I would consider putting a ramp at a gentle incline from the lower to the upper area..

Guard cat meows loudly as people approach dangerous step-down.

place a gate - did someone say yet.... someone has to open it / when company comes..

I live in a 70s condo with step-down living room. After a guest fell I decided to do this: Using transparent Gorilla tape, I temporarily mounted a battery-powered string of tiny led lights under the moulding which extends just enough to enable me to affix the string. I plan to make it permanent--probably with white lights--once I see how well it works. Cost is under twenty bucks. When I'm ready to finalize this project the lights should be easy to install with a staple gun. I can easily turn them on when having company and leave them off most other times.

We finally gave up, and a contractor will be here tomorrow to put in two steps: one into the family room from the dining room and one from the kitchen. We can't raise the family room floor because the ceilings are too low (we would also have to raise the roof). The fact that the step down from the dining room is an inch higher than the one from the kitchen does not help matters any. There will be a handrail (wood, not wrought iron) for each step. I hope it works ok. The drop to the family room from the dining room is about 11 inches; the one from the kitchen is about 10 inches. It's too dangerous to ignore. Will post an "after" picture after the work is done to see if it's of any use to others. I actually love the led light idea (above this post). Would have saved us a lot of money!

10 and 11" drop would have been too much to solve with lights, and you can still use the idea to highlight the reasonable steps you will have.

Thank you for that suggestion. I will be so relieved when I don't have to worry about people falling. I wanted to do some holiday entertaining, but not until this hazard was taken care of. I thought about crime scene tape, but my husband thought it might look a bit odd! Thanks again!

ANOTHER UPDATE: So....we did it. We had the floor raised about 10 months ago and it is wonderful. I could not believe the change it made. The house finally made sense. We could have people over! We could step from the living room area into the dining area without our leg muscles tensing up! And we sold our house. Figures, right??

I'm late to the party. Again.

I am moving to a house with a similar problem. There is one step down from kitchen into family room. The way the kitchen / Family room is designed there are two places where this occurs. The opening is probably at least 5 feet wide. I immediately thought “ No problem” because the rest of the house perfect. Grandchildren, old people, people carrying things etc aren’t going to be looking down at where they are going. My idea is to mimic a beautiful twisted black iron railing that you see upon entering the house going upstsirs. I hope to center a

rail in each opening It will be pretty but hopefully onobtrusive and safe. Will post pics of before and after

Yes it is and the OP doesn't even live there anymore. She moved! It's the post that never dies!

Ours is a nightmare. Working on a solution and may just end up putting in a railing. We've tried all sorts of things... even pink duct tape, and people just aren't walking looking down all of the time. A railing, I think, is our only solution.

It appears that raising the floor in that room creates issues in adjoining rooms (from the pics) , have you considered putting a small handrail ( I know it sounds weird) to catch people's attention that there's a step down? And/or, some well placed lighting that illuminates the top of the step or LED strip on bottom of lip to alert people. I agree a color change would be helpful, I installed marble tiles on one step for this very reason, it was interesting enough that people would see it.

I googled something and landed here. Hello! And yes, I have this issue too!

The Original Poster moved from the house with this problem back in 2017.

This is what can happen if you procrastinate or can’t come up with a solution in time

Arghhh! Looks painful.

Oh no! I’m so sorry!

We raised our floor so that the whole house is level....needed tor wheel chair capability in house. Best thing we ever did, like the OP said before she sold her house. Easily doable..

We just raised the floor in our sunken area. Hubs is getting older and it was definitely a hazard. Prior to that, ours was delineated by these weird railings. They were the first thing to get demo’d when we started our renovation.

Am wanting to do the same in my home. Could you post your after picture. Thanks!

Sorry for the mess in the room, but here’s my during and after.

Can someone give ballpark numbers on what it costs to raise a floor? I know it will depend on many things but just would like some point of reference for how costly an endeavor this would be?

I’m interested too. I don’t feel like googling. 😬

Regarding materials, calculate how many joists you’d need at 16’ spacing and how long and wide the boards will need to be. Then you need to figure area for the subfloor and what thickness the plywood/OSB needs to be. The are so many variables it’s just impossible to say. Labor is the biggest variable. You’ll need someone to help decide if the joists will need to be ripped down to allow the new floor to be level with existing. In materials for our 16x17 room it was a few hundred. (I honestly don’t know) but probably less than $1000. Our carpenter is also a friend, so that saved us money. Although it’s a pretty straightforward operation, it can get very technical to get it all level and true. I will caution against using shims. We needed to in just a couple spots, but for the main traffic areas the new joists need to sit flush on top of the old subfloor and be glued & nailed. The subfloor needs to then be glued & screwed to them, or you will get all kinds of clunks & squeaks. As careful as we were, we still had to open up one small section and correct a clunk after one of the joists twisted just slightly. Do not install the new floor too soon to allow for any of those situations to be dealt with. Get a few carpenters out to give you some labor estimates. They’ll probably want to provide the materials themselves as they’ll know best. Do not hire a deck builder.

what happens to the fireplace?

Sylvia, we had to pull our firebox. It was fine because it was cold & drafty, plus I get really stuffy from smoke. We kept the chimney and replaced the fireplace with a new gas unit. Some are mounted high enough to accommodate the higher floor, but each situation is different I’m sure.

Okay, I have a different problem…
How about LOWERING A FLOOR?

Check out this situation: Raised on both sides…

More/less complicated or expensive?

I would too. I’d start by investigating to make sure you’re not going to find any surprises. Plan on replacing all the flooring for continuity - or at least salvaging what you can to try patching it back in afterward. From what I can see, your most challenging part will be rebuilding those last couple steps of the staircase. That will need an experienced finish carpenter.

Have you wished it were level -from tiled area by the stairs, across, and into the 'window room'? Right now seems unfortunate. :(

Yes, that’s what we want to be level.
I don’t know if it’s harder than raising a floor like others here have done…

It would seem logical that the raised area is really just a platform built on the existing floor so in theory it should be easy to remove though it is likely raw cement under and need subflooring etc.

We have a basement, so we were hoping it would be easy…probably can’t re-use the flooring though?

@Painted Peggies (zone 6a) Not sure... maybe if it's a floating tongue and groove floor it would work to reuse. You would obviously need to supplement it with additional flooring boards for the shorter bits. We added new wood flooring in our living room and it worked just fine! You'll need to resand and seal anyway.

love this thread even though it is 7 years old I have the same issue and there have been lots of great suggestions.

Yep.. I can feel this post & relate to this dilemma- I too will warn my guest ”watch your step” 2 separate flooring tones help BUT no guarantee

We moved into a house witha step down family room -the ceilings were the same height as the ajoing room so we brought the floor up eliminated the step and adjping rooms have the same floor and ceilings. Make the space seem much bigger and no more trip hazzard.

@mnmamax3 and all; Not all raised floors are built as platforms.

We purchased a 4 BR 2.5 bath tri-level with basement home with plans to remodel the entire home, last year 9/30/21 (haven't moved in or remodeled yet, waiting on bids after having walk-thrus done with architectural drawings almost 3 months ago) with a raised entry, 5" & 6" down into the living room on the left and a step down into the kitchen walking forward. We mistakenly thought we could just level the "platform" and found out last week on a 2nd walk-thru that the raised floor is structural.

The floor joists are different sizes and to level it, the finished basement ceiling has to come down, all new joists have to be placed, up & down stairs rebuilt, possibly the entry door raised and front stoop rebuilt. $$$. We came up with possible work-arounds with one builder for the stairs and entry that would not require all new being built but its not 100% ideal-just doable.

Now we are working with our architect to come up with an idea to possibly incorporate the raised entry into our planned design.. This too will cost us the hourly architectural fee (all our plans were completed already). I’m hoping to solve this on my own but will still require an addendum to our drawings.

We're removing two walls to create an open living/dining/kitchen area and would have this platform in the entry about 4' by 10' (stairs up and down one one side). Raising the surrounding floors isn't a very good option due to the already low ceilings.

I had already planned on building a planter at the entry perhaps 24" x 36" which solves a potential fall from the front door into the living room but still need to come up with an idea for the platform that will have a step down into the kitchen and be near a 12' island and jut out into an open room which is also awkward.

If we do end up keeping the raised entry (to save a ton of money) I want to keep the parquet entry flooring (as a nod to the 70s home) and the balance of the room will be black slate or slate look porcelain tile. This will create a visual warning of two separate floors.

First two pictures are the existing floor plan from the sale listing. We purchased the home for the love of the layout, not aesthetic (having four levels and separate spaces for my hubs and I, namely his sports TV watching and gym will be in the basement or a bedroom turned den or gym).

Circled is the step down from the entry to Livingroom and kitchen, "x" marks a wall/closets being removed.

3rd picture is the architectural as-is drawing.

4th picture shows the proposed floor plan and I highlighted where I have the current dilemma of a raised floor being left in an open concept room.

Does anyone have any creative thoughts on preventing a fall and incorporating the floor in a mid-mod hip way? The proposed built-in planter takes care of the entry (and provides a MCM nod) but I need a solution for the step down into the kitchen. I'm thinking of a slat wall or similar, maybe glass for the kitchen drop down by the island. We're using walnut or teak slats for the stairs, up and down. I do not want to block the light from the patio doors off the proposed dining space which is where the breakfast area is now.

Hi Erin, if I understand your beautifully written description, the floors at issue are wood framed (pier&beam). Would it make sense to remove the sub-flooring, sister the joists to raise the floors to the desired height?

@Alex Guthrie Construction LLC I appreciate your thought and it's one I had too, briefly. Unfortunately the ceilings are already low (big sigh).

Frameless glass railings wi th floor talons look really nice

I refuse to let this thread die.

For all of you who have raised flooring to make it level with the rest of the house, what about the windows in that room, and electrical outlets, were they all too low?