levelling floorboards prior to carpeting

[Ed Boone]

I've ripped up the old carpet in my living room and am getting ready to buy a new one. I notice, however, that not all of the floorboards are perfectly flush. It's an old house built in 1899. If I lay a straight-edge accross the boards, I can see that one or two are as much as 1/8" low while others are as much as 1/8" proud of the others. Should I worry about this? I don't remember noticing any unevenness when the previous foam-backed carpet was laid, but then, I wan't really looking at it with an eagle-eye because the room was at that time only intended for use as my home office. How much trouble to professionals take to get the floorboards flat and level and flush with each other?

Thanks

Ed

[John Laird]

1/8" is neither here nor there, assuming you are fitting a decent underlay. It might be enough to slowly cut into foam-backed stuff, so you could lay a heavy paper first (looks like very thin cardboard, but I must admit I've not seen it recently).

[jerrybuilt]

Someone's replaced boards for plumbing, and bought the wrong thickness ones, or put them down on crap on the joists under.

Lift the boards in question if you can to find out what the problem is & fix by packing, or new boards, if it's only a couple to do. 1/8" is quite a lot! The gaps between are not so important as the level. You *could* bodge low ones with long ("solid")cardboard glued over. If the floor is uneven due to sudden level changes like you describe and you lay carpet that is going to get much traffic, the lines will show through quite rapidly. Use a good quality preferably fely, not rubber, underlay. It may be worth laying building paper before the underlay, or even boarding the lot with hardboard.

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