The flooring in the rooms of a house or apartment can be different. However, owners always want its surface to have an attractive appearance. Many people choose to install wood flooring in their home. This coating looks beautiful, is environmentally friendly, durable, and durable. But sooner or later you have to carry out repair work. One of the most popular problems is leveling a wooden floor. For many, and especially for beginners, this is a real headache. However, in reality everything is not so complicated. How can I do that? Do I need to disassemble the boards down to the base? Next, we will consider how and what is the best way to level a wooden floor.

General information

Experts recommend working with at least two people. But you can level a wooden floor with your own hands and alone. No special knowledge is required for this. It is enough to be careful and follow some simple rules.

Elimination of minor irregularities

If the floor in the house is slightly uneven, then this situation can be corrected with a minimum of materials and tools. If surface treatment of the boards is required, they will need to be removed, planed and re-laid. This option is considered quite long and labor-intensive. But at the same time it is relatively inexpensive. To level the coating you can use grinder. This method has its drawbacks. Firstly, this is a rather “dirty” option, since a lot of dust remains after work. In addition, before starting processing, you should recess the heads of nails and screws deeper into the boards so that they do not damage the tool. Minor defects can be removed using acrylic putty. This process does not require any special skills. Any novice craftsman can do the floor treatment on his own.

Repairing cracks

To treat boards with such defects, a special mixture is used, including sawdust, putty and varnish. With its help, you can eliminate depressions and cracks in wood, as well as nests of insects that destroy it. Before starting work, treatment areas should be cleaned and degreased. After the mixture has dried, the surface should be sanded and varnished.

Special solutions

Very often it is necessary to level a wooden floor under a laminate. The first step is to find out how strong the deviation is at the base. If the distortion is small, then you can use leveling mixtures for wooden floors. This solution is evenly distributed over the base. However, experts recommend using these mixtures when differences are no more than 1-2 cm. They are also effective when you need to seal small depressions and recesses in the base. The cost of such materials is quite high. But, as practice shows, they do their job perfectly.

Application of the solution

Before leveling wooden floors, they must be cleaned. Water is added to the solution required quantity and mixes. It is better to apply the mixture together: one prepares, the other levels the floor. Beacons must be installed first. The solution must be poured into the far corner of the room. Use a long spatula or squeegee to level it. Next, the solution is rolled with a roller (needle-shaped). Special attention it is necessary to pay attention to the junctions of various batches. These areas need to be treated with a spatula. Use hard bristled rollers to remove air bubbles. After the solution has hardened, when you can walk on it freely, expansion joints are made using a grinder. They are sealed with elastic material.

How to level an old wooden floor?

What to do if the base has very large differences? It often happens that the wooden floor in the middle of the room collapses, but on the contrary, it rises near the walls. In these cases, as a rule, the previous coating is removed. But it is often quite difficult to disassemble a wooden floor. In addition, after this work, all doors will become higher. We'll have to fix this too. But if the differences are very large, then dismantling is impossible.

First stage

You need to take a laser level. This tool is very useful when conducting repair work. The level should be placed at the highest point of the base. After switching on, a line will appear (along the entire perimeter). It will be used to level the wooden floor. Marks should be made with chalk or pencil. Then you need to make beacons. They can be used as guides for plasterboard sheets. The advantage of these elements is their evenness. They should be laid out on the floor at approximately a distance of 60-80 cm. In this case, their upper part should coincide with the line that is marked along the perimeter. To check this, you need to take a flat, narrow board or plywood and a mounting level. You can adjust the guides by placing boards or plywood under them.

Alternative option

If there is no opportunity or desire to use laser level, you can resort to another method. In this case, you also need to find the highest point of the base near the wall. From it you should measure 5-6 cm up and put a mark. After this, you should take a straight long strip or guide and attach it parallel to the floor along the wall. With help mounting level height needs to be adjusted. Next, the mark is placed on the opposite side of the wall. Dots must be placed along the entire perimeter. Next, you should take a rope or cord and stretch it from the mark located on one side of the room to the one located on the opposite wall - crosswise. It's good if the rope doesn't touch the floor. If the cord touches the surface, then all marks should be raised by 2-3 cm.

Second phase

It is advisable to attach the guides to the floor. This can be done using self-tapping screws. Next, between the guides it is poured mortar. The layer should be uniform. Next you should use the rule. Using this tool, the mixture is leveled. Quite a lot of solution can go away.

Using DSP

Leveling a wooden floor can be done without mortars. For this, cement bonded particle boards are used. Before leveling wooden floors, they must be prepared. The work, as usual, includes cleaning the base. During preparatory stage a line is also drawn along the perimeter. To level a wooden floor using DSP, you need to lay boards on the base - instead of guides. They should be laid level with the perimeter line. Pieces of plywood are placed under the boards. The base must be secured. The same screws are used for this. Next, the DSP is laid on the boards. The sheets are pre-cut taking into account the area of ​​the room. DSPs are attached to the boards using self-tapping screws. The cracks are covered with rotband. The quality of installation is checked by the installation level.

How to level a wooden floor with plywood?

The use of this material is rightfully considered the fastest and in a simple way arrangement of the foundation. In this way, you can level a wooden floor under linoleum. What are the advantages of this base? Plywood is considered an indispensable material. It has relatively low weight, flexibility, hardness, and resistance to stress. Due to the perpendicular placement of adjacent layers, plywood is highly durable in all directions. To reduce work time, you can choose large sheets. This is especially true on large areas. The undoubted advantage of dry screed is the small financial investment.

Technology

Before leveling wooden floors, it is necessary, as stated above, to assess the condition of the surface and determine the level of its deviation from the norm. A two-meter level is used to measure the base. In the corners of the room, you should mark points, find the centers where the floor and walls meet and the middle of the room. Next, you need to divide the base into so-called segments and examine each section. If the deformation of the floorboards is uniform and the height level has a difference of 5 mm, the plywood can be attached directly to wooden base. If the differences are more than one, but less than eight centimeters, then a sheathing should be made. Experts recommend creating strip or point supports.

Preparatory work

The plywood is kept indoors for several days. This ensures the same humidity as the room. Subsequently, this will avoid deformation of the material after installation. If the room is heated regularly, then the sheets are installed on edge. The material is kept in this position for at least two days. If work is carried out in a heated room, the edges of the sheets are moistened with water at room temperature.

Trying on material

Before leveling wooden floors, the sheets should be adjusted to the size of the room. When cutting the material, it is necessary to take into account the width of the damper seams. There should be a gap of 1 cm near the walls, and 3-4 mm between the workpieces. If these gaps are not present, the material may become deformed due to changes in temperature and humidity. After cutting is completed, the ends should be checked for delamination and defects. If there are damaged sheets, it is better to replace them. Next, you need to lay the material in the order in which it will be fixed. All sheets should be numbered. It is also necessary to note the places where the logs will be placed. This is done by focusing on the joints between the sheets. The connections should fall on the center of the joist.

Base

Leveling logs are also made of plywood. Their width should be 3-4 cm. The logs are laid according to the marks made in advance. If a gap forms between the floor and the strips, then pieces of plywood should be laid that are suitable in size. The surfaces must first be lubricated with glue. The joists are attached to the floor using self-tapping screws. Additionally, glue is used during the installation process. Horizontal placement is determined using a level. The evenness of the subsequent coating will depend on how carefully the lag is attached. A sealant should be placed between them.

Fastening sheets

After installing the logs, you can proceed directly to laying the plywood. The sheets are attached in order, in accordance with the indicated numbers. Before laying, the material should be treated with an antiseptic. The plywood is secured using self-tapping screws with plastic dowels. To avoid damaging the sheets with hammer blows, holes should be drilled in the places where the screws are screwed in according to the diameter of the dowels.

Final processing

The finishing work will depend on the type of material that is planned to be laid on top. For example, if it is carpet, then the surface is varnished in several layers. Before laying the laminate, the base is sanded and treated protective compounds. If there is parquet on top, a special noise-absorbing underlay is laid on the surface.

Finally

Using the above technologies, you can quickly and easily level a wooden floor with any differences. If the work is carried out carefully, you can obtain, among other things, a strong and durable foundation. The coating laid on plywood will last for more than one year. In addition, the material will act as additional thermal insulation.

How to level a wooden floor?

This question is relevant for owners of wooden country houses and for owners of ordinary apartments.

Over time, any wood dries out, becomes covered with cracks and loses its smoothness, be it expensive parquet or a subfloor under linoleum or carpet.

There are several alignment options for flooring made of wood, what are the best methods?

How to level a wooden floor? How to level a wooden floor under linoleum? If the house is old, what material is better to choose?

To remove unevenness or a slight slope in the house, what is better - mastic or putty? The answers to these and other questions are in this article.

Methods for leveling wooden floors

An uneven floor can cause significant damage in the future. finishing– paint, linoleum, laminate, carpet, etc.

Leveling the floor with your own hands will help you avoid such problems - even an inexperienced builder can handle the technique if you choose the right option and study the instructions in detail.

Leveling a wooden floor in a private house is a very pressing issue.

To level wooden flooring in a home today, you can use the following methods:

• scraping;
• use of self-leveling mixture;
• putty;
• subfloor made of plywood sheets.

Looping is the most famous, but at the same time the most labor-intensive method.

It can be manual or mechanical - using a special scraping machine.

Typically, scraping is used in wooden house, when you don’t need a linoleum or carpet finish, but only need to update the boards and varnish them.

Self-leveling mixture is a relatively new method, but experienced specialists It is not always recommended to use it.

An old wooden floor under the load of a cement-sand mixture can sag, and the screed itself can crack over time.

However, today there are special self-leveling mixtures for wood, so with large distortions in height and finishing under linoleum, tiles, laminate and parquet, such leveling can be used.

The most popular methods of leveling wood flooring are puttying and laying sheets of plywood.

Which of these options is better?

To choose the appropriate method, you need to first assess the condition of the floor in the house.

To do this, you need to carefully examine the boards: are there any cracks on them, how dry is the wood?

If this is possible, then it is better to tear off one floorboard and inspect it from the inside out - how dry it is, are there any places of rot.

This will allow you to understand whether you need to change rough coating or you can level it without replacing the boards.

Then you need to evaluate the height deviations of the floor using a level.

To eliminate small irregularities and distortions less than 3 mm, putty or mastic will help; for more serious defects, a rough coating of plywood is necessary.

Leveling with putty

Putty for wood floors is ideal for finishing paint, linoleum, carpet and even laminate.

Leveling a wooden floor with your own hands using putty can be used if the wood is not seriously damaged and the height deformation is no more than 2-3 mm per square meter surfaces.

For leveling work, you can use several types of putty:

• acrylic (very plastic and does not collapse over time);
• solvent-based (universal and suitable for all types of wood);
• polymer (perfectly fills cracks and smoothes out unevenness);
• based on PVA glue and sawdust.

Putty based on glue and sawdust is a fairly new building material, but rapidly gaining popularity.

This composition has a low price tag, but it is very durable and provides additional insulation of the surface.

This mixture can be used for all types of finishing, but most often it is used under linoleum and laminate.

To level a wooden floor with your own hands using adhesive putty, you need to strictly follow the technology.

First, we install beacons (slats made of wood or metal) over the entire surface of the floor in steps of 35-50 cm.

Then pour the first layer of a mixture of sawdust, glue and putty, carefully filling the gaps between the slats using a spatula.

After the starting layer has dried, you can apply the finishing coat.

This putty dries in an average of 2 days.

If the defects of the wooden floor covering are insignificant, then for leveling you can use a product such as mastic - based on rubber, polymers or bitumen.

Mastic is usually used in cases where finishing of the coating (linoleum or carpet) is not required.

Mastic emphasizes color and relief natural wood, adds shine, protects from moisture and direct sunlight, mechanical damage.

In some cases, mastic is the best option for work.

Leveling with plywood

Leveling a wooden floor with plywood is necessary in cases where differences in floor height reach 3 mm or more.

This method allows you to hide noticeable defects and prepare uneven floors for any finishing finish - carpet, linoleum, laminate, parquet and tiles.

The choice of plywood depends on the width of the boards - if the floorboards are up to 20 cm wide, plywood sheets 8-10 mm thick are suitable, more than 20 cm - 10-20 mm plywood is needed.

There are two ways to install plywood sheets - directly on the subfloor and using lathing.

If the deformation of the floorboards is no more than 5 mm over the entire surface, then you can attach the plywood directly to the boards; if it is up to 8-10 mm, then you will have to install wooden joists(lathing).

How to level a wooden floor with plywood correctly?

First of all, you need to prepare special tools:

• jigsaw and screwdriver;
• tape measure and level;
• sheets of plywood and logs for sheathing (plywood strips or timber);
• screws and dowels.

The first stage of work is dividing the floor into 30x30 cm squares.

After marking, it is necessary to place beacons along the perimeter of the surface, in the corners of the squares (their role can be played by self-tapping screws).

After this, the logs are installed, the step is 35-40 cm.

You can attach the slats to the floor using self-tapping screws or special glue.

Then you need to cut the plywood into pieces of approximately 60x60 cm.

They are mounted with self-tapping screws on the joists; it is better to place the sheets in a checkerboard pattern.

If the floorboards have severe defects or additional insulation is needed, then leveling can be carried out in 2 stages: first install the sheathing, then lay the screed between the slats, and after it has dried, install the plywood.

If you are finishing under linoleum, laminate or parquet, then it is important to treat the subfloor.

To do this, you need to sand the surface a little and cover it with a protective varnish.

To protect the subfloor and future floor covering, you can use a special underlay - cork or polyethylene foam.

Wooden floors are environmentally friendly and durable. But even he, after many years of service, faithfully sags and becomes crooked. In old private houses and baths, it may initially be laid out of level. Regardless of the reasons - gender from wooden planks may be uneven and need to be corrected. It is necessary to choose how to level wooden floors, taking into account several factors, including the nature of the coating, unevenness and materials for leveling.

There can be many irregularities - from deep cracks, wormholes and chips, to sagging boards and differences in height. You don't always want to remove the plank covering, but you always want the floor to be level. A suitable method for leveling a wooden floor without removing the boards, depends on the nature of the irregularities the same as on the selected final coating material.

Methods for leveling wooden floors

How to level an old wooden floor? What methods exist and what do they involve?

In order to properly consider all the options, it is worth dividing the irregularities into minor– from 5 mm to 1 cm and significant– from 2 to 10 cm.

Wooden floors with slight unevenness or differences in height can be leveled in four different ways:

• scraping;
• putty;
• wet screed with a self-leveling mixture;
• sheet covering flooring (plywood, chipboard or OSB).

If differences in floor level do the above methods ineffective, then it is worth considering the following two options:

• wet screed with cement;
• laying sheet covering on joists.

Looping

This method is suitable for strong and thick wooden flooring, in which the quality of the board will not suffer from a few “removed” millimeters. It is also worth considering that this process is very labor-intensive, expensive, noisy and dusty. Rent of a scraping machine won't be cheap, but it’s better than doing the whole process manually; although, even if you have a machine, you will still have to work with your hands in corners and other places that are difficult to reach for a bulky machine.

Before starting work, you must make sure that all boards are firmly nailed, screws or nails are driven deep into the wood and will not damage the equipment, and there are no thin or rotten boards in the covering. When working with a scraping machine, you need to wear protective respiratory masks, goggles and sound-blocking headphones.

After leveling, subfloor can be coated with any chosen coating, be it laminate or linoleum; Such a floor will look great on its own, just treat it and paint it.

Putty

If the floor is relatively flat (with a difference of up to 3 mm) and is prepared for laminate, tile or carpet - acrylic putty does a great job of smoothing out cracks, scratches and wormholes. The elasticity of the putty will allow the coating not to sag or crack. Putty can be used to level the floor even before painting. Instead of acrylic, you can use putty with PVA glue.

Preparing a wooden coating involves applying a primer in several layers. Before priming the floor, you need to make sure that there are no rotten boards or protruding screws.

Wooden floor screed

If the floor unevenness is between 3 mm and 10 mm, then they can be leveled using a screed using self-leveling mixtures. This the method is not cheap and, despite the name, labor-intensive. Such mixtures consist of polymer fillers that promote rapid smoothing and drying of the material. However they require careful preparation surface of the wooden floor and very neat and fast work with the mixture.

The wooden floor must be thoroughly coated with a primer and all cracks must be filled. Place beacons on the prepared surface, along which the floor will be leveled, and lay between the beacons reinforced mesh, for a more stable screed. The mesh is laid overlapping and with an excess of 10–15 mm around the perimeter of the walls.

The self-leveling mixture is applied with a spatula and leveled along the beacons using a rule. The procedure is very fast, because the polymer base The mixture allows it to take its proper shape in a very short time. As a result, a few hours after applying the mixture, you get a perfectly smooth surface on which you can already walk. This method is ideal for laminate, linoleum or tile flooring.

Laying sheet covering on boards

In the case when wood covering laid level, but the boards have bent over a long period of service and “waves” have formed on the floor; an uneven floor can be corrected. How? Level a wooden floor with plywood, laying the sheets directly on the subfloor.

If the boards are the same in width and have uniform irregularities, then you can choose thin sheets plywood, if the unevenness is uneven, then the sheets of the selected material (this can be plywood, chipboard or OSB) should be stronger and thicker, at least 1.5 cm.

The sheets are attached with screws to top point each board. Between the sheets, at the joints, you need to leave 2 mm of space, which then needs to be puttied.

If the wooden floor has sank deeply, was laid out of level, or it is necessary to raise its level by a few centimeters, then plywood needs to be laid on a strip support. Full flooring joists are made from heavy material, and if you lay them on top of boards, the boards may not support the weight. When laying sheet material over boards, it is best to use mini-logs - thin strip beam(for lighthouses) and pieces of timber different thicknesses(for covens).

The logs are installed horizontally around the perimeter of the room. In order to adjust the level of the logs to the required height, pieces of timber - slabs - are placed under them. Depending on the thickness of the plywood, the logs are installed at a distance of 30 cm to 50 cm from each other. After the mini-joists are installed, you should check their height again before fixing them. A laser level is best suited for this.

If level differences vary from 1 to 10 cm, it is best to use timber of different sections. It is best to attach logs to boards using long dowels every 30 cm if the timber is thin; timber with a larger cross-section can be fastened less frequently.

Polystyrene foam, a mixture of sawdust and PVA glue, polystyrene foam or small expanded clay can be placed in the cells of the transverse lattice; all this will provide additional heat and sound insulation.

Sheets of plywood, chipboard or OSB, pre-measured and cut, must be laid in such a way as to avoid cross-shaped joints. It is best to lay them according to the principle brickwork. Sheets of plywood are attached to the joists with self-tapping screws.

When working with plywood sheets and joists, it is worth remembering the following:

• in order to level out the humidity of the room and the plywood sheets, they need to be kept for several days in the room where the work will be carried out;
• communications can be hidden under plywood;
• using lags, you can raise the floor level to 10 cm;
• plywood sheets can be used as a final covering, or they can be laid under a decorative one, like laminate or linoleum;
• V plywood floor It is best to make small ventilation holes.

Wet screed with cement

It is better not to use this method over boards, since cement is an inelastic material and when walking on a leveled floor, cracks will form in the cement. Despite the ability to level out any unevenness, the cement mortar is very heavy and may damage the rough coating. You can use polystyrene foam or expanded clay to lighten the load on the boards, but in this case it will be more correct and durable to remove the board covering and refill the floor.

How to level an old wooden floor using the methods described above can be seen in the video above.

If indoors uneven wooden floor, living in it becomes uncomfortable. The boards creak, sag or, conversely, bulge, diverge, forming cracks.

The aesthetics of the room are disrupted and a traumatic environment is created. On such a floor it is easy to fall and hurt yourself. To avoid serious troubles and improve the condition of your home, uneven floors are leveled. They do this in different ways.

Dry methods

An uneven wooden floor needs to be leveled if the height difference is more than 5 cm. This uneven floor is visible to the naked eye. The surface may have a slope in any direction. In another case, the boards are located unevenly, in waves: one protrudes, the other sinks, bends. There are several options for eliminating uneven floors using a dry method.

Installation of mini-lags from bars (tape support)

Tape support is one of the most reliable ways for leveling uneven wooden floors. The method is used for height differences from 3 to 10 cm. The timber serves as a lining for the boardwalk. It should be of different thicknesses so that it is located evenly in the direction of increasing slope. For ease of installation, craftsmen use pieces of plywood rather than wood.

To install minilags correctly, carry out advance paynemt and check the readings with a meter level. The distance between them correlates with the thickness of the sheets made from wood waste.

It is not recommended to lay sheets that are too thick to level an uneven wooden floor:

• they are heavy and inconvenient to install with your own hands;
• create additional load on the floor and foundation.

Beams of different sections and sheet products are screwed with self-tapping screws to the wooden base of the floor. The fasteners must be of different lengths, since the distance to the boards varies. Mini-lags are attached across and along the boards. It is important to mark the sheets as accurately as possible at the drilling points.

Installation of leveling point supports (blocks)

If indoors uneven wooden floor, the defect can be eliminated and leveled using point supports, which are called slabs. They are installed under sheet products in the form of a mesh. This produces cells, the dimensions of which are determined by the thickness of the sheets.

Such cell sizes will not allow sagging during subsequent operation.

Since the supporting “posts” are located pointwise, careful markings are made on the sheets and screws are screwed in at the points. Additionally, the sheets are fixed to the very base of the floor, choosing longer fasteners.

Methods for leveling an uneven wooden floor without screed differ high efficiency. After leveling work, the surface acquires ideal shape and holds the finishing coat well. 8-10 cm is a height difference at which it is better to dismantle the old floor and lay a new base with replacement joists.

Wet screed method

At minor irregularities(up to 3mm) a wooden floor can be covered with acrylic putty or sealant. Before work, the boards are primed to protect the wood and ensure better adhesion with the leveling mixture. The composition is applied thin layer, distributing evenly along pre-made marks on the walls, along the beacons.

It is important to know: the thickness of the layer determines the amount of time it takes to dry. To prevent the putty from cracking over time, PVA glue is added to it. After the mixture has dried, the surface is sanded.

If uneven wooden floor has a slope of more than 3 mm, use. This is not a very suitable method for a wooden base. The screed creates a significant load on the base and floors. It is most possible when the boards are laid on concrete or brick columns, reinforced concrete supports. The need for it arises, for example, when used as finishing coating tiles.

To level an uneven wooden floor using the “wet” method, dry mixtures with components are used that provide the screed with elasticity and special strength. These include various plasticizers and synthetic fillers.

1. Before applying the leveling compound, wooden floors are checked for ventilation. If it is not there, then holes are drilled in certain places on the surface, and decorative grilles are installed on top of the finishing coating.
2. The boards are covered plastic film, which performs the function of waterproofing. The tree is afraid of water. And when wet screed The dry mixture is diluted with this liquid.
3. The leveling composition is poured onto the surface in portions and distributed evenly using a special rule. You can work gradually, filling small areas.
4. After the screed has dried, it is sanded and primed.

Wet screed on wooden base don't do it often. The main reason is the incompatibility of wood and leveling composition. Wood is mobile and cement mixture It is static, so it may crack and crumble over time.

When choosing a method for leveling an uneven wooden floor, we focus on the specific conditions of the room. It is important that during subsequent use the surface does not deform and the finishing coating does not deteriorate.

Comfortable living in a home depends on many conditions. These include the quality of finishing and general state surfaces, including leveling uneven wooden floors.

Leveling the plank floor.

In some old houses from the times of Stalin and Khrushchev, plank, uneven wooden floors remained. Over time, the floorboards rot, become loose and begin to creak. And during repairs, in order to remove the defects of the old uneven floor, a new coating in the form of laminate or linoleum is used.

But before laying a new floor, it is recommended to level the subfloor using sheet material. You can carry out this procedure yourself without the involvement of construction specialists and with minimal costs. To level the floor, it is best to use plywood, since fiberboard sheets will eventually take the shape of an uneven floor and waves will appear again. Plywood has irreplaceable qualities for a material that is used to level an old wooden floor.

It is relatively light in weight, quite durable, resistant to stress and water, well polished, and has no unpleasant odor. The material does not change its properties with changes in temperature and humidity.

In order to carry out the procedure for leveling a wooden floor, it is necessary to prepare the tools and materials that will be needed during the work process.

• plywood sheets;
• roll insulation;
• screwdriver and screws;
• jigsaw;

Preparing to level a wooden floor in an apartment

• Initially, it is necessary to check the condition of the communications that are laid under the floor, since after completion of the work there will be no free access to them.
• Next, you need to get rid of various irregularities that are very typical for a wooden floor.
• Secure and, if necessary, replace old, rotten, creaky boards.
• As additional insulation If the floor is initially cold, you can use rolled mineral wool insulation.

The prepared plywood sheets are laid on the floor and in order to evaluate the strength and reliability of the coating, you should walk on it. During such tests, additional defects may be revealed that can be corrected immediately without dismantling the floor. If it turns out that the floor is sagging, then it is necessary to additionally place pieces of fiberboard in these places.

The most optimal and reliable fastening plywood sheets, there will be fastening with self-tapping screws, which at the initial stage of fastening do not need to be driven in completely. In places where the plywood sags, it is unacceptable to make fastenings. After securing the sheets, you need to carefully walk over the finished flooring again.

This is necessary in order to check how firmly and correctly the sheets are fitted to each other. If the result of the test is satisfactory and pleasing, then all the screws will be driven all the way, firmly burying the head in the wood.

After fixing the sheet material, the screw heads and seams are puttied using acrylic sealant. The advantage of such putty is that even if the boards and sheets sag a little, the sealant, due to its high plasticity, will not break down or spill out.

After completing the installation of the plywood sheets, you can begin laying another linoleum or laminate flooring.

Leveling an uneven wooden floor - video

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In order to determine how uneven the floor is, you need to determine the floor marks in all corners, in the middle of the walls and in the middle of the room (if the room is very large or the floor is very uneven, then more marks are needed). The easiest way to do this is with a two-meter building level. with different measuring instruments, used for this purpose, are set out separately.

If the floor marks are at the same height

(plus or minus 5 mm doesn’t count, but it all depends on how demanding you are; you can’t even count a difference of 1-1.5 cm), which means the floor is flat. And if the height differences do not exceed 2-3 mm, then such a floor does not need to be leveled with sheet materials at all.

• You can putty such a floor 1-2 times with acrylic putty or acrylic sealant. The main advantage of acrylic putties is their high plasticity; even if the boards sag a little when walking on the floor, the putty will not collapse. If the amount of work is not large, then it will do acrylic sealant sold in syringes for a construction gun. Floors must be treated with a suitable primer before applying putty to improve adhesion to the boards. It will look something like this:

Download more full version This video is available, video size is 60 MB, wmv format.

In this case, it was necessary to level about 1.5 m2 of floor. For large volumes it is better to buy acrylic putty for wooden floors in buckets, however, the principle of applying putty will not change. By the way, in this way you can level floors for painting and even for varnish, for example, parquet floors (of course, if they are in good enough condition), but then you will need a tinted sealant. However, buying tinted sealant to match the color of wood is now a small problem, although the choice of colors is not very large and they cost much more than white acrylic sealant, but still.

Before laying linoleum or carpet, it is advisable to sand the putty surface.

• The main disadvantage of acrylic putty is low strength. Therefore, instead of acrylic putties or sealants, you can use putty mixed with PVA glue. If the thickness of the applied layer does not exceed 1-2 mm, then you can use the finishing gypsum putty, mixed with PVA glue. If the applied layer is thicker, you can use gypsum starting putty mixed with PVA glue or sawdust, mixed with PVA glue. The main disadvantages of this method: it is very difficult to immediately apply the putty in an even layer due to the extreme stickiness of the putty (PVA is very good glue), so the putty surface will have to be sanded for a long time to obtain a smooth surface.

The thicker the layer of sealant or putty, the longer it will take to dry. therefore, if the floor unevenness is more than 3 mm and there are many of them, then you can’t do without screeding or laying sheet materials. How linoleum was laid on the floor, previously leveled with putty, can be seen separately.

2.1. On an old wooden floor you can lay plywood 8-20 mm thick, or chipboard, OSB, MDF.

You can also use gypsum fiber sheets. In this case, the top of the wave will serve as a support (like a lag) for the new floor covering. With a board width of 10-20 cm and a uniform distribution of waves, a plywood thickness of 8-10 mm is quite sufficient. If there are waves on the boards through one board or the width of the boards is more than 20 cm, then it is better to use thicker plywood (in the picture below).

Picture 1. Easy leveling of wooden floors.

It makes no sense to use fiberboard to level the floor, since over time the fiberboard will take the shape of the floor and waves will appear again. In principle, the thickness of sheet materials can be greater, but the thicker sheet materials, the more expensive they are and, most importantly, the heavier. I prefer moisture-resistant plywood; it is irreplaceable for kitchens and hallways in Stalin and Khrushchev buildings, but it costs more than other sheet materials. Sheet materials are attached to wooden floor using screws or self-tapping screws. To recess the head of a screw or self-tapping screw, a countersunk hole is made. Sheet materials are attached to the boards at the top of the wave (see figure). After screwing the sheets, the joints of the sheets and the heads of the screws are puttied with acrylic sealant. If you have high-quality plywood with a good textured pattern, the plywood joints are neat and well-fitted and the grooves are evenly distributed, then you can choose an acrylic sealant of the appropriate color and simply open the plywood with varnish.

Sometimes, if the old wooden floor is relatively level, but there are small "pits", then you can try to level the floor with plywood using polyurethane foam. I myself have not leveled the floors this way, so I included a description of this method in a separate article.

If the height differences at the floor marks do not satisfy you, then you will have to tinker here. It is necessary to make a support for the new foundation at one mark. You can do this in 2 ways:

2.2. Tape support - mini logs made of timber.

This method is good if you need to equalize the height difference from 3 to 10 cm. However, to ensure that the timber is at the same height, wooden pads of different thicknesses are used - slabs. Typically, slabs are made from plywood of different thicknesses, but they can also be made from short bars using an ax or chisel. Where we're talking about about millimeters, roofing felt or any other thin waterproof material is used. The distance between mini-lags depends on the thickness of the sheet material and, in principle, requires engineering calculation , but as practice shows for plywood with a thickness of 12-14 mm and for chipboard, OSB with a thickness of 16-18 mm maximum distance between mini-lags is 35-40 cm. For plywood with a thickness of 16-18 mm and for OSB with a thickness of 20-24 mm, the maximum distance between mini-lags is 50 cm. This logical series can be continued further, but laying thicker sheet materials is difficult even for two people, even under load the ceiling will again increase, it’s good if the ceiling is reinforced concrete or on metal beams, but increase the load on wooden beams need to be careful. At large differences heights, it is convenient to use timber of different sections, where the height difference is small, timber of a smaller cross-section is used, but it also needs to be attached to the floor boards more often, then timber of a larger cross-section is used.

Figure 2. Leveling wooden floors using mini-lags.

Mini-lags can be attached both across the boards (in the picture above) and along (in the picture below). Here it is important to accurately mark the sheets (determine the locations for the holes) so as not to drill extra holes.

For clarity, photographs 1 and 2 show the transition from an old wooden floor to a new coating in doorway. The floor was leveled with waterproof plywood, with scaffold supports in places, mainly on mini-lags made of bars of different sections, the total height difference of the old floor was more than 6 cm. Self-tapping screws before gluing the tiles PVC company LG were puttied twice with tinted acrylic sealant:

Photo 1. View from the corridor. (increase)

Photo 2. View from the room

2.3. Point support - shabby.

This method is suitable if the height differences are not very large. Point support less reliable than tape, so blocks need to be placed under sheet materials more often, so that a mesh with a cell size of 30-35 cm is obtained for plywood with a thickness of 12-14 mm and for chipboard, OSB with a thickness of 16-18 mm. For plywood with a thickness of 16-18 mm and for OSB with a thickness of 20-24 mm, the cell size is 40-45 cm.

Of course, with both a strip support and a point one, you can make more distance between the supports, but in this case the new floor will be too susceptible to dynamic deformations; in other words, it can sag when jumping and dancing, and even when walking.

After the base of the floor is leveled, lay the finishing coating on it, be it parquet, linoleum, carpet, PVC tiles, fast, easy and pleasant. Just don’t forget about underground ventilation. To do this, in one of the corners (where the old ventilation was), after laying the finishing coating, a hole is drilled and a small ventilation grill is installed.

If the difference in height of the old wooden floor is more than 8-10 cm (and this happens), then it is better to remove some of the boards and replace them with sheet material.

The floor can be leveled with a “wet” screed.

But only if you are absolutely sure of the strength of the wooden floor, for example, if the floors were immediately made for screed, or if these are wooden floors according to reinforced concrete floor, with logs on brick columns, while the logs and the distance between the logs and the thickness of the floorboards are selected in such a way as to ensure minimal deflection of the floors under design loads. The fact is that cement screeds work well in compression and much worse in tension; this can lead to the fact that the cement screed on a wooden floor will collapse or ceramic tile, glued to such a screed, will peel off. To level wooden floors, special dry mixtures with plasticizers and fillers are used to provide the screed with maximum strength and elasticity, as an example - Vetonit 3300. This screed is applied in a layer of no more than 1 cm; before applying the screed, a reinforcing fiberglass mesh is packed onto the wooden floors and the floors are primed. If the floor unevenness exceeds 1 cm, then such a screed will not help. Theoretically, it is possible to make a regular one on a wooden floor. cement screed 5-7 cm thick with a metal reinforcing mesh, in this case the load on the floor will immediately increase by 75-100 kg/m2, so before making such a screed, you must first check bearing capacity ceilings To protect the wood from the effects of water from the screed, a plastic film is laid on the wooden floor.

But in any case, regardless of the leveling method, we must not forget about the ventilation system for wooden floors so that the floors do not rot. The underground space must be ventilated. Previously, to do this, they drilled a hole in a board with a diameter of about 50 mm in one of the corners of the room and stuffed a decorative lattice on top, or made ventilation duct in the wall and nailed the decorative lattice to the wall. Such lattices look something like this:

Figure 3. Ventilation grates for wooden floors.

If you had similar gratings on the floor or wall, then do not rush to cover them up or cover them with wallpaper.

In general, old wooden floors, with cracks, paint stains, knots, chips, gouges and other defects - this is incredibly cool and super stylish, now more and more people are tired of straight lines modern design, they want to lay it on a perfectly smooth and even screed parquet board, stylized as old, time-warped wooden floors. This pleasure is not cheap, so before you sew up wooden floors, think about whether you need it?

I submitted questions related to leveling a wooden floor for laying laminate flooring, as well as a recipe for preparing a putty mixture from Ruslan.