I want to lay floating floors but my OSB sub floor is uneven. In some spaces it gets close to a inch in difference. I was wanting to know if floor leveling compound will fix this? Also if you could give my a brand or name of a good one.
I would suggest having a hardwood flooring contractor patch in some boards then refinish the hardwood floors, that is if they are salvageable. I have salvaged some that were in really bad shape.
it is most likely uneven because of swelling, so you don't want to pour more liquid over it. When it comes to self leveling floor leveling compounds, you get what you pay for. The more expensive, higher quality, longer lasting ones will require a special primer that needs to be painted on first so that it doesn't break loose and shatter into little pieces later. Mapei make some.
Floor leveling compound will do the trick. Clean floor well, use the recommended latex primer and do the pore.Check the thickness you can do in a single pore though. Some levelers you can only do certain depths in one pore. You may or may not have to do it in 2 pores. There are some self leveling compounds that you can do in a single pore. 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
Subfloor Leveling Compound
If the difference is as large as an inch I would be concerned that something is wrong, swelling or flexing. I would get under the house if possible and inspect it from there. There may be water damage and you will need to replace the subfloor. If things are just sagging, you may be able to install braces perpendicular to the floor joists to fix the problem. If it's all solid but still has the difference then you could try the floor leveler. You may need to use a belt sander to even things out. Worst case scenario you will have to have a transition from the lower part to the higher part.
