The floor of this bedroom is very uneven, movement in the past and bowing of the supporting beams had caused part of the floor to slope down. The other part of the floor had support from the passageway wall underneath. I could have lifted the existing floor and packed out the beams. This would have meant disturbing the old floor boards and raising the floor level so there would have to be step in to the room.  It took some lateral thinking to come up with the solution of a fixed, built in bed base.

This covers most of the problem area and has a number of added benefits.  A normal bed base would have to be cut down anyway to go over a raised section in the corner that allows for head room over the step at the end of the passage.  With a built in bed base I can fit more thermal and sound insulation over the passage. It gives plenty of room to fit the ventilation duct to the kitchen.  I can set back the base legs and sides to give more foot room at the side of the bed.   The only potential downside is that it defines the room as a bed room, but that isn’t not a concern for us.

The base is a solid timber construction that will have drawers fitted in the end.

Built in bed base solves uneven floor problem

By also making a built in bed side cabinet I can cover the ventilation duct manifold (more about how that’s made later)

Ventilation duct manifold to be hidden in bedside cabinet

The insulation is a sandwich of rockwool-vermiculite-rockwool. The first layer is a thin layer of rockwool type insulation this will stop the vermiculite falling out if the old lathe and plaster work is damaged.

Rockwool layer of insulation over passageway

The middle layer is about 100mm of vermiculite. This is suposed to have much better sound proofing qualities than rockwool but it is still lightweight. Another thin layer of rockwool over the top fills any remaining space before the 18mm chipboard is screwed on top.

Vermiculite for improved sound insulation

All in all it seems to be a perfect solution although there’s still plenty to do to finish it off.

Built in double bed frame