My 1st and 2nd floors (over a basement) are conventional
construction OSB subfloor with a 2" concrete slab poured over the top
with embedded radiant floor heat. The system was designed with floor
trusses engineered for the additional weight of the concrete and has
been in place for 6 years. I am now planning to install my final floor
coverings. My first project is about 600 sqft of Mannington engineered
wood flooring (5" plank 9/16 thick designed for floating floor
application). There are a few low spots which are 1/4" low or less,
these could be fixed with some kind of leveler. The bigger problem is a
high spot essentially a ridge above a bearing wall in the basement. The
ridge falls in a straight line exactly between the living room and
dining room and is as much as 1/2" high. I could create a detail
between the two rooms using a different species of wood which runs
parrallel to the ridge and eliminate the need for wood to span the
ridge but I had planned to lay the wood perpendicular to the ridge
which would emphasize the length of the combined room.
What would be the least expensive and simpleist way to level my
floor before installing the wood? I saw a segment of TOH or Hometime
where they used dry sand to level the floor and then put the foam
underlayment over the top of the sand before installing a floating wood
floor, does anyone have experience with this technique? Any
suggestions.