This week we started renovating our laundry and have just ripped out the old hideous floor tiles and moved the entry door from one wall to another. Our house has original floorboards throughout (Cypress pine I think) and there's now going to be a 30mm step down from laundry to the hallway once its tiled. The tiler has recommended doing a timber transition strip/ramp on the door threshold but I'm worried this is going to look cheap and nasty. I'm paying for painted 2pack cabinets, nice tiles and other fittings so don't want the whole look to be cheapened by this. Unless I'm missing something, the only other options I think are to have the concrete slab jackhammered out (rough estimate of 2-3k total, maybe more, including likely work on the joists) or to solve the issue of slightly uneven floors around the house by laying new floors on top in the future (probably 20-30k or more for ~100sqm). If we had the slab jackhammered out then it will blow out the timeline as the cabinetmaker/project manager essentially scheduled all the trades back to back. I'm also not sure if it's worth it as I've already upgraded a few things and feel like I need to draw the line somewhere (but obviously without doing a shoddy looking job). Touching the concrete slab and particularly the joists if needed also makes me a bit nervous. What do you all think?
Having a small ramp under the door is a fairly common solution when the slab isn't recessed in wet areas and the floor ends up higher than the rest. I'd tile it instead of using timber though.
The laundry floor will be tiled. The transition strip will be timber in a similar finish to our floorboards and will start right after the door so when the sliding door is closed, you can't see the tiles. We were planning to refinish them soon anyway so it would be an exact match then. Just worried it will stick out like a sore thumb and be really noticeable. I'm trying to find photos to be able to visualise it better but I can only find ones with those old fashioned shiny metal transition strips.
We had it in our old house, i think i posted photos in one of the similar threads here. We had it tiled to match the bathroom tiles though, not the other part of the floor (although in some cases it was the same tile outside as well). You don't really notice it then cause your other floor goes in straight line
How much was the drop down in your house? Did anyone else notice it? I feel like 30mm (once tiled) is a bit.
i don't recall, could've been 20mm here's one where it drops to the carpet as far as other people noticing... when we sold the house we haven't heard any feedback like "what is this ugly thing".
Thanks for your help. Finding it a bit hard to come to a decision. I think your example is a bit better as it’s tucked away in a bedroom and not in the centre of the house off the main hallway. I’ll need to decide by tomorrow
If it is a laundry off a living room I would put the ramp on the laundry side as @strannik has suggested. The laundry door (theoretically) would normally be closed and the ramp hidden so the visuals would be less than having it on the living room side and permanently on display.
We had one in a hallway too, but i can't find a photo and it's a bad example cause the same tile was on both sides. In my opinion, if you want to conceal it, it's important to keep the straight line along the wall. If you do the ramp from the same material as inside the bathroom it blends in with the rest of it, but if you do it out of the material that's on outside you will have the effect of the outside floor flowing into the bathroom. If you have samples of each material maybe put it down in the doorway and see which one looks better?
Yes so that's what they suggested - the laundry is behind the kitchen and visible from the front door when you enter. Having the ramp in timber to match the floorboards in the hallway so when the door is closed, it looks like a continuation of the same floor. If it's in the same tile then a slight lip will be visible with the door closed.
I was just speaking to my dad and he seems to think it should be possible to jackhammer a "layer" of the slab to reduce the height/thickness without getting rid of it completely (assuming it's of standard thickness around 4 inches). I think I'll ask about this tomorrow as an additional option - I did suggest it today but didn't get a straight answer
Why is it a bad idea? I don’t know much about this which is why I’m asking the question. If it was grinded down by 15-20mm instead, would that also be a bad idea? What would I do after I rip it out? The slab is in the wet rooms only, is 100mm thick and has some kind of metal sheeting underneath.
In our own house, plus every old house we've ever had as an IP, we've had a step up into the bathrooms. That's just the way it goes with a Queenslander and timber floors. Of course, when we renovated, we had the option of trimming down the joists to allow the tiles to be at the same level as the main floor. I can't remember if we did this or not. I don't think we did. We've never had anyone trip as they enter our bathroom at home. Perhaps because most of our friends also live in older houses and are used to a step up into a bathroom?
Thanks, that’s good to know. I guess my concern is more around the appearance. The laundry door is visible from the entrance - straight ahead when you enter is the doorway to the kitchen and the new laundry door is right behind it. The tiles will be white against the timber floorboards. If it was the bathroom which is tucked away at the back of the house I’d feel much more comfortable with it. Being able to change the old tiles was one of my main motivations for the reno so the “ramp” takes the shine off a bit if that’s the only real option I have.
The slab is likely to already be of low quality and attempting to alter the thickness will only damage the integrity of whatever remains.Best to remove the slab and replace with joists at the right height. Consider also that if you ramp it up you will have a 40mm gap under the door when viewed from the outside. Tools
