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How to raise the level of a floor?

Hello,

My partner and I have just bought a fixer-upper and are looking to transform this laundry/toilet area at the back of the house. We are going to plaster these walls and put down some sort of flooring- perhaps vinyl floorboard tiles or regular tiles. Are there any simple ways to raise the floor to meet the floor in the kitchen, that we could do ourselves? The difference between the lower floor and the other (raised) floors is 120mm.

Thanks!

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EricL

Hello @LizB88

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's sensational to have you join us, and thanks for sharing your question about raising the level of your floor.

A relatively easy way to increase the level of your floor is to build a timber frame and installing a timber panel above it such as yellow tounge or plywood. The tricky part is getting the height correct in regards to the thickness of the panels. For example, if you used 90x45 timber framing plus two plywood panels one in 19mm and one in 12mm you would have a total of 121mm.

Now if you are putting flooring above this, you'll need to change thickness of the panels, but this will depend on the type of flooring you'll be putting in. I've placed a sample image below to give you an idea of how it can be done. Please note that the measurements are for reference only

If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.

Eric

LizB88

Thanks Eric, that is really helpful.

In the case that we decide not to raise the floor (and leave as is), and instead cover the floor of the lower area, as well as the two concrete floor rooms in fake floorboards- something like this HanWood 7mm 2.41m² Elk Brown Laminate - Bunnings Australia....

1. will we be able to do this over the steps/raised parts?

2. We obviously wont be able to get laminate/vinyl floor boards that match the current floorboard in the kitchen (see photo) and therefore what would you recommend doing to that concrete step area that connects the real floor boards to the fake floor boards to make it a smooth transition?

Any other ideas you have for the flooring would be great. We were also considering tiling the whole area but it is already a really cold area of the house and therefore think tiles might be too cold. NB: This is the only toilet in the house and this area is a pretty flimsy addition, so we want to try and make it feel less like an 'outhouse/mudroom' and more like part of the rest of the house.

Thanks!

JacobZ

Hi @LizB88,

There's certainly a multitude of ways you can add flooring and make the area more homely, but it's a bit of a tough area where I don't think there is a perfect solution.

The HanWood laminate flooring looks like a good option to mimic the existing floorboards, but as you said, it will not match up to the existing ones perfectly.

You could run the laminate flooring up and over the steps, but it might look a bit clunky.

My suggestion would be to use the laminate in the lower area and simply repaint the concrete step to a new colour that better suits.

Allow me to tag some of our helpful members to see if they have any thoughts, @Herrenovacation, @Nailbag, @RenoRach, @ProjectPete, @Dave-1.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Jacob

Dave-1

Good Evening @LizB88

Now that is a doozy of a question....

I was going for @EricL 's raised floor idea and leave the slight concrete rise as is... But now mmmmmm

Going to the bathroom through a colder room would be a skippity skip skip back and fourth on those cold nights. The fake floorboards would insulate a little but how about some thick solid carpet or carpet tiles? I bought a bunch of second hand carpet tiles via a carpet place and love how they have insulated my concrete floor in the garage. No moisture issues and it really feels warm in there throughout winter.

I actally like the difference between the "thresh hold" and the timber floor, I dont think you will be able to put laminate floorboards down over it tho 😕 If you are set on it maybe a painted timber effect? It may be hard but could work. Id practice on some old surface first tho 🙂

Just had a thought about raising the floor.Is the back door at the same level as the concrete floor we can see? If it is and you raise the floor then that first step will be high and I mean high! Somethingto facor in just in case.

Looking forward to seeing the project unfold 🙂 Love fixer uppers for this reason!

Dave

Nailbag

Hi @LizB88 I also agree with @EricL solution and would be exactly what I would be doing and highly recommend. It delivers very a simple and cost effective way to level the 3 rooms. You mentioned this is a fixer-upper house so, resolving this poorly designed room will make a good investment in your return. By having this floor level with the other rooms, will enable you to then consider timber flooring options over tiles and bring continuity between spaces.

Regards, Nailbag

Imran24

@EricL thanks for this suggestion. We have a similar situation with a 3x3 laundry room that we want to connect with Living room by removing a wall. Floor of laundry is about 150mm lower than living room.
can you recommend spacing between timber joists of the proposed frame? And does using plywood panels give a good floor to install 6.5mm hybrid flooring on top (same as rest of the house)?

Nailbag

Hi @Imran24

You could treat it like building a low level deck where by you use 90mm x 45mm for your frame which is either supported by metal brackets to the required height less the thickness of the floor covering. Or using Tuffblocks. But @JacobZ or @EricL would need to confirm their lowest possible setting before raising the height. And I would be recommending the use of yellow tongue floorboards which will give you the cleanest joins and flat surface to lay your floating floor on.

Nailbag

JacobZ

Hi @Imran24,

My thoughts were essentially what @Nailbag has suggested.

You can use 90 x 45mm Framing Pine to create a deck frame for your YellowTongue to attach to.

The combined thickness of the frame and YellowTongue is 109mm, so you can then use Builders Edge 35 - 60mm Smallfoot Pedestal Feet to support the deck frame and make up the remaining 41mm with some room for movement if the floor is uneven.

Let me know what you think and if you have further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Jacob

Imran24

@Nailbag @JacobZ

awsome. This exactly answers my question. Much appreciated.

Shields

I have a similar issue and wanting to fix this myself. What materials are required where the height difference is approx 8cm at one step and approx 7.5cm at the other?

I’m thinking 19mm yellow tongue (same as subfloor), no idea what to use for timber frame and will be installing Floorselect 6mm hybrid boards.

Dave-1

Good Evening @Shields

Do you know what is under the particle type board that is there now? I dont like the idea of layering flat boards on flat boards but you could use -

- 75mm by 35mm timber on its side, plus yellow tongue of 19mm = 54mm

- 75mm by 35mm on its edge plus19mm of yellow tongue = 94mm (too high)

- remove the particle board that is there, then you will have and extra 19mm to play with. So that will effectively be around 75mm above what you have now. Plus a little for carpet.

Dave

Nailbag

Hi @Shields

Assuming there is a conventional subframe under the yellow-tongue sheets, then remove and place it to the side. Use 70mm x 35mm structural pine to essentially lay opposing joists on the existing. Then re-lay the sheets. This should result in just a few mm after laying the hybrid which, will be barely noticeable once a transitional cover plate is laid over the join between new and old floors.

Nailbag

MitchellMc

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Shields. It's wonderful to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about raising a floor.

It's great to see you've already received some helpful advice.

An alternative to Dave's idea would be to use 70 x 45mm on its side. 45mm + 19mm yellow tongue + 6mm hybrid boards get you to 70mm. You'll then be within 10mm of both heights and be able to use cover strips or Quad moulding to account for the remaining height difference.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell

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