Compensate for height differences between floor coverings

Hello everyone,

I am new to this forum and hope to adhere to all customs.

At the moment, our semi-detached house is being built. It is a developer project, so many things are predetermined and cannot be fully influenced by us.

In a few weeks, a floating cement screed will be laid in our semi-detached house. Later, we want to have different floor coverings installed in the hallway and kitchen area as well as in the living room. So, solid parquet flooring, which will be 20 mm thick, is to be laid in the living room; in the kitchen and hallway, however, tiles.

Since it is an open kitchen, the question arises as to how to deal with the different heights of the floor coverings, because after all, the tiles (approx. 10 mm) and the solid parquet are separated by one centimeter.

To compensate for the height difference, we asked the developer to apply the screed in the kitchen, hallway, and guest WC area one centimeter higher than in the living room. However, this was refused. The position of the movement joints of the screed surface, which is supposed to be adopted later in the floor coverings according to the construction description, also results from technical requirements and cannot be planned in advance.

Unfortunately, we now have to live with this status quo. Therefore, I would like to ask you how the height difference can best be compensated or which agreements I should make in advance of the floor laying with the parquet and tile layers.

Thank you in advance for your help and best regards

Baunovice

How strong is the tile really? There is also 3-4mm of tile adhesive underneath.

The tile is 9.6 mm thick. If I understood correctly, adhesive of approximately the same thickness is used for laying parquet and tiles. Is that correct?

The tile is 9.6 mm thick. If I understood correctly, the adhesive used for laying parquet and tiles is applied in roughly the same thickness. Is that correct?

No, the adhesive for parquet is really thin. For tiles, it also depends on the size and installation method of the tiles. Large tiles, for example, are laid using the buttering-floating method, where adhesive is applied both on the floor and on the tile, thus increasing the overall thickness. You have different options: - leveling with tile adhesive - engineered parquet instead of the solid version (why necessarily solid?) - finishing strips - tile installer uses a leveling compound - last tiles are laid with a slight slope Did I forget anything?

In case of doubt, I would simply choose a parquet with the appropriate thickness.

The tile is 9.6 mm thick. If I understand correctly, adhesive of about the same thickness is used when laying parquet and tiles. Is that right?

That would be new to me as well. Parquet adhesive is thin and rubbery, then practically flattened. Tile adhesive is mortar, and as thick as the notching allows. The 0.5 cm is absolutely negligible, in my opinion, especially if these are separate rooms. For open kitchens, I personally would not use two different floor coverings, because there you always have an edge that you have to "cover up."