HI there,

After reading a number of responses on the board.. I'm hopefully on the right track. My dining room floor is dreadfully unlevel in places. If divided into 4 sections lengthwise (i.e. room is so - [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ] ) sections 1 and 4 range as much as 1/2 inch lower than sections 2 and 3. My husband and I have our 15lb roofing felt to build up these areas - but since they are so long/large we were nervous about it. I saw a couple of responses for other people who stated that they would lay 1/2 inch plywood on top of the felt built up floors to give the installed floors an even base. I like this idea, except for using 1/2 plywood. Would 1/4 inch plywood work just as well. We only have 3 inch-ish base boards, and I'm not removing them this close to Thanksgiving

We're installing Kahrs Maple Stockholm floating floors (tongue and groove, no glue) if that helps.


Thanks for the advice!

Porcelina,
Since you are installing a floating floor, I see no need to add plywood of any thickness. What you do need to do is get a FLAT subfloor. In your case, there are a couple of ways to do this. First, you need a long straight edge; 10' or more, to give you an accurate idea of what is high and low. Usually on wood subfloors, there's high spots and low spots. Locate the high spots (crowns) first and sand them down a bit. Next, locate the low spots and use either floor patching compound or composition roofing shingles to bring up the low spots. 15 lb. felt is way too thin to fur up 1/2". If you use comp. shingles, lay them face down and secure with roofing nails or staples. You don't want them sliding around under your floor. Neither way is easy but the shingles are less messy. Another tip: If you use shingles, try to get up as much of the loose granules from the roofing as possible. You could use 1/8" masonite also. It needn't be absolutely perfect, just within specs of the manufacturer. Good luck!