# Leveling with roofing felt and leveling compound



## DIA-jp

I am installing engineered wood in an older home. Floors have some low spots that will need to be filled and or layered up. I plan to use a few layers of 30# roofing felt in several places to "flatten" some places. My question is can I staple down a few layers of felt and then screed some leveling compound over it. Making sure that I feather the compound past the edge of the felt? Floor is basically sound and firm.


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## Bud Cline

> My question is can I staple down a few layers of felt and then screed some leveling compound over it.


If you enjoy the sound of the floor crunching every time you take a step then yes go ahead.


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## boman47k

Bud Cline said:


> If you enjoy the sound of the floor *crunching every time you take a step* then yes go ahead.


 
I doubt anyone wants that. You do like a floor guy showed me at a house I recently did some painting at, and just nail it down. No crunch, no give ( for a little while) and what is a little dip in an otherwise good looking floor ( if you don't notice some of the perimeter gaps. :jester:
And he was proud of his solution!


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## Bud Cline

The use of roofing materials to adjust floor coverings is an age-old method.

The troble with the above suggestion is covering it with levelling compound. There is no way (in my thinking) the roofing material can be fastened enough that it wouldn't flex a little under foot traffic. Under flooring this flexing would go unnoticed until you cover it with cement, the cement is not flexible and begins to crumble, and the crunching begins.:whistling


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## SLSTech

Level first using the compund - then used the "manufacture's" approved felt or foam
It is probably explained fully on the directions


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## boman47k

SLSTech said:


> Level first using the compund - then used the "manufacture's" approved felt or foam
> It is probably explained fully on the directions


I think I posted this before somewhere. Anyway, I told the floor guy that I thought he would have used floor leveler for the dip. His reply was, " I'd have to tear up half the floor to do that!".
I thought , "Yeah, you would *now*".


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## DIA-jp

I failed to mention that this is an edge glue floating floor and will have a Silent Treatment flooring underlayment installed.
My point in asking the question is: 1) By using felt I will not have to use as much compound. 2)I hope that the felt will prevent the compound from disappearing down the various cracks and gaps so I don't have to caulk every gap, etc. 3) Will the Leveling compound set up and still do its job if I first place some felt under it?


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## Bud Cline

"Felt", WILL ALSO allow for movement. If you use cement-type filler, you want to install it over a firm rigid surface and a bonding agent may also be a good idea.

Fill the low areas THEN install the felt.


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## WarriorWithWood

Don't shoot me for this because it's not the "normal approach" but hasn't anyone used sand? It works like a charm under these type of floors. It's silent when walked on, it won't crack, easily leveled, doesn't compress, been a proven leveling method since roman times, and it's cheap. I've used it with great success and every contractor that has tried it tell me how great it works. Just throwing it out there.


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## jamestrd

what you do depends upon how much deviation you are up against


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## PrecisionFloors

WarriorWithWood said:


> Don't shoot me for this because it's not the "normal approach" but hasn't anyone used sand? It works like a charm under these type of floors. It's silent when walked on, it won't crack, easily leveled, doesn't compress, been a proven leveling method since roman times, and it's cheap. I've used it with great success and every contractor that has tried it tell me how great it works. Just throwing it out there.


No shots fired from this direction.....
I have used this method for floating floors as well, and it does indeed, work very well. Used white "play" sand.


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## dokuhaku

*Sand is grand*



WarriorWithWood said:


> ...hasn't anyone used sand?...


I used it a few times in the past with great success. The first time I used it under protest. The customer was told by a trusted friend that the low spots in his floor should be filled with gypsum before the floating floor was installed. I was against it but relented.
Once the spots were filled and the excess sand swept up, we covered them with a large piece of plastic. I was amazed that walking on the plastic (flat-footed) was remarkabley sound. I carried around a bucket of sand for awhile after that, using it wherever possible. The technique seemed best suited for dips in the middle of the floor. However, because it was impractical for applications requiring feathering, the sand bucket became just another thing to take up space and I quit using it.


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## lawndart

PrecisionFloors said:


> No shots fired from this direction.....
> I have used this method for floating floors as well, and it does indeed, work very well. Used white "play" sand.


I use sand here on floating floors also, and thought I was the only one to think of it lol.


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## Mike Costello

I use sand often. Just keep the customers cat out of it. Yes that really happened


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## lawndart

Bud Cline said:


> If you enjoy the sound of the floor crunching every time you take a step then yes go ahead.


I had a customer call me last year, because her floor was making a crunching sound every time she took a step. Long story short, her friend ripped up her old floor, and installed 3/4 plywood over the mastik that was still on the concrete subfloor from the previous floor. Felt bad for the poor lady, she had to replace everything.


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## boman47k

Sand? Thats interesting. It never gets worked out under the underlayment?


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## Floordude

boman47k said:


> Sand? Thats interesting. It never gets worked out under the underlayment?



Nope.

It has self leveling properties. Any vibrations makes it sink to the lowest spot.


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## Deadhead Derek

DIA-jp said:


> I failed to mention that this is an edge glue floating floor and will have a Silent Treatment flooring underlayment installed.
> My point in asking the question is: 1) By using felt I will not have to use as much compound. 2)I hope that the felt will prevent the compound from disappearing down the various cracks and gaps so I don't have to caulk every gap, etc. 3) Will the Leveling compound set up and still do its job if I first place some felt under it?


I haven't read all of the answers in the thread, but I did just go to a job where the HO stapled felt down and covered it with leveler. even though stapled, the felt buckled under the leveler over the night-time curing process and the first thing I did in the am was tear it all out. I would caulk the cracks in the subfloor with anything and spread leveler b4 felt. just my take on it.


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## WarriorWithWood

dokuhaku said:


> ... The first time I used it under protest. .....


This was one of the reasons I was apprehensive bringing it up. I'm glad I'm not the only one on here that has tried it.:clap:


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## Teresa12345

I am installing a laminate with a pre-attached pad on a plywood subfloor. The house shifted and there is one floor joist that is a bit higher than the others. It caused a dip in the subfloor, it levels out near the wall, so the dip is say 4 feet wide or so. I was going to use roofing felt to even it out and then brad nail down Luan over this. I was very intrigued by the comments on using sand. 

Would you use the sand directly on the plywood and then use the luan underlayment?

Learning these "new" techniques can really help someone adjust their approach to meet customer budgets.


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