New floors will leave a gap under doors

mauraf

Hi
I am looking to get new flooring on the whole downstairs of my house. Hall, Sitting room, Dining room, kitchen - Preference would be to have the same flooring throughout.


The current hardwood floor that is in the hall, sitting room and dining area, is thick, and it appears that some of the door frames were cut (before we purchased the house), to allow for the thick wooden floors.


I was considering laminate throughout -but if we do this, it wont be as thick, and will leave a (noticeable) gap between the new floor and the doors / door frames. Has anyone has this issue and how have they resolved it? I would prefer and easy approach - but with nice end result!


I am now considering, perhaps, using wood effect vinyl throughout. Would that solve my problem if it a) went down on top of current flooring ( hardwood and tiles (kitchen)), or b) if it went down with current floor boards removed and thick underlay?


Has anyone got this wood effect vinyl in their house and how does it look / feel / hold up?


Any advice welcome!


Maura

listermint

have you measured the difference to get a gauge on what it may look like. e.g are you going from underlay and carpet 18mm down to lam flooring ?

Typical lam would be 12mm plus the foam which would be 3mm to 5mm.

I presume there are saddleboards in place now that may be going ?

ted1

Way would you replace expensive hard wood floor with a laminate?

JustAThought

why would ypu replace solid wood floors either with lino?? That will puncture every time someone walks across them in heels and look shoddy very quickly despite what they promise. There is a reason almost nobody does it.

Have you considered getting a professional sander in for the wood floors you have? A friend of mine did this with a darken shabby solid floor and it looked INCREDIBLE after. Got it sanded and either stained or sealed (or both). It was
like a new desIgner house after.

Have you considered that it mihht also really affect the skirting boards around the rooms - that isn’t as easy to ignore as high hanging doors and could look dreadful or need them redone and possibly a bit of plastering and paint matching which is very hard to get right, ever.

Lurching

Saddleboards or draft excluders on the bottom of the door.

GreeBo

Lurching wrote: »

Saddleboards or draft excluders on the bottom of the door.

I was going to say saddle boards but the OP says the gaps are around the frames and architraves, getting saddle boards under could be tricky to do well.

Draft excluders will kinda ruin the look (arguably could also be said for saddleboards!)

OP if its just the frames than that should be easy to fill afterwards, its all square edges. If its architrave also, then you can buy and length and also cut that to fill the gap, caulk and paint and you wont notice it.


But Id echo the question of why remove the solid flooring? Get it renovated in situ.

/edit, ahh just answered the question, you want the same flooring in the kitchen also.

mauraf

Thanks for all the replies,

HW flooring going because it is badly scraped and I hate the colour - and its not something that can be stained / varnished. Already explored that as an option.
Currently about an 18mm lift from concrete floor to top of current wooden floor - and with 12mm laminate - maybe best option is to use 5mm foam underneath and just fill the small gap thereafter?
There are no saddleboards currently - but I did consider that as an option if needed to cover the gap between the new floor and the door frame. Aesthetically I think it would be better than a filler perhaps?

GreeBo

Can you post a pic of :
The current state of the boards
The area around the door frames?

Will make it easier to advise.

Scraping (other than ridiculous marks) will come out with sanding, the colour can also be significantly changes, especially if you are going darker.

If the only gap is 3mm then just caulk it, you wont even notice it.

KevRossi

Budget in for new doors would be the best option. If cash is a bit tight, then use a draft excluder/brush for a while. You might find a better solution if you contacted a supplier of commercial doors.

A saddle board doesn't look right on a wooden floor where you are having the full floor redone, but that's just my taste.

Also check prices for an engineered wood floor as it looks a lot better than laminate. TBH, I'd rather save for another year and get a real quality floor in instead of laminate as it can really make a house look so much better. Easier to maintain too. Dark colours like walnut look great in all weathers as well.

listermint

mauraf wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies,

HW flooring going because it is badly scraped and I hate the colour - and its not something that can be stained / varnished. Already explored that as an option.
Currently about an 18mm lift from concrete floor to top of current wooden floor - and with 12mm laminate - maybe best option is to use 5mm foam underneath and just fill the small gap thereafter?
There are no saddleboards currently - but I did consider that as an option if needed to cover the gap between the new floor and the door frame. Aesthetically I think it would be better than a filler perhaps?

If the flooring is 18mm total and you can get to 16 /17mm with new flooring then you are fine. Gap is negligible. You need gaps under doors for he dreaded word ventilation flow around the house. Not silly gaps but 10mm under a door would be relatively normal .


Also any pics of the floor. I'd be totally against rubbishing a hardwood floor over laminate as above.

2011

mauraf wrote: »

HW flooring going because it is badly scraped and I hate the colour

Most scrapes can be sanded out. If you don’t like the color apply a different one once sanded. Be warned Lino is a vastly inferior product. It damages easily and generally looks far worse than scratched hardwood after a very short time.

Alkers

listermint wrote: »

If the flooring is 18mm total and you can get to 16 /17mm with new flooring then you are fine. Gap is negligible. You need gaps under doors for he dreaded word ventilation flow around the house. Not silly gaps but 10mm under a door would be relatively normal .


Also any pics of the floor. I'd be totally against rubbishing a hardwood floor over laminate as above.

We fitting a dcv system recently and aereco specify 2cm gap beneath internal doors

greasepalm

Would sheet plywood work under your new flooring to raise it up more as it comes in many thickness.