Differing floor heights=safety problem

[carolcohen]

Can someone help me solve this problem before I stumble again and break something serious? Here's the situation: I have 1 large open room originally with a concrete floor (old factory building). The kitchen end of the room was floored in 1/4" thick ceramic tile. Now, earlier this week, the living-room end was floored in real wood, i.e., 3/4" maple prefinished strip flooring over 3/4" thick plywood underlayment.

The 1-1/4" difference between the two areas is a safety hazard. The wood flooring was edged with a "reducer", a strip of wood that tapers down across its width (2-1/2"), and it slightly overlaps the tile. When I walk from tile to wood, my foot glides up over the taper. But when I walk down from wood to tile, and if I'm not thinking about the floor at the time, I stumble as my next step takes my foot out into space, about 1-1/4" above the actual tile surface.

Should I put down ugly safety tape? I don't want to break up the space with a railing. Should I have the flooring contractor re-do the last 12" of the wood floor so that it slightly ramps down to meet the tile height?

C.C., twisted ankle

[Charles Spitzer]

you need something with a wider taper than 2.5". maybe something on the order of 12-16". i doubt that he'll be able to lower the wood in that area because he'd have to remove the underlayment.

[tbasc]

The basic design * is * a problem. One might get used to the condition, but visitors might have a problem. If you cannot arrange furnishings in a way that suggests a "doorway", the ramp you suggest would help. It's not guaranteed that it would completely solve the problem. TB

[Nick Hull]

What's uglier, safety devices or an ankle cast?

[buffalobill]

[mm]

You'll get used to it. People can get used to and make the proper allowances for anything. However visitors and maybe new residents are a separate problem.

(Although when it was dark I used to walk in to the edge of a french door between my dining room and my hall . I painted the edge with fluorsecent white paint and it never happened again.)

Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let me know if you have posted also.

[carolcohen]

The contractor is going to come here to see the problem tomorrow. My idea: Maybe the underlayment could be removed back to the 12" line. I'm wondering if I can suggest putting in a 12" wide area all along the front line (which is 18 ft. long) using wood strips at right angles to the rest of the wood. In other words, the living room floor's wood strips run east to west; the ramp wood could run north to south. The new ramp wood's strips would end at the tile and butt against it. Maybe the wood at the edge where the wood meets the tile could be sanded/ground down on the underside, to bring its height down to the tile height. And could that wood then be cemented directly to the concrete, no underlayment? After all, the other (south) end of the new ramp wood would be fastened to the orig. underlayment, so it would not shift.

C.C.

[Goedjn]

Unless you can get it to ramp over a distance bigger than one stride, it's going to be a stumbling hazard, and if you DO make a longer ramp, then *THAT* will present a different kind of stumbling hazard. Was it me, I'd put a thick throw-rug on the low side. It's visuly obtrusive without being offensive, and while you still might break your ankle, you at least won't break your toe.

[DanG]

These issues were surely self evident to all parties involved long before the installation. Any floor man surely pointed out the problem prior to commencing work. I am reasonably certain that you were told that this could be an issue. An 1 1/4" step ledge is significant.

Have you considered reworking the ceramic rather than the wood? It is much easier to bridge and floor stone a change of grade in ceramic. It is a different installer, but if the original tile is available, it might be a much more viable solution. ______________________________ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) [e-mail]