We replaced carpet on our living room with laminate flooring. Our living room is continuous with the dining room which has laminate flooring. The laminate flooring stayed, and we wanted to extend the laminate flooring to about 2 feet into the dining hall.

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Living room floor dining room floor


In the picture , the left side is the living room with the carpet removed and the right side is the dining room with the existing laminate flooring. As you can see, there is a little bit of a height difference. The plus sign indicates the point to which we want to extend the laminate flooring, there by making the living room a bit longer in width.

As you can see, there is a height difference between the base flooring on the left and the vinyl flooring on the right. To cover this, we graded the living room floor adjacent to the dining hall with a couple layers of foam, but only on the dining hall. There were No problems on the right side ( dining room side) as the laminate was directly on the hard vinyl surfce.But on the living room side, this proved to be a mistake since there is 'give' in the floor now, and I can see that when we step on the flooring just by the boundary between the living room and dining room ( marked by a " . " ), there is a little bit of a 'give', and the joints on a couple of the planks are breaking.

So my question is how do I correct this? Is there a thin sheet material that can be used underneath the laminate to prevent this give? I was thinking of roof shingles to just insert on top of the existing foam but just beneath the laminate flooring. Would shingles be a good idea or is there any other material similar to this? The thickness of the material should be only just about the thickness of the shingles...

Your pictures aren't showing.
I'm not envisioning how adding to thickness is going to help further out on the floor, where it will drop off again?
Usually people put a transition strip (available at lumber yards) along the edge. It's cut to be over floor that is higher on one side.
If you want the transition to be in a small area like a doorway, sure use shingles or whatever you want to raise the height.

Your pictures aren't showing.
I'm not envisioning how adding to thickness is going to help further out on the floor, where it will drop off again?
Usually people put a transition strip (available at lumber yards) along the edge. It's cut to be over floor that is higher on one side.
If you want the transition to be in a small area like a doorway, sure use shingles or whatever you want to raise the height.



Thanks for the update. Are you talking molding which is pretty much finishing up the edge? That is after I laid the laminate though. The picture is just a stick figure - not a real jpeg. See below:

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Living room floor dining room floor

The living room floor is a bit lower than the dining room floor. That is the problem I am trying to resolve - this is before I lay the laminate if that makes sense. THe objective is to make sure that the difference in the heights between the base layers are somehow graded gradually. Can you reread the original post to see if that make sense?

OK - so both areas are only 2' x something wide, like 12- 15'?
That's how the proportions look in your drawing.
I don't see how a roof shingle can do anything but move the height difference further out.
What about more of the foam underlayment, which I assume is the stuff that is sold to go under laminate flooring? You could cut it in 2 staggered layers so that it adds to the height?
The molding I'm talking about (that I call transition) is sold in flooring departments, but isn't suitable across a wide expanse of open floor, only in a doorway where people might expect it and not trip. Plus it would look funny.

Standard roof shingles contain asphalt and are not suitable for use inside your home. Sounds like you made the floor too pliable with the extra foam, and it is flexing and breaking. You need to transition your subflooring, maybe with a cement based material. Read the manufacturer's instructions for the laminate material and only place it on top of recommended materials.

Standard roof shingles contain asphalt and are not suitable for use inside your home. Sounds like you made the floor too pliable with the extra foam, and it is flexing and breaking. You need to transition your subflooring, maybe with a cement based material. Read the manufacturer's instructions for the laminate material and only place it on top of recommended materials.

Thanks for the update - yup, most likely not shingles then. Just will use a few thin sheets of plywood in a staggered way to get to the right width

Depending on where you live, you may be able to buy door skins, very thin veneer, and use them for shims. No shingles. Floor underlay is only 1/8-3/16