Took 4 hours to level a subfloor that I figured would be 45 minutes tops

I pulled up some old laminate in a house near Akron and found this wavy subfloor that looked fine from the corner but dipped nearly 3/4 of an inch in the middle of the room. Spent the whole afternoon mixing self-leveler and chasing low spots with a straightedge, and I still had to feather out the edges with patch because the leveler pooled weird. Have any of you ever had a simple floor prep turn into a full day project out of nowhere?

3 comments

3 Comments

troy8322mo ago

Looks like a quick job" is floor prep code for "clear your whole day.

finley7292mo ago

Was this an older house with settling issues?

the_piper1mo ago

I read something from a building inspector's blog last week that said houses built before 1980 in this area were framed differently. They used larger dimensional lumber but spaced it wider apart, so you get more movement over time. If this was a 1970s split level like it looks, the floors probably bounced like a trampoline before they started. The settling cracks in the drywall would have told you everything you needed to know, especially around door frames. A lot of those older homes also used particle board subflooring that just doesn't hold up the same as plywood.