Level Floor with cardboard or plywood?

fix.my.floors · 26-11-2018 03:16PM #1

Hi, looking for a bit of advice... I am getting wooden floors fitted in my 2 bedrooms, second story in the house. I have a steel beam that runs across the 2 rooms so leaves the floor slightly uneven. I was onto the floor provider and they said to level if off by putting cardboard of the same thickens around the beams all over the floor. Would this fix the problem or am I better off getting plywood down to level it? Any help or advice would be great!
Thanks a mill

Lumen · 26-11-2018 03:49PM

What's the height difference you're trying to fix?

fix.my.floors · 26-11-2018 04:05PM

Only a few mm, i'd say 3-5

Calahonda52 · 26-11-2018 04:07PM

why not proper floor underlay

fix.my.floors · 26-11-2018 04:13PM

This is what I'm trying to figure out, would underlay or cardboard work or bounce back up once the floors are down or am I better off going withplywood

Lumen · 26-11-2018 04:24PM

I've used 4mm woodfibre (Gutex HappyStep) for this sort of problem, it's fairly cheap and a lot like cardboard, just handier to lay out.

s7ryf3925pivug · 26-11-2018 04:26PM

You can get insulated subfloor panels. Could put them down then use self levelling ccompound on the beams if they are now lower than the panelling. Or a bit of wood there. Underlay on top of all of it then. Nice quiet floors.

I reckon cardboard would go mouldy if you ever spilt fluid on the floor. Mouldy subfloor in your bedroom would be bad.

drunkmonkey · 26-11-2018 04:27PM

Put water ply down and leveling compound, that's what I done upstairs.

fix.my.floors · 26-11-2018 04:31PM

Yea I'm a bit iffy about the cardboard in case it got damp... woodfibre is sounding like the best solution! Thanks all

Lumen · 26-11-2018 04:34PM

The only slight worry I'd have is that the woodfibre is somewhat compressible, as is the wooden floor you have, but the steel beam won't be. So it's possible that when loaded you might still have a mm or two height difference. But that'll be under the underlay, so probably OK.

Level Floor with cardboard or plywood?

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