I have a house that is 51 years old and would like to lay some hardwood laminate flooring . The problem is that the floor is pitched towards a drain. Their are no signs of leaks in concrete flooring and foundation. I am only doing half of the area so drain will not be covered. Will I have to build up a subfloor first ?
in okorder / is an excellent website that discusses this in details.
It really depends on how perfect you want the floor to look. You can put laminate flooring over an uneven floor, but it will flex when you walk on it, in severe cases it may come apart in the areas that have the most flex. The correct way to install the floor in your case will be to use a leveling compound first. But I have installed this floor on fairly uneven surfaces per the customers request and had no major problems other than you can see it flex when people walk on it. But if it were me I'd rather level the floor first.
If you want to keep the floor pitched toward the drain (which I think is a good idea), perhaps you should consider alternatives to hardwood laminate. - There is very nice looking vinyl flooring that emulates hard wood - Carpet is always a cheap and easy option, but if there is flooding you will have to replace the carpet. - I put garage floor epoxy in my gameroom. I bought a nice red color from Sams Club. - Decorative concrete overlay goes over an uneven floor well, and you can keep the slope toward the drain.
The floor needs to be flat and level with specs of the manufacturer. Normally that is with in 1/4 in a 10' run. If there is signs of moisture, it needs to be dealt with. Either a vapor barrier or flooring system built atop the slab along with a vapor barrier. Any laminate set atop an uneven floor , the locking system will break in a short time from excess movement. Any questions you can e mail me through my avatar, I ve attended several installation seminars as well as installed a couple 100,000 s/f. GL
