That week I framed a bay window with a 3 degree slope in the floor

Spent last Tuesday through Friday fighting a 100 year old house where the subfloor dropped 3 degrees across the bay. Has anyone else had to shim every single stud and still ended up tweaking the header? How do you handle unlevel floors on a new frame?

2 comments

2 Comments

beth_mitchell14d ago

Wait, you ended up tweaking the header anyway? That's exactly what happened to me on my last old house job, and I used to think shimming was the only way to go, but now I'm pretty convinced cutting the studs to match the floor is way less headache overall.

sagelane14d ago

Wait, do you mean the floor dropped 3 degrees or 3/8 of an inch? Degrees and inches get mixed up a lot in old house work. A 3 degree slope is actually pretty steep for a floor, like a 5/8 inch drop over a foot. I'd double check that measurement with a level, not a speed square. If it really is 3 degrees, you're probably better off cutting the bottoms of the studs instead of shimming every one, saves a lot of headache with the header.

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