Ok say I've bought my new floor and laid it.

Looks great except it's really not level. I used leveling boards but it's awful to walk on, very bouncy.

So I took it all up (22sq mt). Took out the levelling boards and relaid it. Still not useable.

So I'm taking it up for a 2nd time.

How can a level the sub floor?

As it's a first floor flat and the subfloor is chipboard and has gaps in it I can't use anything water based as it will most likely end up in the flat downstairs.

It's doing my head in ...

An example of how uneven it is. The dining table was put in place, one end is 3cm higher than the over, the able is 1.2 m long, the worst bit though is the movement under foot.

what kind of floor? wood or laminate?

real wood.

seal up the holes in the chipboard and use a self levelling latex compound. latex is not as runny as water so shouldn't get through a half hearted "seal" like water would...and it's not really self levelling - you will need to chase it round the floor with a trowel to get it reasonably level

how old is the flat? if it's new and within the initial 2 year nhbc warranty (or zurich or similar??), you may want to investigate why the floor is so far out - if you have a warranty, you may have a reasonable basis for a claim

150 years old. :) It's so far out due to the old timber joists.

I checked some of the gradients last night and they are up to 5cm over 1.7m run. I think this variance may be too great for the self levelling compounds.

just wet it and give the chap downstairs a shower ;)

he will hate you in a few weeks anyway, as the noise of you walking around on the wooden floor instead of carpet will do his head in :lol1:

just wet it and give the chap downstairs a shower ;)

he will hate you in a few weeks anyway, as the noise of you walking around on the wooden floor instead of carpet will do his head in :lol1:

They are starting to write it into the leasehold conditions of some flats now, no wood floors if you are on the upper floors, carpet or lino is much more friendly to those below.

That said I lived in a ground floor flat for quite a few years, pretty sure the one above was carpeted, but the bloke who moved in a few years before I moved out was so heavy footed you could hear his every movement. Never known anyone like it :mad:

They are starting to write it into the leasehold conditions of some flats now, no wood floors if you are on the upper floors, carpet or lino is much more friendly to those below.

That said I lived in a ground floor flat for quite a few years, pretty sure the one above was carpeted, but the bloke who moved in a few years before I moved out was so heavy footed you could hear his every movement. Never known anyone like it :mad:

i've been including those clauses in leases for the last 12yrs. that said, people still put it down - but the freehold purchaser then has the right to instruct the leaseholders to remove it if it becomes a problem for other tenants

150 years old. :) It's so far out due to the old timber joists.

I checked some of the gradients last night and they are up to 5cm over 1.7m run. I think this variance may be too great for the self levelling compounds.

you could be right :thumb: that would suggest you're better off either raising the floor a little to get it level (which is a real pain in the @rse as not only do you have the skirtings and architraves to think about, but thresholds become an issue in relation to the floor heights in other rooms, plus you're reducing ceiling heights, although i assume due to the age of the property that;s likely to be less of a concern) or going back to carpet and accepting that whilst it may not be the "look" you;re after, it could be the most practical solution

i know, the people upstairs from me put some down :(

clippity fooken clop go his and hers high heels (i assume)

they moved out, nice salesman type bloke moved in, thought my prayers had been answered, until he started getting his fooken kids for weekend visits :mad:

little *******s must be "wrestling" up the place half the time, i swear i hear bodyslams :mad:

least its only weekends :rolleyes:

Well it was a real wood floor before nailed in to the floor joists. Now it's at least got a sub floor and some insulation before the top floor.

Let me put it this way I can hear them talking so no matter what flooring we lay they will always be able to hear us (and us them).

The gradients I can live with, it's old nothing else is level, it's really where some bits are bouncy to walk on.

Looking at the options it's going to be expensive to try and get it more level.

A big rug me thinks!

yep, thats why the flooing guy is coming back to sort out our REAL OAK floor this saturday, its bouncy and up in the air, apparently de to the atmosphire/humidity!!!

will keep you posted.

Can you lay it and secret nail it (nail it at an angle through the tongue) - It won't make it level, but it will stop it from bouncing.

how does that effect the expansion and contraction you get with natural solid wood, all solid floors move.

the expansion gap under the skirting (or beading if you didn't remove and refix your skirting when the floor was laid) should take that up. of course natural materials like timber often do their own thing, so whilst secret nailing works well and any expansion/contraction is usually hidden round the edges, you can get suprises. i've seen parquet herringbone floors lift in the middle before, but where i've seen that, it has tended to be from major strucutral movement

well I've now found the humidity in the room is constant at about 80% and I'm told this is too high.

However, I left my floor in the room for a week before laying so in my opinion should have adjusted. If the room humidity changes I can see why there may have been a problem but in my case the humidty is constant. So the planks are bowed and not settling due to the humidty (according to the sales people). Hmmm why am I not surprised about that!

we were told we needed to be between 45-55%

we are at the mo at 63% even outside is 65% lol

we also keep around the same sort of room temp and humidity too.

well I've found another humidity measuring device which shows 70%! So I'll buy a third and take an average me thinks.