Hi Guys,

I'm loving this forum. I've been lurking about sucking up all the info I can for a month now before I tackle my first HW flooring job. I'm going to do the whole main area of a ranch house from the room through the kitchen and down the hall with 1/2" stranded bamboo from simple floors.


I will be renting a pro nail gun and using 18ga cleats.

I've got all of the demo done and the wood will have been acclimated for 2 weeks as of this coming weekend. I had to cut out the whole kitchen as it was originally vinyl over 1/2" particle board underlayment and that job was a beast.

I have cured a few squeaky spots with screws and now I am down to the nitty gritty.

The subfloor has one major elevation difference on a pieced in part that extends 2 or 3 feet and it is about 12 inches out from the wall. Looking for pros/cons of trying to feather it out a bit with a sander or laying in a piece of vinyl underneath to even out the height. Here is the spot:


There are also a couple of healthy sized gashes in the subfloor. How should I best handle these? I have saw several other sites with conflicting info on using self leveling compounds etc. Here is what I am looking at...




To me these spots are critical as they occur right at the intersection of the kitchen/living room/hallway area so they will be high traffic and high vis if anything happens there.

Here is a rough layout of the floor plan. I'm planning on starting on the west wall of the LR and working across. If that isn't the best way I'm open to any other ideas there too.


Thanks in advance for any advice!

John

The height difference is an issue. It depends on if one is high or low when you put a straight edge on it. If the piece is high I would sand is, if one is low I would try to shim it from underneath. The gouges are not to big of an issue as long as you don't end a board on it. If you span it you will never know. If it really bothers you you could replace a piece of subfloor of go over the whole thing with another layer.

The only thing I have to say is that wood should be installed perpendicular to the joists. If they run E-W then your method will work best as you work into the kitchen cabinets. If joists run N-S then start on N wall.

Thanks guys, thats what I needed to know. The joists do run E-W so I should be good to go.

Any advice on how best to snap my chalk lines and reference lines so that I end up straight when I make it to the hallway?

BR,

John

snap a line down the east side of the hall as far as you can into the kitchen, then measure back off of that on both ends towards the sliders snap a line there and that will be your starting point.