Question:

Hi thanks for replying. The house is 92 years old. It is crooked, and that is ok. I am not trying to hide that, only stabilize things, and make them more visually appealing, and more usable. I am raising the floor because the existing structure is very un-level. There is a 2 inch drop from one end to the other over 9 feet, so to make the cabinets level, and not have a huge toe kick at one end down to a very small taper, I chose to build a step in to the kitchen. Some of the joists that are crossed, are touching the new ones, and some have a gap, up to an inch. I plan on using steel angle iron to tie the new to the old where they are not touching, rather than filling in the gap with a big shim.

I will gladly send some pictures when we are done, thanks for any help you can give...

Ben

Answer:

Dear Ben

You might try a different and more efficient approach to leveling the floor. In situations like this I generally remove all layers of floor to expose the joists. Then I sister the joists with LVL's or new joists. You can level the whole floor without raising the final surface more than necessary. If you are interested in a better description of this method let me know, but that's what I would recommend. You can also sink part of the subfloor between the joists, so a combination of the two methods would level the floor without a nasty step up into that area. It levels the floor to it now mean level. Half above and half below.

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