I have replaced the door between the garage and kitchen with a steel insulated pre-hung door. Never expected the floor to be out of plum by .75 of an inch! Was able to level by ripping some LARGE shims and placing under metal threshold. Now the problem is coming up with some sort of transision piece on the kitchen side. Was able to use trim on the garage side cause it steps down. I am also planning on installing a floating floor when I get this problem figured out.

Help!!

 

Yes, that's quite a bit out of level for a doorway! Just for future reference, plumb refers to something that is perfectly vertical. Level refers to perfectly horizontal. If your doorway is out of level, I'm assuming that the whole rest of the kitchen floor must also be out of level?

Without seeing the complete project, it's hard to give advice. For instance, perhaps there's a reason why the doorway was so far out of whack. Maybe one corner of the house is sinking due to a poorly constructed foundation. Porches are notorious for sinking like that. Sometimes people will enclose a porch, making it seem like part of the house when actually the porch is not on a solid foundation. What I'm getting at is that perhaps the wall/floor/house could have been jacked up to correct some of that.

I'm guessing that you would like your new floor to be level and you don't want a tapered trim piece where the level door meets a crooked floor, right? So your question might actually be, how do you go about levelling your floor, right? If that's the case, you might describe the kitchen a little bit. Are you replacing cabinets or tearing out / replacing subfloor? Is any part of the kitchen floor level? Is the low spot near one corner of the room? Stuff like that.

 

What sleeper said. If your floor is out that far, there may be something else that needs looking into, is the house VERY old. If not, I would see if i could find out why things are so wrong. But there have been jobs(OLD houses) where I had to make a trim piece to fit a nasty opening as you describe.

 

No the house is not that old. Built in the mid 70's. I'm pretty sure the floor was installed this way cause you could tell when the trim from the garage side was taken off that it was not level. The trim not level. Never noticed till I took it off. The sides and top are level and plumb. Not planning on new cabnets OR leveling the floor. Maybe when I get the kitchen I really want down the road!! This area seems to be the only area out of wack. Right now I just want to fix till I get my dream kitchen. So I guess I need to come up with a customized piece of trim?? That ought to be fun. Any suggestions where to start?

Thanks!

 

Oak usually works the best as a threshold trim. The below examples assume that a 3/8" x 3/8" rabbet will be needed on the bottom leading edge of the trim (which would need to be about 1/4" wider than your casing is thick) to cover the edge of a new floating floor that is 3/8" thick.

As you decide how to trim the threshold of the door, you can think about these options, assuming that you need a minimum of a 3/4" trim on the highest side of the door:

Either your trim can be tapered (for instance, 3/4" on one end, 1 1/2" on the other end) which will look straight with the door threshold and 3/4" crooked with the floor...

Or, you can choose a piece of trim that has a consistant thickness (just barely thick enough to cover your shim and the bottom edge of the door on that side) and it will look 3/4" crooked when compared to the door.

You could also split the difference, and make a tapered piece of trim that would divide the 3/4" crookedness between the door and floor. For instance rather than having it look 3/4" out of level, if you make it look 3/8" out of level with the top of the door threshold, then you will only have 3/8" taper on the edge that meets the floor.

With something like this, you might want to make and install this trim piece first before the door is trimmed (it will fit between the baseboard on each side of the door) and then have the side casing sit on top of this trim piece. It often looks best if a trim piece such as this is rounded or dogeared back on the ends where it meets the baseboard. And the front edge should be rounded or slightly bevelled to help prevent wear and tear and tripping.

If you choose to install the casing on the door first, and the casing will meet up with the new floor, then the trim piece would best be made of oak that is a little thinner than the inside edge of the casing. (usually about 1/4" with F113 ranch casing) The new floor would terminate in front of this trim and a base shoe (or similar) would need to cover the transition.

If you have a table saw, making such a piece will be a breeze. You might practice first on some cheap pine, and make your test fits with that. Once you like how it fits, then make your real one out of oak.

 

Thanks Sleeper. Will give these ideas a try. I guess this is why the trim on one side was .75 inches longer than the other side and why a prehung door was not originally installed. Never know what to expect when you take on a project that seems easy! If it can go wrong it will!!

 

Hey, look on the bright side- things could be worse! At least when you open the door it doesn't drag on the floor as it opens! And you probably have enough room for a nice throw rug in front of the door!

 

3/4" out in about THREE FEET??

You would NOTICE THAT!!

If you always thought that the floor was fairly level, I would CHECK MY LEVEL!

Try again. This time, put a piece of tape one one end of the level that you were using. Check it with the taped end at the left. Now, reverse the level and check it with the taped end at the right. If your level is accurate, it will read the same way both ways. If the level is messed up, one way it will tell you that the left side is high, and the other way it will tell you that the right side is high.