New kitchen flooring on uneven old floor

[ARR]

Hi,
I have a currently empty room that I am turning into a kitchen. I am trying to decide on the flooring. The floor is relatively flat and level, except for 2-3ft on the one end of the room that slopes up about 1 1/2 inches.
There was previously sheet vinyl, which I removed to reveal old 9x9 (probably asbestos) tile over 1/4" underlay.
The pictures show my 4ft straight edge laying over the transition from the level floor to the ramped edge.
Pics:

Raising the level part of the floor up is probably not reasonable as it would then create an undesired step at the other entry. I am wondering though what I would need to do to allow lvp/lvt or tile to work on this floor, or if I should just go with a nice quality sheet vinyl. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[highup]

There are self-leveling flooring compounds that might.... And I say might, feel the majority of the void that I see under that straight edge / level.
Self levelers will not level a slope. They will only level flat and do a very good job.
You need to use your level and map out the highest points and the lowest points sort of like a topographical map. You would have to do that with the level actually being level, not simply lettering from a high spot to a lower spot.
It might be possible to put a self-leveling compound into the majority of that dip and once done, favorite out as needed to make the floor flat.
It's hard to tell from photos exactly what you are dealing with.

 

[C.J.]

Obviously an older house. The joists have sagged over time. Best case scenario, but also involves the most work, would be to correct the sagging joists. You could use jack posts and a support beam from below and slowly raise things back to where they should be. After that you could sister the joists for more strength or just leave the jack posts in place. That’s a lot of work and whatever is going on below may make than not a viable option.

Secondly you could fill the dip with floor patch and feather out the difference, but since the joists likely have more bounce in them than current standards, that may or may not be a long term solution.

Thirdly would be to fill the dip with a combination of layers of 1/4” ply and layers of roofing felt. Lay down the plywood in topographical layers and feather the edges smooth with a sander. Any minor differences can be filled in with layers of roofing felt. This option will allow the floor to flex and bounce without worrying about is the patch gonna crack and break up.

Lastly is to just lay over what you currently have. Loose lay sheet vinyl will go right over what you have and won’t raise your floor height any more than the thickness of the vinyl. If you want to go with a floating floor it will have to have decent drape characteristics so that it will eventually contour and conform to the slope of the floor. Ridgid core/ SPC wouldn’t be a good choice for your situation. Even with a flexible product you may feel some bounce (trampolining), initially or permanently, but that’s what many people opt for especially if they are DIY and don’t want to deal with any of the other options.

Aren’t older houses fun to work on. I had a similar situation in one of my houses and after ripping up everything down to the joists and deciding I didn’t want to put that much work into it, I just laid over what I had with a floating floor. The floor eventually contoured and that was the end of the story until I finally put marmo in that room right before we sold the house.

 

[ARR]

Thanks for the feedback and ideas. Just to be clear the floor is pretty much like the below pic. I really don't want to feather out the slope more into the level region since I'm placing base cabinets that will all fall within the flat and level area. Trying to rip up the floorboards and flatten it is pretty much out of the question too. So I think I'm pretty much stuck with some type of flooring that will conform to this, and looking kind it'll have to be sheet vinyl unless there's some other magical flooring I don't know about that will work. I'm also not completely against putting down some thin luan over the existing tiles. I've seen some pretty thick sheet vinyl now that might be fine to just lay right over what I have?

 

[C.J.]

Sheet vinyl will contour to what you have and will raise your floor minimally even if you decide to install a layer of 1/4” ply.

 

[Mark Brown]

Sheet vinyl is gorgeous. There are some absolutely stunning patterns the choose from that look unique and are only obtainable through printed means. That being said, the stuff just gets a bad rap because there was so much garbage installed that is hideous back in the way back when. Then there is the benefit of it being a solid membrane that is waterproof, it does not scratch in the same way that hard vinyl planks do and a lot of it is warm underfoot and soft.

I wish that plank would just go away and sheet would come back but I do not see that happening any time soon.

 

[C.J.]

I threw inexpensive loose lay sheet vinyl in my bathroom. Works perfect.

One day floating plank flooring may fade away but it sure is hot right now. Just had two fat jobs back to back where I laid LVP over the existing tile because the customers didn’t want to deal with the dust that would have come with removal and they sure don’t want to pay for dustless removal. Asbestos is another situation people just don’t want to deal with for whatever reason. LVP to the rescue.