The Flooring Guru

Older homes pose a challenge to certain flooring types because of the valleys and humps caused by floor joists that have either sagged or warped with time.

The manufacturers recommendations for a wood laminate floor for instance, requires that the floor underneath be within a certain tolerance before the new floor can be installed over it.

My home is a perfect example of this very situation. I have an old farmhouse that was built in 1913. Over the years, the floor joists have dropped from the main beam and around the outside walls creating a hump in the middle of the house and a ramp up at the edges of the rooms.

I had a couple of options. I could have installed a cosmetic type sub floor such as luaun over the old existing hardwood and used vinyl plank flooring to simulate the look of hardwood or I could fix the problem.

If you find yourself faced with a similar situation , your decision would depend on what you truly wanted for your new floor, your budget, and how much effort you want to put into the project.

The point here is to make sure that before you buy and install a new floor in an older home with rolling floors, that you find out what you can and can’t go over with your new floor.

Oh, and by the way, I chose to fix the problem before installing new laminate flooring.