Flooring and electrical · Belgrade · 2024
Flooring, service and a floor that finally sits flat
The new floor the owners wanted could not go down until the subfloor was flat, the joists stopped bouncing and the panel stopped tripping.
The brief
A 1996 Belgrade ranch with a growing family, a floor that flexed underfoot in the great room, and a panel that tripped whenever the dishwasher and the microwave ran together.
The owners had been quoted for flooring alone by two other companies. Our straightedge survey found a 7/8 inch crown across the great room and a joist span that failed the deflection check for the tile they had already chosen.
What we found
Four problems the listing photographs did not show
Floor out of flat by 7/8 inch
A crown ran diagonally across the great room, roughly four times the 3/16 inch over 10 feet tolerance for the chosen product.
Deflection failure
2x10 joists at 19.2 inches on centre spanning 15 feet 8 inches calculated at roughly L/290, short of the L/360 that tile requires.
Panel at capacity
A 125 amp panel with no spare spaces, tandem breakers doubled up and no dedicated circuit for the dishwasher.
Height stack across four rooms
Four different finished heights meant four unplanned steps at doorways.
What we built
The work itself
- Mid-span LVL beam and two posts in the crawlspace, bringing the great room to L/480
- Self-levelling compound over the corrected span to a measured 1/8 inch over 10 feet
- Uncoupling membrane under porcelain tile in the entry, kitchen and laundry
- Engineered white oak in the living and bedroom zones, with shop-made reducers at every change of material
- 200 amp service upgrade with a 40 space panel and dedicated appliance circuits
- A written height-stack drawing showing every room's finished floor level before ordering
How it turned out
The great room floor no longer moves underfoot, and the tile the owners had already bought could be installed as planned.
Every doorway in the house is now either flush or has a shop-made transition in matching oak. There are no metal strips anywhere in the house.
Two quotes said the floor was fine. Craft and Timber brought a straightedge, put it on the floor and let us look under it ourselves.
