I just had an contractor come in to measure for my new hardwood floors over my existing hardwood floors. (Yes I can refinish but I prefer to have wide planks instead of thin planks) He let me know that there is some areas - 2 to be exact that are dipping and that those areas need to be level prior to installing the floors. I do know that it is very important to have a level floor but he is saying that in order to do install the floor the whole sub-floor needs to be ripped out. Is this true? Or can they just rip out the areas not level and correct it that way?

thanks
Kris

I am not there to see it but it is normal to only replace the affected areas of sub flooring. You might want to get a second opinion on this. What is your subfloor now and how thick is it? Just replacing the subfloor won't cure the low problems, something still needs to be done to the joist system.

It is possible that the contractor wants to cut thru everything in sections for easier removal of the strip flooring so he won't have to worry about damaging the existing subfloor. I am not accusing he/she of anything, I just say it is a possibility.

Replacing a subfloor is whole different animal than replacing an underlayment over a subfloor. The subfloor runs underneath all the walls and you will need alot of extra blocking and ledgers to do this right.

he said the whole floor - subfloor and all. The subfloor is of wood 2 1/2 inches thick then we have a hardwood floor that is 3/4 inch thick. I would understand that parts may have to be cut out to make it level (it is 2 small areas) but I was thinking that removing the whole floor (which includes the living room and hallway areas) is a bit much and possibly just trying to increase the price. This was only one contractor I have a couple of more coming in to give estimates.