Hi, I have a problem with our second floor subflooring, and wanted some advice.

Our wood flooring that I wish to use on the second floor hallway is standard 3/4 inch tongue in groove. Our subflooring is 3/4 inch standard subflooring. if I put the wood flooring on top of the subflooring, the rise of the last step up to the 2nd floor will be 3/4 inch higher than the others. So I can't do this.

I don't want to remove the subflooring and put in 1/4 inch subflooring, since it's not thick enough for support, and it's just more work than I planned for this job.

I have no idea how to do this without raising the entire staircase 3/4 inch, which is truly insane, and would require ripping up the wood flooring at the base of the steps, on the first floor and raising this floor 3/4 inch as well.

My relatives say just add the 3/4 inch at the top an no one will notice. But our township will notice when it comes time to sell this house, because this is a relatively new house.

Is there a clever way to plane down the subflooring on the 2bnd floor to make the last rise much less noticeable, but still give the subflooring sufficient support? Since this is only the hallway, I am willing to consider such an option.

I appreciate your experienced suggestions.

Thank you

The stairs should have been built so all the rise was equal. Sounds as if that was not taken into consideration. Let's back up a minute. What floor covering was on your second floor hallway (where you want to install hardwood )? If it was carpet and pad, that will almost always equate to about 3/4" so by removing the carpet and pad and installing 3/4" hardwood, you have changed nothing in terms of the rise. What type of wood is on the stairs now? Is it flooring? If so, how thick? Is it solid treads? How thick? When was it installed? If 3/4" flooring was installed on the stairs after the carpet and pad were removed, the rise should still be nearly the same at the top of the stairs. This could be a case of the homebuilder building the stairs incorrectly, in which case you would have a claim against him. Bad idea to have a 3/4" discrepency at the top of the staircase. Against all codes and won't pass home inspection plus very unsafe. There is no other way to "plane" down the subfloor and make this work. If you can take pictures and post, it would be helpful. I need a shot of the entire staircase and a close up of the last step to the second floor.

I did a house with a staircase, back in October. The owner, is an engineer.

He was talking about the height differences of the steps after he removed the carpet. He had just bought the home brand new the week before I was to start. He sent me a e-mail with all the dimensions I needed to add to the steps, to make up for the builders blunder(that passed code inspection????????????????)

I had to add ½ on some steps, shimmed ¼ on others, straight ¼ on some and some thin veener on some to make it perfect for him.

The photos may not be necessary with further explanation. let me clarify.

The stairs and the second floor all have carpet and padding, all equalling 3/4 inch additional height on the stairs and the second floor. If it were all removed, which is what I want to do, the stairs now have 3/4 inch less, and so does the second floor. But all risers are exactly equal with carpeting. Removing carpeting on all stairs and second floor reveals the fact that all risers and the second floor are still the exact same height.

So, removing all carpets, and adding 3/4 inch tongue in groove to the second floor creates the problem, you see.

Under the carpet on the second floor is standard 3/4 inch subflooring, looks like one solid piece. Under the carpet on the stairs are standard 1 inch solid wood treads. All risers are the exact same height. The subflooring meets the last riser and tread exactly, and is the same height. So, the subflooring was not installed with any notion of adding wood flooring to the second floor at all.

Thank you

Carpet thickness you removed = ¾
Hardwood thickness = ¾

If the stairs are carpeted(I suppose your removing the carpet on them, too??) are you sure it isn't a 2x12 as a tread, which will need flooring on them also

The treads still have carpet on them, and I won't rip the carpet off until I understand how to solve this problem. So, the dimensions look like 12 '' X 46'' X 1.25 '' treads (thickness is somewhere between 1 inch and 1.25 inches. Hard to tell with carpet wrapped around them.

But this raises a good question. Do treads vary this much in thickness? Can I replace my 1'' treads with 1 3/4 '' treads? This would solve the problem, and would still look nice.

Thanks once again.