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Default Need advice/Uneven concrete floor

Bought a house (good price) on a slab that has a kitchen floor that is,
for some reason, very uneven. Most of the kitchen floor (the eastern
two-thirds) is even but the ground under the slab must have moved after
the concrete was poured because the floor has a slope to it at one end.
It dips about a 1.5" - 2" at the west end of the kitchen, over a span
of 6 feet (sorry I'm not metric).

The house is brick outside and the brick is not cracked, nor is there
sign of other damage, like to the plaster. It literally looks like
they poured the slab (50 yrs ago) and that area of the slab had
insufficient support underneath. Maybe the ground was not compacted
properly.

Anywho this floor is ridiculous. If I do floor leveler to bring it up,
it will create a 1-2" step as you go thru the doorway into the dining
room, which would be ridiculous as well.

Previous owners just put linoleum down and probably spent decades
putting things under the table legs to even it out. Questions -

Can I put laminate down over such an uneven surface ?

Would you level it anyway and accept the dropoff into the dining room ?

TIA !

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Roger Taylor
 
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wrote in message
oups.com...
Bought a house (good price) on a slab that has a kitchen floor that is,
for some reason, very uneven. Most of the kitchen floor (the eastern
two-thirds) is even but the ground under the slab must have moved after
the concrete was poured because the floor has a slope to it at one end.
It dips about a 1.5" - 2" at the west end of the kitchen, over a span
of 6 feet (sorry I'm not metric).

The house is brick outside and the brick is not cracked, nor is there
sign of other damage, like to the plaster. It literally looks like
they poured the slab (50 yrs ago) and that area of the slab had
insufficient support underneath. Maybe the ground was not compacted
properly.

Anywho this floor is ridiculous. If I do floor leveler to bring it up,
it will create a 1-2" step as you go thru the doorway into the dining
room, which would be ridiculous as well.

Previous owners just put linoleum down and probably spent decades
putting things under the table legs to even it out. Questions -


I would have a foundation or certified structural/civil engineer, paid by
the hour and not associated with a builder, look at it, before you level it.
It could be more serious than an uneven floor. Check to see that surfaces
around it, like the ceiling over it, has the same slope. If so, that area of
the house has settled and tilted, and may better be addressed by foundation
or floor leveling. If that area of the house has settled, then down the road
when you want to correct it, right up to the rafters, the "levelled" floor
will be pitched yet again so it is crooked.


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Al Bundy
 
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Good points roger. This might be a good candidate for mud jacking the
low area, but it takes a specialist in inside work.

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AutoTracer
 
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If it is only the floor that is unlevel then I don't see any method of
raising the low end that won't leave some sort of step into your dining
room. There are certainly ways of dealing with a small step like sculpting
the threshold between the rooms so that the slope exists over a more
manageable area


It might be possible to grind the high side of the floor down to the level
you want but it sounds like a noisy messy proposition. Maybe you only need
to grind out the middle of the floor and leave the floor under the cabnets
and appliances alone, this way the step will be at the edges of the cabnets
where it can be hidden.



wrote in message
oups.com...
Bought a house (good price) on a slab that has a kitchen floor that is,
for some reason, very uneven. Most of the kitchen floor (the eastern
two-thirds) is even but the ground under the slab must have moved after
the concrete was poured because the floor has a slope to it at one end.
It dips about a 1.5" - 2" at the west end of the kitchen, over a span
of 6 feet (sorry I'm not metric).

The house is brick outside and the brick is not cracked, nor is there
sign of other damage, like to the plaster. It literally looks like
they poured the slab (50 yrs ago) and that area of the slab had
insufficient support underneath. Maybe the ground was not compacted
properly.

Anywho this floor is ridiculous. If I do floor leveler to bring it up,
it will create a 1-2" step as you go thru the doorway into the dining
room, which would be ridiculous as well.

Previous owners just put linoleum down and probably spent decades
putting things under the table legs to even it out. Questions -

Can I put laminate down over such an uneven surface ?

Would you level it anyway and accept the dropoff into the dining room ?

TIA !





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ConcreteFinishing&StuccoGuy
 
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This is commonly caused by pouring a concrete floor without stripping the
organic material first...the stuff under the slab rots out and this is the
end result.
Remove the slab and repour as radon gas entry and cancer is the new factor.

--


Remove the obvious to reply. Experienced and reliable
Concrete Finishing and Synthetic Stucco application in the GTA.
"AutoTracer" wrote in message
.net...
If it is only the floor that is unlevel then I don't see any method of
raising the low end that won't leave some sort of step into your dining
room. There are certainly ways of dealing with a small step like

sculpting
the threshold between the rooms so that the slope exists over a more
manageable area


It might be possible to grind the high side of the floor down to the level
you want but it sounds like a noisy messy proposition. Maybe you only

need
to grind out the middle of the floor and leave the floor under the cabnets
and appliances alone, this way the step will be at the edges of the

cabnets
where it can be hidden.



wrote in message
oups.com...
Bought a house (good price) on a slab that has a kitchen floor that is,
for some reason, very uneven. Most of the kitchen floor (the eastern
two-thirds) is even but the ground under the slab must have moved after
the concrete was poured because the floor has a slope to it at one end.
It dips about a 1.5" - 2" at the west end of the kitchen, over a span
of 6 feet (sorry I'm not metric).

The house is brick outside and the brick is not cracked, nor is there
sign of other damage, like to the plaster. It literally looks like
they poured the slab (50 yrs ago) and that area of the slab had
insufficient support underneath. Maybe the ground was not compacted
properly.

Anywho this floor is ridiculous. If I do floor leveler to bring it up,
it will create a 1-2" step as you go thru the doorway into the dining
room, which would be ridiculous as well.

Previous owners just put linoleum down and probably spent decades
putting things under the table legs to even it out. Questions -

Can I put laminate down over such an uneven surface ?

Would you level it anyway and accept the dropoff into the dining room ?

TIA !





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