located in North Tacoma. It had many of the quirks that come with homes of this age: originally built with no bathrooms, a questionable foundation… and floors up to 8 inches out of level, requiring careful measuring, shimming, and sheeting.
The clients, who had just purchased the home, wanted real hardwood floors installed. This meant that the subfloor only had to be reasonably flat from one end to the other.
Being perfectly level isn’t a requirement.
As with any project, demo is the first step here. The layers of carpet, vinyl tile, and original fir hardwood floors all had to be removed in order to strip the rooms down to the subfloor, revealing just how out-of-level it was, with hills and valleys throughout.
that it required exact measurements down to sixteenths of an inch. After using a laser level to find the best way to make a smooth gradient, we strung lines every 12 inches to see the dips and mounds.
Stacks of shimming material were used to build up the low spots to the string lines, as well as custom-sanded 2x2s and OSB sheeting.
