a wet dry vacuum. This will give you an idea of how much work you ve got cut out for you and where it s needed most.

This process is known as hardwood acclimation. Set down a 6 ft 1 8 m level every few feet from one end of the room to the other. Make a final check with the level to be sure all the high and low spots are gone.

Failing to properly acclimate wood flooring may cause excessive expansion shrinkage dimensional distortion or structural damage. Before installing wood floors the flooring needs to reach a moisture content mc level that is in equilibrium with the surrounding environment. On the top side of the floor another fix it idea to lay down new hardwood over the existing floor.

Fill any low spots with a cementitious leveling compound following the manufacturer s directions and allow it to dry before proceeding. You will have to make sure your joists can handle the addition of considerably more weight from the plywood subfloor and any floor coverings. How to level a floor for installing tile before you install file flooring follow the directions above for fixing high spots and low spots in a wood or concrete subfloor.