Everyone is correct. We need a visual in order to help you.
But, what I can tell you is.. stay away from layers. Personally, I feel layers was the worse option Dreamweaver could have ever built in to their program. Stick to using tables.
No, do NOT stick to tables. The nomenclature of 'layers' was a bad choice, but it is actually referring to CSS <div>s. Anyone who wants to design with CURRENT technology needs to get away from TABLES !