Remember when you could just cut a plank and it would fit?

I was laying engineered hardwood in a 1970s split-level in Akron, and the subfloor had a two-inch dip across the main room that the homeowner swore wasn't there before. We had to pull up three rows, mix a fast-set leveler, and get it flat before the adhesive set, which took an extra half day. What's the biggest subfloor surprise you've had to fix on the fly?

3 comments

3 Comments

wendy6289d ago

My buddy found a whole section of newspaper from 1923 under some old linoleum, acting as extra padding. It was cool but threw off his floor level by a quarter inch. He had to carefully pull it all out before he could lay the new stuff.

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rubyshah9d ago

Ever notice how every fix for an old house just uncovers another problem?

xenaf519d ago

But what if that quarter inch was a feature, not a bug? Old houses settle weird, and maybe that paper was put there on purpose to make the floor feel solid and flat. Pulling it out could cause dips or squeaks in the new floor. Sometimes you gotta work with the quirks you find, not just strip everything out to make it perfect and new.