Another uneven floor--one corner too high, want to put laminate floor down

[arwintcher]

Our house is a semi-detached former council house, built in 1959. The kitchen, dining area, and hallway on the ground floor are all connected, with horrible old carpet that needs to be replaced. The back corner of what is now the kitchen/dining room was once an external store room (for coal, I presume?) and has a concrete floor, about 2 foot x 4 foot, which is approximately 1/2" higher than the rest of the ground floor of the house.

We would like to put laminate flooring in the dining area but we aren't sure how to deal with this corner without trying to raise the height of the rest of the ground floor, which would be far more work than we want to tackle and would create a large step between the kitchen and dining areas. A friend suggested we try to "shave" the edges of the high spot to create a more sloping transition between the high spot and the rest of the floor. I have no idea what tools to use for this sort of a job, and I'm not sure if the laminate floor can cope with a slope like that. Does anyone have a suggestion or a good source of information?

[stuart noble]

I'd try and get rid of the raised section altogether. If you drill a series of holes using an sds drill with a depth stop, it should be fairly easy to chop out the rest with a bolster and club hammer. That way you should end up with a fairly level surface.

Laying a straightedge across the area will show you how much building up you'll need to do to create a smooth transition. I suspect it will be rather a lot if the step is 1/2"

[Malcolm]

your SDS in chisel mode :-)

Malcolm

a bolster and club hammer. That

[The Natural Philosopher]

You can hire a Kanga(?) as well.. its a reciprocating hammer chisel with a toothed bit,..held at an angle that will rip an inch of concrete fairly quickly. Then use levelling compound floated on to smooth up.

[stuart noble]

IME the Kango type tools are good for breaking up a floor but I'm not so sure about restricting it reliably to 1/2"

[John Rumm]

I would go for a series of cuts in the raised bit using a wall chaser or an angle grinder (if very well sheeted up for dust!), then chisel of with SDS or a small breaker. Latex levelling compound to finish.

[Bruce]

It's about the best electric breaker you can get. Sort of SDS on steroids - lots of them. Useful for those 'in between' jobs where a compressor and air tools would be overkill.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Used it to strip render of brickwork once. Its not such a brute as it sounds.

[arwintcher]

Hmmm. That sounds like it might be beyond my skills no matter which tool I use. I'm afraid of screwing up the slab the house is built on if I attack it with something like that!

Any ideas for raising the rest of the floor to the same level? I thought perhaps installing a plywood subfloor around the uneven bit, but since the old floor is just those 1960s plastic tiles glued directly to the concrete slab, there isn't really anything to nail it to. My father suggested I glue sheets of plywood directly to the old tiles using tile adhesive but I don't know if that would work or not.

[BigWallop]

Hmmm. That sounds like it might be beyond my skills no matter which tool I use. I'm afraid of screwing up the slab the house is built on if I attack it with something like that!

Any ideas for raising the rest of the floor to the same level? I thought perhaps installing a plywood subfloor around the uneven bit, but since the old floor is just those 1960s plastic tiles glued directly to the concrete slab, there isn't really anything to nail it to. My father suggested I glue sheets of plywood directly to the old tiles using tile adhesive but I don't know if that would work or not.

Can you see if the concrete floor is actually under the walls? If it isn't, then you might be able to remove the whole slab and level the floor off throughout. If it is an old coal bunker as you say, they were normally poured concrete over timber joists. To see if your floor is like this, you will need to lift a section of floor boards to make sure the joists run directly under the concrete. If they do, then the concrete slab should be easy to remove and the joists and floor fixed to match the rest.

To remove the concrete should be as simple as drilling a cross of holes through the concrete, and break it into pieces with a big hammer. It sounds like hard work, but you are guaranteed a lovely finish to any floor coverings you lay in the future.