Major carpet ramp up

[highup]

Fishing for ideas.
Large porcelain tiles were installed in the entryway/dining room area and to make it flat, the tile edge got raised up really high. About 1and 5/16 inches. The carpet is nothing special and average in height for a cut pile. It's not dense by any means.

I'm figuring to make the carpet the "correct" height, I'd need to build up the floor by the tile a full 7/8 inches How far out would you feather out the filler? ...............6 feet? Even in a room that's 11 feet wide, you'd be walking noticeably down hill to the couch, and fall on your face when you walked from the couch towards the tile.
It's on a concrete slab.
If this was a wood floor, you could add 3/4 inch particle board to the carpet area to make the entire floor taller.
To add another dimension to it all, there is a narrow strip of this same tile on the right side of the room........... but it was laid flat on the concrete, and the tile is just 4 feet away from the tile that was raised up. That tile edge is just 3/8" tall.

Here's a couple of sketches to make it easier to digest. The room is not very wide. Less than 11 feet, possibly closer to 10 feet by 15.
How many ways are there to attack a situation like this?

I'm supposed to fix this installation and make it all better. The previous installer glued and nailed the tackstrip 5/8 of an inch away from this tile. He then glued and nailed a second layer of tackstrip on top of the first one.
I have a gut feeling that the carpet is has more staples in it that the trip has tacks.
Goofy as the results look, the height of those two layers of strip isn't slightly close enough to do what the installer was intending to do. I think the slab needs a very minimum of 3/4 buildup at the tile, to nail the strip onto............ or 5/8" and then add a shim under the strip.

Can this be done "correctly" ? I could make it work, but the carpet will be floating in the air when I do the stretching.

 

[Kyure]

Major bugger there high. Not many options especially in the 4' wide hall section.
What is the main concern of the customer? is it pulling loose at the high floor or bubbles or just the falling down thing?

 

[DarisMulkin]

Well they like to think a 3 ft for every 1/8". One way of doing it is to stairstep it with vct and then fill the steps. But I would grind the tile edges a little so the stepping doesn't show.
The plywood buildup would be better and then do the ramping. The carpet will conform to the ramping. But I'm sure you already know all this as the job probably has been done already. Right?

Daris

 

[Kyure]

Maybe I'm wrong, I think the problem was he only has 10' to work with?

 

[Floorist]

I have no idea.

 

[highup]

I have no idea.

.........and I want to keep it under $1000. 'cmon, think up sumpthin' so I can look good.

 

[highup]

Well they like to think a 3 ft for every 1/8". One way of doing it is to stairstep it with vct and then fill the steps. But I would grind the tile edges a little so the stepping doesn't show.
The plywood buildup would be better and then do the ramping. The carpet will conform to the ramping. But I'm sure you already know all this as the job probably has been done already. Right?

Daris

So 10 feet gets me about 1/3 of the way to where I want to get to. I'll tell them they need to add a 20 foot addition to the room. Beveling the tile could help about 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch I suppose. That's not a bad idea.
No, I'm putting this job off out of frustration.

Maybe I'm wrong, I think the problem was he only has 10' to work with?

Yup............ and remember the tile on the right side of the sketch is layed directly on the slab, so it's only a 3/8 to 5/16 tall. That side was tucked in fairly nice, and looks to be about the correct height.To make the tall side look the same, I need to raise the floor a good 7/8 of an inch........... that's just not possible without making the floor dangerously steep.

I suppose 1/2 inch cement board could be installed over the entire floor, then make the odd transition over at the narrow strip of tile to the right.............. That side is just one tile wide, and goes the entire length of that wall........... there's a gas fireplace on that side.

The 4 foot area you think is the entrance to a hallway, is really just a wall, so no real issue.

 

[DarisMulkin]

Cover the entire floor with 3/4 ply like you said and on the 3/8 side wrap the edge of the ply with the carpet.
Or have them tear out the tile on the side and put it back to match the front.

Daris

 

[rugaddict]

i agree with daris and the vct pyramid---the only tweak is i use a 1/8 to zero reducer on the edge of the vct to ease the ramp---this gives the installer control over the distance out---and the height up---of course you can then ardex over the whole schmeer--drying time reduced and you use much less patch

 

[highup]

Cover the entire floor with 3/4 ply like you said and on the 3/8 side wrap the edge of the ply with the carpet.
Or have them tear out the tile on the side and put it back to match the front.

Daris

Great minds think alike. It would be better to have a drop-off over on that side than a trip hazard on the main walking area.

i agree with daris and the vct pyramid---the only tweak is i use a 1/8 to zero reducer on the edge of the vct to ease the ramp---this gives the installer control over the distance out---and the height up---of course you can then ardex over the whole schmeer--drying time reduced and you use much less patch

The VCT would be 7 layers deep at the starting point. I have used tile before, because it does make a consistent and predictable ramp.

 

[Ken]

maybe I missed something. Its been a long day and there are a lot of words here but would it be easier to pop those six front tiles out and just reinstall them at the proper height?

 

[highup]

"Pop" out the tiles?
I don't know if they have that many spare tile. It's just a drawing. I don't recall how many there are, or if they are all custom cut to fit the wall and the fireplace insert. It would be easier and a lot cheaper to let the carpet remain higher than the tile.
I'll just have to pull out some of the double decker tackstrip, add a test strip of plywood, then see how low I can keep the ramping to make this tolerable. Maybe I can get away with 5/8" instead of the ideal 7/8" height.
I didn't draw it in, but in the lower right corner, there's a doorway into a small office like area............. walking into that room the doorway is half tile and half carpet. Weird to say the least.

 

[Kyure]

Punt!

 

[Floorist]

Run, Forest, run.

 

[highup]

.............but they hire me to do miracles! I'm the diplomat when things go awry.
.........................anyone have a spare bag (a 90# bag) of fairy dust and a magic wand that I can borrow?

 

[Kyure]

Well 90lbs of fairy dust is what u need to tell them it would take.
Play diplomat explain what you can and can't do, do your best and go home and sleep well.

 

[highup]

Well 90lbs of fairy dust is what u need to tell them it would take.
Play diplomat explain what you can and can't do, do your best and go home and sleep well.

I might find that the carpet edge is heavily stapled to the tackstrip, meaning a possible carpet replacement. I'd like to be able to get this job done without that. If the carpet has to be replaced, maybe that would allow time for the carpet store and homeowner to make some decisions with my input.

 

[highup]

Here's the current profile of the situation. This isn't what most guys think of when you say "I doubled the strip"
The carpet lazily humps up over the two layers of tackstrip as visually crappy as the sketch you're looking at. It's not stretched tight at all, so I'm betting a staple per inch.......... for 15 feet on this one side alone just to keep the carpet in the gully.
Not much creativity is there?

 

[Kyure]

.............but they hire me to do miracles! I'm the diplomat when things go awry.
.........................anyone have a spare bag (a 90# bag) of fairy dust and a magic wand that I can borrow?

That's why my 1st question was what their main concern is, you can only do so much with that situation.
Build a handicap ramp, butt the strip as close as you can to tile, tuck long if you can even stretch back up past the existing staple tears. Sounds like you can if it's loose.
Let us know how you made out today.

 

[highup]

Heading over there tomorrow. If I do a job for the shop, they pay on Mondays. So I did a seam snipping repair job on a berber carpet today ..............because customers pay upon completion. I kinda like that.
I'll give a report tomorrow about how the ideas for the ramp job plays out after I pull back the carpet. I don't think I'm gonna begin to ramp it tomorrow, but just figure out how I will go about it. I want the least height I can get away with. The more I plan, the less disruption to the customer.
The job is just four or so miles away.