Any floor tile installers? Putting down a tile floor..

[dave1949]

Well, the good news is that the heat pump was replaced this afternoon giving me a reprieve and now we have a cool environment in which to work.

The culprit is a beam from front to back on the right 3rd of the space. I've started grinding the plywood down but even if its 3/4 that hardly leaves me much, making up for a 9/16 ridge.

What a mess..

The beam hump can happen with different wood species or materials like a laminated beam. It was probably flat at one time until different shrinkage rates changed it. Be glad it wasn't tiled already.

With care and some skill, leveling cement or compound, you can feather that out over a distance. If it's done reasonably well, you will be the only person who knows or notices it, unless ray66v visits. :laughing:

Or, it would make a great place for an interior wall.

 

[ray66v]

With care and some skill, leveling cement or compound, you can feather that out over a distance. If it's done reasonably well, you will be the only person who knows or notices it, unless ray66v visits. :laughing:

Yes, well, it's both a blessing, and a curse. :confused3:

I have had to level a few floors, and it's not as easy as most think.

Since you can't pour "self leveling cement" too wet, or it's is just like pouring water on the floor up there, and it will all run out somewhere and make the biggest mess you ever saw. And, you can't shake the building enough to get it to settle, it still requires some degree of troweling to get it really level, and feather out the edges. Unless you are Italian, it is not something that most people do well, without practice.

I have had self leveling cement make it's way down 2 floors to the basement, before it set up. And I do not pour it super wet.

That's why I suggested pulling the floor, and shimming it. You can take your time, and it doesn't require a high degree of skill, to hold a long level across there, measure the gap, on each side, and rip shims to fill it.

You can also sister 2x6's to the existing floor joists with screws, that are on the same plane as the beam that is sticking up.

 

[mjcountrybumpkin]

Just lay the floor. I've laid similar flooring on a lot worse. If you feel it needs to be leveled a little more just lay down asphalt shingles as shims in the low points. You have to remember its a. floor, not a space ship. Good luck

 

[Egon]

The high point of a floor always makes for joy.

I'd do the feathering thing and then line up a joint the length of the high spot.

Building up some of the areas with underlay or Ditra can also be taken under consideration.

In any case mke a plan and follow through.

 

[Wakey]

Update.. Turns out there was 2 beams that needed to be dealt with.

I sanded them down pretty far with a 7" grinder and used a cement product to feather out the rest. The dust you ask? Biblical proportions. :laughing: I cleaned for 2 days but that's all behind me!

I've finished the master and closet and have now reached the living room. SWMBO wants the entire floor to flow throughout the house with no change in orientation. that means the planks will butt up to two sliding glass doors on the front wall.

I need to figure out how to hide my expansion gap where the aluminum frame meets the floor. Below is a picture.. The square piece that touches the floor is actually 5/8 tall.

Any suggestions?

 

[ray66v]

This is where you can use a 1/2" quarter round.

You can attach it with 2 faced tape, or a few dabs of glue to the aluminum frame only.

 

[Wakey]

I finished the Allure Trafficmaster floor a couple weeks ago and wanted to share my experience after receiving the same help here.

I really liked installing this. You just need to make sure all the seams are tight. Don't notice a loose seam an hour later and have to remove a ton of planks to fix a mistake! I did but I got lucky. I was able to drive screws into the subfloor next to the baseboard and tap the seam into place.

It's not to say some doorways weren't a challenge. I had 3 areas where I spent easily an hour or more to get it right but I did. I'm not sure a contractor wouldn't be looking at his watch and opting for a shortcut.

Here are 2 tools I found very important. An undercut saw for cutting door moldings and a paint can key from Sherwin Williams. The paint can key was a lifesaver getting the last plank to snap in near a wall. I used and abused 2 or 3 of them. Just go into a store and ask for one, they will give it to you. The action end of the key was used to pry from the baseboard. I'm not sure how others did it but this worked perfectly.

As far as the glass doors, we ran the planks right up to the aluminum frame. Hopefully when the floor expands and contracts, it will move in the other direction sufficiently. Time will tell, I'll update later if needed.

I wanted to shoot some video while installing but all this was done while still operating a horse farm 7 days a week :laughing:

Here are some pics and a video of the 99% finished remodel.

Oh, we put new Hardy plank on the barn too