What can I do about flooring height differences when installing laminate flooring?

Question

We are going to be having laminate flooring installed in our kitchen, dining room, living room and down the hallway. We removed a built-in bookcase, and most of the carpet, but we noticed that there is quite a difference in height from the dining area, to the living room area and down the hall, as the dining room has two layers of plywood and a subfloor, where the living room/hallway has only the subfloor plywood. What will they do to make this match, as the flooring will be the same in all areas?

Answer 1

There are two ways to install flooring in areas of different heights. The cheapest and easiest method is to install transition pieces or thresholds between the areas of different heights. These transitions are available in different matching shapes and heights for most laminates. Common use is to join carpeted, tiled or other floors, to new flooring height.

The second method is to install new subflooring of a correct thickness over lower floors to make all the floors match in height. This is a bit more expensive and will add a day or so to your labor costs, and possibility require some extra trim work. Having all the floors at the same level will make for a nicer looking install, especially between larger rooms with wider passages.