Hello folks,

I need some help here!

I live in Texas so my subfloor is concrete, now it is covered by tiles so I need to remove all the tiles, nail plywood down on the concrete, and then nail down hardwood on plywood.

My question is, after removing tiles, there will be some small "ups" and "downs" on the concrete floor, my contractor said self leveling compound cannot be used or it will crack when nailing down plywood on it. I was wondering are there any other procedures needed if the concrete subfloor is not in a good flat condition?

Thanks in advance!

Use a grinder and cement based patch. You can also do a floating plywood floor instead of blowing thousands of holes in the vapor retarder. He is using a vapor retarder?

Ups and downs? Does he mean that there will be thinset left over from the tile? He should be able to scrape it... i guess if it's an old house and they floated the tile then it could be too thick to scrape. If that's the case, or if it's just your slab that is uneven then I'd suggesting grinding / floating.