How to "level" a very small area of floor surrounded by floorboards

[ray.birch]

We are due to have the carpets replaced in our living room in a week or so. I'm taking the opportunity to sort out a small area by the fireplace which had always had a noticeable dip in the carpet. Turns out on lifting the existing carpet that the original fitters had ignored the difference in height between some old tiles and the floorboards, and just chucked a few more layers of cheap underlay in to fill the void.

I used a piece of scrap 6mm MDF to see if this might fill the gap - at the point where it is closest to the floorboards. However, by the time it is flush with the hearth, there is approximately another 6-9mm gap with the surrounding floor height.

I'm not sure whether that makes any sense whatsoever, so I am hoping some pictures may help:













I'd like to sort this out, but to be honest, am not sure of the best, or most practical way of going about this:

A few points to note:

1) The floorboards that surround the tiles are not completely level, but sufficiently so that I don't intend to do anything about it
2) I'm not convinced that the tiles that are currently in situ are completely sound


As such, I'm not sure whether any or all of the following are viable options:

1) Concrete over the tiles, smoothing over to finish flush with the existing floorboards. Drawback: this might crack once the gripper rods for the new carpet are hammered into the concrete?
2) Self-levelling compound over the tiles. Drawbacks: the existing floorboards aren't quite level, so this may not end up sitting entirely flush. Given that the tiles are also not entirely sound, might the SLC break up over time?
3) Use thin layers of ply or mdf to build up successively?

Many thanks for your help all!

 

[crazydaze]

If you do not want the tiles in the future, a quick fix would be to lay a basecoat mix in the void and over the tiles to level, with carpets being fitted you don't need a Self Levelling Screed and basecoat can be put down in thicker applications.

Just be sure to insist the fitters glue the gripper in this area and DO NOT nail it down.

 

[Gerrydelasel]

I would build up with ply / MDF. First a thin strip next to the hearth to act as a sort of wedge, then a larger piece over the whole lot. Bit of expanding foam to glue it down, job done, and the grippers can be nailed instead of glued.

 

[ray.birch]

Thanks for your help chaps. In the end, I was pretty pushed for time, but managed to use a piece of spruce furniture board that was wide enough. I then took a planer to it in anger, and managed to get a fairly decent finish, leaving the board 18mm thick in places, whilst approx 5mm towards the edges. It certainly wasn't what I had in mind at the time, but has worked well (albeit without the planer, I'd have been pretty stuffed admittedly!!)