matching up 1/2" hardwood floor to 1" tall tile

cmlcsu · 10-20-2009, 05:04 PM

Just installed new tile in kitchen. Now getting ready to put hardwood flooring in family room, but my tile is about 1" above the 1" thick sublfoor and my hardwood is only 1/2" thick. I want the tile and the hardwood to appear to be at the same height. I was thinking of laying 1/2" plywood on top of the sub floor to match heights, but I don't want to lay 500 SF of plywood just to match up 12 feet of transition. I saw this article (
http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/hardwoodinstaller/wood-subfloor-prep.htm) about shimming the hardwood with tar paper to get even transitions. Does this work? How far out do you need to lay the tar paper? Are there any step by step instructions on the internet on how to do this? Any other ideas?

Thanks for any info
Chris

jaros bros. · 10-20-2009, 07:19 PM

Shimming with tar paper is only for small dips in the floor. You would have to lay out the plywood as you had thought. Transition strips, both factory made and fabricated on site deal with this kind of an issue. You should allow a gap between the tile and the wood floor to allow the wood floor movement. A transition strip will help deal with this as well.

derf36 · 10-20-2009, 07:47 PM

In my opinion 1/2" is too much to deal with the tar paper shimming or even a threshold. My vote would be to spend the money and time by adding the 500 sf of subfloor.

Nothing better than a flat transition to make it look like a real pro job. Bad pic I know but you get the idea.

Cheers, Rod

cmlcsu · 10-20-2009, 09:56 PM

what is the limit for height change for the tar paper?