Guys,

I am gluing 7" wide engineered plank (Bruce) on slab; some pieces are 4' or 5' long.

I am now in a short hallway. Planks are laid perpendicular this short hallway becuase I have just "came out" of a long hallway where I laid along the longest wall. There is a walking closet from this short hallway to the right. I had to prep the slab both in the short hallway and in the walking closet. Becuase this is my first time, I did level each of the areas WITHIN the short hall way and the closet. What I did not realize until now when I have approached the spot is that the short hall way is that there is no levelness between the two of them. In other words, if I put 8' level perpendicular to the hallway half way into the hall way and half way into the walk-in close, I get uneveness of almost 1/2" (which is way above 3/16" recommended by Bruce and the glue mfctr).

I have realized I have two options. The third one ìs to relevel but I have spent enough time on this to realize that I will spend a month on this and will probably not do much better.

[b]Option 1 - [/b]"Separate" the hallway from the walk-in close by laying them independently of one another and use T-molding underneath the walk-in closet's door. This way I have two perfectly leveled areas which are connected by a T-molding which is above the hump. Luckily, the top of the hump is underneath the door. The problem with this option is that my wife wants the "flow" and hates T-moldings, even though it will not be visible until you open the walkin closet's door.

[b]Option 2 -[/b] I have bent/warped planks that approximate the hump. I can line the planks up in a way that the bent/warped planks will be over the hump. I have tried to dry-lay a couple and they seem to fit well (no wabbling, etc.). My concern is that the short-hall way is a high traffice area and that in the long-run the plank will want to "straighten" itselt and will pop on one of the ends.

[b]QUESTION -[/b] Do wide and long planks tend to straightten/level themselves over time? If no, is my plan to use bent/warped planks sound? If yes, will be teh glue be able to prevent the ultimate "self-leveling" of the planks.

I am pretty sure that Option 1 should work and be releatively risk free. However, I don't want to be too conservative and need an experienced layer's opinion on whether you can essentially solve the uneveness probably by using appropriately aligned bent/warped planks.

Thank you very much in advance.



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Sand down the hump.. maybe?

[quote="Ray Darrah"]Sand down the hump.. maybe?[/quote]

The differential is way to big to sand down. What if I just go with a conservative strategy and use the lucky circumstance that the hump is underneath the door and I can simple lay these two areas independently (albeit they wiill be technically not at 180' to one anotherr) and cover the gap with a t-molding?

the T molding idea is going to turn out to be a regret in the long run. Everytime your wife goes to change etc she will give you the look etc LOL.

Warpped planks, I dont see that fixing the problem either.

Id have to say to do it the correct way. sand/grind the hump down, and relevel the sections. If you dont you will get the hollow/squish/soft spots that seem to be in posts all over this board.

If you feel it is going to take forever etc. hire a professional to level it for you, it sounds like a small area, and should be reasonable in price.

It sounds as though you think the T-molding idea might work if I convince my wife. She is on the fence. She knows what sanding the slab means ... I have done a little bit when I was preparing the floor. I doubt she would want to go through it again. Thanks for the reply.