Floor height difference - how much is too much?

[jb2410]

Morning all,

Quick one for someone with experience of this.

We’re changing some flooring in our living room - laminate 12mm stuff coming up and click together lvt type stuff going down.

The new floor is only 4 or 5mm thick including underlay, whereas existing laminate is 12mm plus thickness of the underlay. We have tiles in the hallway (probably around 1mm lower than existing laminate).

My worry is the difference in height caused by 7/8mm between flooring types, plus the additional 3mm or whatever from underlay that will be present under the laminate and not the lvt will be too noticeable and annoying.

Has anyone dealt with this in practice and am I worrying about nothing? Concrete floor so could be raised with self levelling I guess but it’s fairly flat now so hesitant to do this if not needed.

Cheers

[TA14]

You simply need a sloped, hardwood threashold; usually the width of the door frame/portal opening.

[48k]

You won't raise a floor height 11mm with latex levelling compound. It's really for flattening out imperfections. As above, a suitable threshold should suffice.

[jb2410]

Great, keeps things simple! Thanks chaps

[paulrockliffe]

Have you considered not keeping things simple, a step like that would be really irritating. Can you not just screw 10mm ply all over the floor to bring it up?

[RizzoTheRat]

paulrockliffe said:

Can you not just screw 10mm ply all over the floor to bring it up?

Or insulation boards, the stuff intended to go underneath underfloor heating is around that thickness

[andyb28]

We had the same issue. Although this was done around 8 years ago and you can see the flooring closest to the camera has dropped a bit now.

It's a little bit hard to see, but they angled the threshold, so that its a little ramp and it works well as you do not catch your foot on it. The height difference is about 1-2cm.

Edit, please excuse the dog hairs, the cleaner comes on Friday

[TA14]

RizzoTheRat said:

paulrockliffe said:

Can you not just screw 10mm ply all over the floor to bring it up?

Or insulation boards, the stuff intended to go underneath underfloor heating is around that thickness

Yes, you could do that. In the OP's case it's only 7mm so that would be 1/4" ply. It's a lot of work for a small difference when an angled threshold would be fine.

[TA14]

andyb28 said:

It's a little bit hard to see, but they angled the threshold, so that its a little ramp and it works well as you do not catch your foot on it. The height difference is about 1-2cm.

and the OP has a height difference of half that amount.

[jb2410]

Thanks folks, having been thinking about this today I realised one of our other rooms has a 6 or 7mm step down off tiles onto some crappy laminate (not sure on thickness other than not much).

We’ve been here 4 years and I had never noticed! We’re lifting the flooring in the living room this weekend, and I have a sample of the new flooring so I will try it and see how it looks. But good to know there are options either way with thresholds/ply etc.

[steve2]

Click together lvt flooring has not got a very good reputation in the trade, if the floor is not smooth the headers (ends) will snap and come apart. What make is it?

[Marcellus]

might a 6mm Monster Ramp work.... under the laminate goes from 1.3mm to the 6mm over a 200mm length... mainly used under carpets but don't see why they woudln't be as effective under laminate.

[Actual]

TA14 said:

You simply need a sloped, hardwood threshold; usually the width of the door frame/portal opening.

I will need to do similar for the threshold from the bedroom to my new tiled bathroom floor.

Does anyone have any good links to kick ass threshold products because the ones down at B&Q are ste.

[Jeremy-75qq8]

Click lvt with no underlay will creak.

[jb2410]

Not sure on make. Will try and find out. I believe it has some sort of underlay as part of the plank, chap in the shop reckoned that was all that was required!

[Steve H]

That’s about a 10mm lip and then another 10-15mm rise over the next 300mm (ish). There’s always a way of making it work.

Please excuse the dog, MrsH says it’s necessary.

[Marcellus]

Actual said:

I will need to do similar for the threshold from the bedroom to my new tiled bathroom floor.

Does anyone have any good links to kick ass threshold products because the ones down at B&Q are ste.

https://www.mdfstore.co.uk/mdf-monster-ramp-91cm-long-33258-p.asp

[jb2410]

Steve H said:

That’s about a 10mm lip and then another 10-15mm rise over the next 300mm (ish). There’s always a way of making it work.

Please excuse the dog, MrsH says it’s necessary.

Absolutely necessary! What a smashing looking dog/home!

Just to update my original post I have seen a few mixed reports on the click lvt stuff now regarding separation etc.

Current thoughts are leaning back towards laminate again, although hopefully a better quality one than the crap that is there at the minute - solves the height issue and a big rug will keep the dog from sliding and us from hearing him clattering about!)

[Steve H]

Get one of the grippy under mats for the rug. Our idiot was using it like a skateboard until we did that.

[J6542]

jb2410 said:

Steve H said:

That’s about a 10mm lip and then another 10-15mm rise over the next 300mm (ish). There’s always a way of making it work.

Please excuse the dog, MrsH says it’s necessary.

Absolutely necessary! What a smashing looking dog/home!

Just to update my original post I have seen a few mixed reports on the click lvt stuff now regarding separation etc.

Current thoughts are leaning back towards laminate again, although hopefully a better quality one than the crap that is there at the minute - solves the height issue and a big rug will keep the dog from sliding and us from hearing him clattering about!)

Buy quickstep laminate. I have put down 100,s of spuare meters of the stuff for myself and family and never had a joint come apart. They also do a click Lvt but I have no experience of it.