Kitchen floor levels and plinths

[robert]

As the ceramic floor tiles were fairly expensive I decided not to tile the complete kitchen floor but just to tile up to the front legs of the base units, locating the plinth on top of the tiles.

I have now realised that the concrete floor varies in level by 7mm over the 4 metre length of a row of base units which means that I will have to either

i) level the floor or try to adjust the level with varying thickness of tile adhesive

ii) scribe and cut the lower edge of the plinth to match the varying height of the tiled floor

iii) fit the base units and plinth and tile up to the face of the plinths.

i) seems to be a lot of hard work or a lot of adhesive/self levelling compound, ii) a bit fiddly, iii) may make it awkward to remove the plinths at some time in the future in the unlikely* event that I need to gain access.

• I am cutting access holes in the back panels wherever there may be a need to get to service valves and power outlets.

Grateful for your thoughts.

[Dave Liquorice]

Bear in mind the plinth does not have to be flush to the underside of the units, it will be hidden by the overhang. Also that the plinth is probably chipboard or MDF, that won't take kindly to repeated wetting from the floor, from splashes or cleaning. Keep the bottom of the plinth a couple of mm above the floor.

The prefectionist would scribe to each tile and grout line individually. I think I'd just do a few spot heights along the lenght of the plinth and cut to those, ensuring the 2mm gap.

[Tim S]

robert coughed up some electrons that declared:

Tell me about it... Mine varies 20mm (from -8 to +14 relative to the hall) and in complex and random ways.

I've bought 8 25kg bags of latex levelling scunge and my room is nearly 6m x

4m. You might get away with a couple of bags, depending on how much of the floor you need to do (4m long - but is there more - and how wide?)

Do you just have a localised hollow - or is it utterly weird?

A hollow would be fairly straightforward - mix latex screed, pour in hollow, scrape flat with long straight piece of wood or metal, using the higher outside edges as a reference.

I'm having to make guide rails for mine, and do it in strips, because there is nothing to sight it against. Ali channel came today.

Cheers

Tim

[<me9]

I have a similar slope on a wood floor.

The plinth sits on feet (a bit like a drawing pin with domed plastic head) and any gap is at the top of the plinth and is unseen because of the overhang of the unit base.

I have fairly thin vinyl as floor covering so I didn't need to reduce the plinth. You may need to cut the plinth down slightly (or jack the units up more) to get it in.

[The Medway Handyman]

TBH if the difference is only 7mm, cut the entire plinth to the smallest dimension so its an easy fit. Butt the plinth down to the floor, so the gap is at the top of the plinth.

Nobody can actually see the gap at the top, unless they are laying on the floor - in which case they are so drunk they won't care.

[robert]

Thanks to all for the advice. The problem (which I should have made clear in my original post) is that the floor is slightly humped so that the plinth would sit at floor level in the middle but have a visible gap below it at either end.