I had a complete gut rehab of my bathroom with a conversion from bathtub to shower only. The contractor replaced the subfloor and most of the walls, and even a few of the studs. I just discovered that the floor in the bathroom that is now tiled ( not the shower area ) is flat but not level. Is there a minimum amount of levelness that is required when putting in a floor in a residence? I poured about 3 cups of water on the floor near the shower threshold and some water slowly flowed towards the wall where the vanity and toilet are as well as the electrical outlet. I don't think I'll shed this much water on the floor when I get out of the shower but still, it's concerning. What do I do? The job isn't finished, they need to caulk and finish grouting. I still owe 30% of the fee which is due on job completion. I wrote the contractor an email mentioning the problem but he hasn't responded. Is this serious enough to rip out the tile and level the floor? Should I insist? There's nothing mentioned in a contract ( I just have a listing of work to be done, no standards or anything) and I had no idea it was something I need to worry about, I just assumed a licensed contractor would make sure the floor was level. I have a worker coming back tomorrow but I don't want him finishing the floor (there are a few tiles he needs to replace) if there's a structural flaw. This is a condo in Chicago.
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Floor levelling minimums in a bathroom
- Thread starter Tinysteps
- Start date
Yikes
SAWHORSE
Hello and welcome! This is a building CODE forum, people tend to respond based on code minimums, not on best practices.
You did not say in what city of state your bathroom is located, so it's hard to say what the applicable code would be.
When a floor area is served by a floor drain, many model plumbing codes require the floor to slope towards the drain. But in your case, it sounds like the only drain is inside the shower, and the rest of the bathroom floor has no additional floor drain. So your main question seems to be, does any building code require the contractor to build the floor to be level?
To my knowledge, no.
Even in bathrooms that are required by code to be wheelchair accessible, the code allows the floors to slope up to 1" vertical in 48" horizontal.
If the lack of levelness is due to deflection (weight causing the floor joists to sag), the maximum structural deflection allowed by code = length of span/240, which is about 1/4" in 32" as measured parallel to joists.
It is not unusual for homes, especially older homes, so settle or have framing sag and become less than perfectly level. If you only contracted for subfloor and a thinset tile, chances are that the framing under the subfloor was already sloping to begin with. It would be very unusual for a tile contractor to have created that slope due to bad workmanship.
If you wanted to make sure it was dead level prior to tile installation, you would have needed to handle that via contract, not via code enforcement.
2 options:
1. You could have contracted to have a self-leveling compound installed on top of the subfloor, prior to tile installation.
2. You could have written into the contract that the contractor is responsible to provide a straight and level finished floor surface, then let them figure out how to do it.
The "Handbook of Construction Tolerances" by David Kent Ballast recommends that for both the framing and the mortar bed, maximum allowable tolerance is 1/4" vertical in 10' horizontal, both as a variation from an imaginary horizontal/level line and a variation from itself ("waviness").
Again, because that is not a code requirement, the only way you can enforce this is to specify it as part of the contract documents.
Several years ago I remodeled my own bathroom in a 75 year old home. I didn't consider putting in a self-leveling bed - - there were too many other things going on, and I was distracted. After laying the floor tile (Forbo linoleum tiles), I realized the floor had a ridge in the middle almost 1/2" higher than the ends of the room. After much deliberation, I scribed the wood baseboard so that the bottom follows the rise of the floor, and the top of the baseboard stays dead level. It worked out fine, and no one ever notices it, even when sitting on the can and staring at it for a long time. Had I tried to bend the baseboard to follow the floor, the top would have curved and it would have been obvious.
You did not say in what city of state your bathroom is located, so it's hard to say what the applicable code would be.
When a floor area is served by a floor drain, many model plumbing codes require the floor to slope towards the drain. But in your case, it sounds like the only drain is inside the shower, and the rest of the bathroom floor has no additional floor drain. So your main question seems to be, does any building code require the contractor to build the floor to be level?
To my knowledge, no.
Even in bathrooms that are required by code to be wheelchair accessible, the code allows the floors to slope up to 1" vertical in 48" horizontal.
If the lack of levelness is due to deflection (weight causing the floor joists to sag), the maximum structural deflection allowed by code = length of span/240, which is about 1/4" in 32" as measured parallel to joists.
It is not unusual for homes, especially older homes, so settle or have framing sag and become less than perfectly level. If you only contracted for subfloor and a thinset tile, chances are that the framing under the subfloor was already sloping to begin with. It would be very unusual for a tile contractor to have created that slope due to bad workmanship.
If you wanted to make sure it was dead level prior to tile installation, you would have needed to handle that via contract, not via code enforcement.
2 options:
1. You could have contracted to have a self-leveling compound installed on top of the subfloor, prior to tile installation.
2. You could have written into the contract that the contractor is responsible to provide a straight and level finished floor surface, then let them figure out how to do it.
The "Handbook of Construction Tolerances" by David Kent Ballast recommends that for both the framing and the mortar bed, maximum allowable tolerance is 1/4" vertical in 10' horizontal, both as a variation from an imaginary horizontal/level line and a variation from itself ("waviness").
Again, because that is not a code requirement, the only way you can enforce this is to specify it as part of the contract documents.
Several years ago I remodeled my own bathroom in a 75 year old home. I didn't consider putting in a self-leveling bed - - there were too many other things going on, and I was distracted. After laying the floor tile (Forbo linoleum tiles), I realized the floor had a ridge in the middle almost 1/2" higher than the ends of the room. After much deliberation, I scribed the wood baseboard so that the bottom follows the rise of the floor, and the top of the baseboard stays dead level. It worked out fine, and no one ever notices it, even when sitting on the can and staring at it for a long time. Had I tried to bend the baseboard to follow the floor, the top would have curved and it would have been obvious.
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A licensed contractor makes sure it passes code inspection, and they get paid by the customer. Beyond that they try to cut every corner possible.
Three cups and it moved slowly toward the other side? Sounds reasonable. Unless your written contract called out that the floor had to be dead level.