First I would stop being concerned about having the floor perfectly level. Level in my business doesn't make a lick of difference. All I would be concerned about is the sub floor being Flat. If it has a natural slope to it, then I could do something to lessen it, but not concerned with level.

As far as who is to blame for the height difference, Did the Tile guy ever get involved before any work was done? Im sure the GC didn't take into account the amount of shimming the tile guy would have to do to get the tiles to lay flat.

you could make a case for both you and the gc being at fault. you not asking enough questions and making sure you have a clear understanding and the GC for not making sure you fully understand and getting the tile guy involved to help you picture what the end product will look like.

Thank you for your response. I don't care about the floor being level either - I just care that we have a flat and even transition between both rooms. I just put the level up to show the difference between the two.

The GC just orders his tile guys around (they do multiple types of work on his sites) and fields all questions. He keeps control of everything and questions put to subs nearly always have to be run by him (especially financial ones).

The GC had a very clear understanding that we want the absolute minimum height of the new floor. I even did some research and sent him a long email asked him if he could cross-brace the floor joist for less span between joists and use 1/4 inch hardiebaker board (or something similarly thin) to drop the height if he removed the old subfloor. It didn't even occur to me that the two floors would be off-level with each other, but I have absolutely no experience in this area and I think he should have told me given all the time and emphasis put on the issue and wanting the floors to be at the same height.

I actually think the new floor somehow ended up off level from the prior kitchen floor. My reasoning is that on one side of the kitchen the workmen took out two bottom cabinets and tiled to the wall (but did not take out bottom cabinets and tile to the wall on the other side). When the cabinet maker tried to put the cabinet back in he could not get it level and he fixed it totally off-square causing all of the drawers to be pushed out of alignment. I actually had to show the cabinet guy how to re-shim the cabinet (after getting in a huge fight with the GC telling me our cabinet is broken and denying it had even been removed) so it would be square with lots of diagrams of where shims should go. I have never done any kind of work of this kind... My profession is a desk job! The problem was obvious though if you are good at geometry. The relevant issue is that the cabinet was higher in the back for some reason, unlike the prior floor, consistent with the whole floor now being at an angle.

The GC's job is to translate your wishes into reality, and to inform you along the way if it can't be done. He either didn't check the floors, didn't communicate to the tiler what you wanted, or just shrugged your concerns off. He is correct that it's not his fault your kitchen floor isn't level. But he should have come back to you at that point and talked about options.

You had a lot more options before the kitchen floor was tiled.

Can you just add 1/4" or 1/2" of subfloor under the wood to bring it up close to the kitchen floor level? What will that do to doorways elsewhere? You could then use a transition strip, but it wouldn't be so steep.

Thanks for your reply - much appreciated. I attached a picture... we essentially cut out the wall that you can see in the pic... The floor would continue from the edge of the kitchen around the corner into a room that is essentially to the left of the picture. The kitchen floor rises from the right to the left towards the range (which has been replaced). It seems we have to have some sort of ramp rising to the left and tapering down out towards the window (behind the plastic) and around the corner that we put a new floor on... Do people do that? Its not a long distance...

I agree with gregmills_gw, don't worry so much about it being level. Have a respectable flooring company come in and remove the tile from the kitchen and deal with any large dips in the subfloor. Then have them install engineered hardwood thru-out the house. The cabinets don't have to be removed, just have them install the flooring up to the toe kick of the cabinets and finish the edge with a small trim if needed.

Finding out *why* the home has such a height difference to the floors would be the first step. Once you know the back story, then you can make appropriate decisions on how--or if--to address it. If there is a broken or missing structural member and the home will continue to subside and become more out of level, you're going to be SOL if you've already installed finished flooring for all of it.