ᐅ The new flooring will be installed 7 cm higher than the existing level.

Hello dear forum community,

I am about to start renovating a kitchen. The goal is to level a height difference of 7 cm (2.75 inches) between the kitchen and the living room.

The kitchen floor, which is lower, is currently tiled and will be covered with click vinyl. The problem is that this still leaves about 4.5 cm (1.75 inches) to reach the level of the living room floor. Also, these are textured tiles. So there are not only "unevenness" caused by the grout lines but also due to the tiles themselves. However, the tiles were professionally installed — the unevenness is limited to a maximum of 2 mm (0.08 inches) and there are no height differences between the tiles, resulting in an overall level surface.

I have seen that there are various dry screed installation systems available. These are supposed to be laid on dry screed underlayment if the surface underneath is not perfectly flat. Is this necessary for such small (and uniform) unevenness?

Another suggestion was to put extruded polystyrene boards (or similar) under the dry screed panels. That idea already sounds problematic to me...

What are your thoughts? I want to avoid breaking up the tiles. I want to raise the floor, not lower it. Also, I am sure that removing the tiles would not make the screed beneath any smoother than the current tiles.

Thank you very much and best regards,
Daniel

Hm – has no one ever had this problem? Any suggestions on the best way to level a 4-5cm (1.5-2 inches) height difference in the floor?

I can’t help you directly, but I’ll try to assist indirectly: Visit a building materials supplier (not a hardware store) and ask for advice there. They usually have knowledgeable staff who might be able to assist you. The materials are often available there at relatively low prices.