Shiftin' sands and unlevel houses -

The sand this house sits on shifts continuously. We notice the changes in the way the doors close or don't! We really noticed it in our master bedroom AFTER we put the laminate flooring in. Carpet had hidden a lot of things about this house.

The floor was shaped like an upside down large shallow bowl or a top. The middle raised and lower all around the edges. It is very hard for furniture to sit flat with a floor like that, to say nothing of trying to walk, especially half asleep!!

 

 Since we had put plywood underpayment down, then the laminate and made it fit fairly close, we figured we would have to cut all around the edges, next to the baseboard so it would not buckle when we flattened the floor out. We had no idea how much it would expand but wanted to take no chances.

We thought it would be simply to take a couple of shims out to lower the center. NOT!!! It has a 4X4 sitting tightly on top of a pier ANCHORED in concrete!

DH made a stiff back from two six foot 2X6's and set in under the floor joists, using concrete blocks, bricks and cut the 4X4 and removed it off the pier, allowing the floor to settle.  

There was not a lot of room to get the stiff back under the house so DH had to assemble it after he got the lumber down the access hole.
 















I wish I could have helped him under the house but I am very claustrophobic and there is only 14 inches of clearance under at that end of the house.  It came down noticeably but can still come down just under a half inch more to set on the stiff back. I am sure it will settle in time.

But for now it is SO much better! The bed frame actually sits on the floor at all four corners evenly. Yea!