Does this look even enough?

[tomsavage]

I know this is a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string' question, but I wonder if anyone could give an opinion on whether my kitchen floor is even enough to lay engineered wood boards onto, without my having to use a levelling compound.

As explained in a previous post (thanks to WoodYouLike for the responses he gave to that), the floor is concrete, and seems pretty level. I have chipped up any tile cement that remained from the ceramic tiles that I took up, and there is now just some slight 'ridging' from some softer substance, which I assume was the glue that held down the vinyl tiles that were under the ceramic! The stuff comes up ok, but it's gonna take a wile to scrape it off the whole floor, and I'd quite like to avoid having to do this or laying levelling compound - call me lazy!

I have taken some photos which are a little on the large side (apologies to those on dialup) but I hope they can illustrate the floor better than words. I should have swept up first really, as some of the bits you can see are just loose debris. Here's part of the floor:

Here's a close up of some of the slight unevenness:

There is one area where there is a dip in the floor, and I think it is due to there at one time being an internal brick wall. There is also a channel for a cable and this is the one part of the floor that I am planning to level up using compound. The spirit-level in this picture is set to dead level and shows the area that needs levelling:

I hope I don't sound like to much of an old granny, but I would like to have an idea whether I'm gonna hit problems laying a floating wood floor onto this. My best guess is that the the underlay/membrane will absorb the slight unevenness sufficiently well, as long as I level the area shown directly above.

thanks in advance for any help.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Picture 1: what's that pipe?
Picture 2 (and 1) look as if proper underlayment will do the trick
Picture 3: get rid of those ribbles and fill the hole.

 

[tomsavage]

Thanks for the response.

Picture 1: what's that pipe?

It's the water main, which was running loose along the floor behind the kitchen cabinets. It's pretty easy to lift/move, but in any case I plan to replace it with plastic.

Picture 2 (and 1) look as if proper underlayment will do the trick

What would you view as 'proper' underlay? I have some Floormaster Combilay (from B&Q I think) which claims to absorb irregularities up to 2mm. Happy to buy something else though if this is rubbish.

Picture 3: get rid of those ribbles and fill the hole.

OK, will do!

I know several people have asked whether to lay up to the kitchen wall or to the plinth. Being as I have a nice empty kitchen, would you recommend just laying the whole floor first, then fitting the cabinets afterwards? This would avoid the problem of trying to get the levels right for the appliances. However, it will use more wood, and I don't know if the pressure of the cabinets will stop the wood expanding as it needs to. Perhaps I'm best to lay the floor after the kitchen, but to just take the wood into the appliance alcoves. If I lay after the cabinets, would you recommend sticking similar thickness plywood wedges under the cabinet legs?

Thanks again.

 

[JohnD]

...thanks to WoodYouLike for the responses he gave to that ...

tee hee!

(sorry. "She")

 

[WoodYouLike]

...thanks to WoodYouLike for the responses he gave to that ...

tee hee!

he, she, who cares? As long as everyone treats me nicely, as in saying thank you once in a while, like tomsavage

 

[WoodYouLike]

What would you view as 'proper' underlay? I have some Floormaster Combilay (from B&Q I think) which claims to absorb irregularities up to 2mm. Happy to buy something else though if this is rubbish.

OK, will do!

I know several people have asked whether to lay up to the kitchen wall or to the plinth. Being as I have a nice empty kitchen, would you recommend just laying the whole floor first, then fitting the cabinets afterwards? .

The underlayment sounds fine and as for whole kitchen floor or just under the units, see this topic