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.

Gypcrete should be able to level that without much hassle.

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=gypcrete

On 23 Dec 2005 16:57:51 -0800, "woodwrkrz" wrote:

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.

If it's just that small section that's too high, I'd get someone to
bring in a concrete grinder and grind it down. Assuming your radiant
tubing is embedded deeper than the hump.

Make sure your flooring is rated for use over radiant heat; many
aren't.

HTH,

Paul

woodwrkrz wrote:
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.

that's a tough one. you will see the ridge especially after you combine
the rooms

mmm mmm mmm

wait a min...how big is the area that is 1/2 too tall...

I tell ya, for the beauty of having the two rooms with continuous
flooring..

why not consider a jack hammer and take out the high spot.
done.

why didn't I think of that

Will any brand of gypcrete work fine. I recall we used a large
bag of gypcrete to set my jacuzzi and my tubshower insert when we built
the house. Is that the same stuff just mixed thinner?
Also how big a mess does grinding the high spots off with a
concrete grinder involve? Would I need to cover the already painted
walls? Thanks for the input.

For the low spots gypcrete should be great, I have only seen it
installed, they mixed it pretty thin, it was completely self-leveling.

I thought about grinding the high spot but I would be careful, it would
be a shame if you hit or exposed one of the pex(?) tubes for the
infloor heating. I would guess that grinding would be a little bit
messy, but probably a lot cheaper if you can get away with it. The only
thing that bugs me is that it may be even thinner than 2" at the high
spot, it would be nice to know the actual depth. If the floor was
already a little high for some reason high they may have only poured an
1-3/4" to cover the pex. If you take a half inch off that it will be
getting pretty thin. I am sure there are guys on the group who have
much more experience than I do with this flooring will have something
to add.

Discalimer: I am no infloor heating, or floor leveling expert. But I
will say that the guys who came in to gypcrete a building I did (that
was laid in place pretensioned precast concrete(VERY ROUGH with huge
bulges and dips)) made it look great, very smooth and level.

Oh, and definetly don't jackhammer anything like chickenwing said.

On 24 Dec 2005 06:50:35 -0800, "woodwrkrz" wrote:

Will any brand of gypcrete work fine. I recall we used a large
bag of gypcrete to set my jacuzzi and my tubshower insert when we built
the house. Is that the same stuff just mixed thinner?
Also how big a mess does grinding the high spots off with a
concrete grinder involve? Would I need to cover the already painted
walls? Thanks for the input.

Concrete grinding does make a mess. It's done wet to keep the dust
down, but you'd definately want to cover the walls right near where
the grinding was going on to prevent spatter.

Paul