Use a large hand plane like this:
I installed vinyl plank throughout my first floor; 1200 square feet. The rooms I did before thinking about this show every little bump or seam. Most people don't see the defects, but I sure do. They drive me nuts. I wish I thought of this sooner.
Make sure the blade is set to take tiny ribbons of wood and is real sharp. It will go through the wood like butter. Makes quick work and you can get that area completely smooth.
Answer from Evil Elf on Stack ExchangeUse a large hand plane like this:
I installed vinyl plank throughout my first floor; 1200 square feet. The rooms I did before thinking about this show every little bump or seam. Most people don't see the defects, but I sure do. They drive me nuts. I wish I thought of this sooner.
Make sure the blade is set to take tiny ribbons of wood and is real sharp. It will go through the wood like butter. Makes quick work and you can get that area completely smooth.
I would use latex modified concrete leveler or tile thinset.
Get a long straight board or piece of angle steel to use for a screed.
You may also want to apply a bonding agent to the sub-flooring to keep the leveler or thinset from separating from the sub-floor.
Good luck!
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Man I'm ripping up a lot of floors these months! I'm dealing with an incredibly uneven subfloor right now. Used to be carpet. Previous owner filled the most egregious valleys with floor leveling compound that's old and turning into dust. So i need to decide the following:
How to fix it? And then what to put down - laminate or vinyl plank?
So I can either hire someone to just put big sheets of plywood down across the entire floor. Generally speaking, if i do this, I won't need to otherwise correct the flooring right?
Or, I could grab my planer, my belt sander, and some levelling compound and do my best to level it out a bit.
In terms for flooring, I'm either doing cheap laminate or cheap ish LVP (it's a rental). The laminate is a bit more forgiving because i have an underlayment but for the vinyl plank if i remember correctly the floor has to be perfectly flat because you don't use an underlayment. The kind i used has sticky edges and you just stuck the edge of one piece to the edge of another.
I loved how easy the LVP was. I didn't need a saw! I'm terrible at a jig saw so even though I've done laminate before it's frustrating and any detailed areas don't look so great.
If i hire someone to put sheets of plywood down, do i still need to use floor leveler? If I use laminate, could I get away with planing down the worst peaks but leaving a bit of unevenness and getting a thick underlayment?
How do you handle bad joints like this in T&G OSB (LP)? I was walking a new build (not mine) and caught this.
I know that you can plane swelled seams, but that seems less possible here, plus you'll be grabbing nails. These are glued and nailed. Should these be yanked and done over? Overall, the subfloors looked good, and all long seams were clean.
Added a second example that was smaller. It's easier to see, possibly fixed with a different solution.
I should have cleaned this larger one up for a proper picture.
Thank you all very much for the advice. I decided to give the planer a go, since worst case scenario, I could rip the subfloor out if I made it worse. It worked REALLY well. I was able to completely get the peak out of the floor, sanded it, and now its level! I think had this been a bigger area, taking it out would have been a better plan, but with there being a lot of gas and electrical I was nervous.
That's OSB flooring. You're not going to be able to plane it down. The planer will, most likely, just pull the chunks out of the board leaving a mess.
As bad as that missing chunk is closest to the camera in the first picture, I'd suggest that you cut out at least some of that board and completely replace it. This will also give you the opportunity to level the new board with the rest of the floor.
Currently installing 3/4” t+g plywood subfloor throughout our entire main floor (about 500 sqft open concept). Joists are 18” OC (old house), gluing and screwing sheets perpendicular to joists, plan to put underlayment and 3/4” hardwood on top once this is done.
Everything I’ve read says to stagger the seams and avoid four corners meeting. Makes sense. But they never specify whether the stagger needs to be on the short or the long side. They always show it on the long side. However, due to our houses layout, the joist leveling work involved, and the fact that we’re living through the renovation, it’s much more feasible for us to stagger on the short side and work in 8 foot sections.
Anyone know if this is a bad idea - and if so, why? Either way, we will avoid having four corners meet, but beyond that, my amateur brain cannot figure out whether it’s better to stagger on the long side or short side - and if long side is better, why, and how big a deal is this?
Thanks!!!
Those are not "seams" they are "expansion gaps" and there's very good reason not to fill them...
If they were supposed to be filled they wouldn't be there at all. They are to provide empty space for the plywood to expand without buckling. Filling them defeats that purpose
My understanding - filling these gaps with an elastic material like caulk won't defeat the purpose of having them in the first place, whereas, like the other response stated but didn't elaborate on, filling the gaps with a setting compound absolutely defeats the purpose. You may want to air seal your floor, and in that case caulk should be fine. Any type of caulk. Don't over think it.