Cut new floor joists 24 inches longer than your measurement. Repeat for each joist. Measure the height from the living room subfloor to the bottom of the adjacent room subfloor. Add additional post supports if your new joists are not resting on the old floor or joists of the sunken living room. Sunken living rooms were a popular feature in homes of earlier decades. If the … This is often easier to accomplish than you might think, because the ceiling is usually at the same level as the ceiling in the other rooms. The first step is to declutter. If the living room is a single step down this will be approximately 7 inches. Position plywood subfloor sheathing perpendicular to the joists. Remove the material over the adjacent subfloor so that at least 6 inches of the subfloor is exposed around the perimeter of the room. For deeper floors the measurement will be more. The renovation of sunken living-room is more popular than ever, especially for those in open houses area who are looking for a creative and innovative concept to divide a room or area to make space and useful room in the house. Remove everything from furniture to carpeting and any other … In many cases, you can remove your sunken living room subfloor and match the construction pattern of the adjacent floor. Measure between your joists and cut 2-by-6-inch or 2-by-8-inch blocks. During construction, the builder alters the foundation to form a recessed shape in the concrete slab to serve as the basis for the sunken … Sister your new joist to an existing joist in an adjacent floor. Drill four lag holes evenly spaced in a square pattern. Simple sunken corner living room design with floor seating. Nail the blocks between the joists using a nail gun to nail though the joists and into the ends of the blocks. Mallory has been published since 1996, writing books, short stories, articles and essays. Correcting a sunken floor can make rooms flow together better and look larger and more updated. Clean the subfloor using a broom, dustpan and vacuum cleaner. Nail every 12 inches on center using subfloor fasteners, and stagger your joints. Measure the distance between floor joists. By creating an account you agree to the Hunker. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley with bachelor's degrees in psychology and English. Sistering means placing the new board against the old board and drilling through both to join them. The Trend of Sunken Living Rooms home-designing.com. In 2011, this design is not common, and people who have older homes with uneven floor heights often choose to raise the floor height to match the surrounding rooms. A sunken living room can create trip hazards. Your sheathing may be tongue and groove, and you may need to insulate and add a vapor barrier depending on the construction of your existing home. New flooring tying the adjacent floors together is installed over the luan. F.R.R. Slide your lag bolts through the holes, and bolt them securely to the older beams. Stepping down into a sunken room makes the space feel farther away from the rest of the house, but the steps leading to the sunken space need to be constructed so anyone using them can walk safely into the room. Block every 4 feet and stagger your blocks. Observe the construction used for the adjacent floors. Remove any carpet and padding. Her fiction short story "Black Ice" recently won a National Space Society contest. Remove any vertical material such as drywall, paneling or risers between the sunken room and the adjacent floor. If your sunken living room was done just for aesthetics, then maybe it’s time to change it. Hunker may earn compensation through affiliate links in this story. Overlap the ends 12 inches onto the old joists. If it was done because, perhaps, your house is situated on a slope and your house steps down with the grade, then at least put a contrasting floor material at the step, so people don’t go flying. Requiring a recession in the floor, sunken living rooms and conversation pits (a lowered section of a room, with seating) are best-suited to homes with concrete slab or crawl space foundations. She has worked as an architect, restored cars, designed clothing, renovated homes and makes crafts. Because the recessed area of the floor would reduce headroom in a basement, rendering it useless for general living purposes, sunken spaces are rarely found in homes with basements. Often a subfloor will be covered with a glued thin luan plywood to create a smooth surface. Use a pry bar, hammer, screwdriver and pliers to remove baseboards, tack strips and any fasteners left over in the living room subfloor. This is installed over and perpendicular to the subfloor. Empty the living room. You typically want to tie your new floor to the adjacent floor with bolts so that the floors move as one floor, rather than two. Measure the height from the living room subfloor to the bottom of the adjacent room subfloor. Even if the sunken room is only a step or two below the level of the rest of the house, you will need need to install a handrail. Your new subfloor should match the height of the adjacent subfloor exactly. Declutter. Usually you can build up the existing framing, or you can rest on and tie into the existing framing and provide adequate support.