Builder proposing to lay laminate floor over existing laminate floor.

tom1ie

Hi all,

our building project hasn’t started yet but we had a meeting with our builder today and he said he would lay our new laminate floor over the existing laminate wood floor in the front room, hallway, living room and over the tiles in the kitchen.

He would plain the doors to suit, take up all existing skirting and architrave and install new architrave and skirting where required.

We would supply the new laminate (which will have to be the “waterproof” kind and the underlay for the new laminate floor that will now be sitting over the existing laminate and tile.

Is this the normal and is there any issue with doing it this way?

I know it will cut down on waste for the builder by not having to rip up the tiles and tile backer board plus the old laminate.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated!!

Calahonda52

Complete boxxol in my view

Ginger83

A complete lazy and cowboy approach. The handiest way is all he wants

Gregor Samsa

Laminate is a floating floor, so you'd be laying a floating floor on top of a floating floor (except where you're laying over tile). So you're risking the chance both floors moving and expanding/contracting at different rates to each other, which could cause problems. And you're guaranteed that if anything goes wrong with the floor, he'll blame the existing laminate underneath, not his work.

Also, he'll be taking a fair chunk off the bottom of your doors. If you did ever want to go back and remove all the laminate, then you'd need new doors.

Personally, I'd want to do the job right and strip back to the subfloor and install the laminate properly.

Padre_Pio

Absolutely lazy,but common enough.

That said I've seen floors that have three layers of tiles, one ontop of the other.

tom1ie

Thanks for that folks, it was a suggestion from him but equally he said he can pull them up either, so I’d say we’ll be wanting them up then.

The reason I thought it might be a good idea is I suppose you have another level in heat retention in the existing wooden laminate floor and less chance of drafts of you have more layers of flooring if you get me.

The existing laminate is installed over underlay which is installed over an uninsultaed suspended wooden floor.

MicktheMan

The existing laminate is installed over underlay which is installed over an uninsultaed suspended wooden floor.

In that case, the original laminate needs to be removed to allow the suspended floor to be air tightened before any new floor covering is introduced.

tom1ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121321645#Comment_121321645

Is it a big job to make the suspended floor air tight?

Would the floorboards have to be removed to put down a barrier or the floorboards replaced?

If so that is definitely not costed and will add a large cost (I imagine) to the project.

MicktheMan

Is it a big job to make the suspended floor air tight?

If you are taking up the original laminate / skirting anyway then no it's not a big job at all. You are essentially rolling out, lapping and taping airtight membrane over the original timber floorboards and sealing the membrane edges to the walls before installing your new floor finish. Bear in mind though that this will air tighten (likely the largest heat loss mechanism) but not insulate the floor.

mickdw

I wouldn't be a fan of that method. No insulation and only suitable for floating floor finishes. All work lost if returning to original floor.

In any event, the builder is taking th easy way out and I wouldn't be happy with what he proposes.

Drog79

As a previous poster said you might as well do the suspended floor properly now.

Take the whole thing up, put down a weatherproof membrane, some insulation, and an airtight membrane, all taped up. If you do it yourself its really not much at all, relatively.

After that the new laminate can go down, but you'll have a much warmer floor.

MicktheMan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121322184#Comment_121322184

No insulation and only suitable for floating floor finishes. All work lost if returning to original floor.

Agreed. However, I was responding to the OP's idea that laying a new laminate floor over the old one would help heat retention / reduce draughts.

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121321318#Comment_121321318

Differential expansion is not an issue with floating floors. It's literally the benefit and purpose of a floating floor. There are reasons to not o this, but that isn't one imo. Agree that is should be done right.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121321376#Comment_121321376

A layer of laminate will make no difference to heat loss.

Is he proposing a reduction in costs to do this? if he isn't, they that alone is the end of the conversation.

Shoog

Air tightening your floor will have a dramatic effect on the room comfort. It kills the stack effect dead and slows air leakage at the ceiling.

All our suspended wooden floors have membranes,insulation and floating floors on them. If you can afford the loss of height then it's a cost effective solution.

The better solution is to do it all below the suspended floor as you can incorporate more insulation.

tom1ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121323253#Comment_121323253

Ok so what I’m getting from this thread is I should rip up the old laminate and tiles plus magnesium board (that the tiles are on) to get back to the wooden suspended floorboards.

I should also take up the old skirting (which would be coming up anyway).

I should then roll out a breather membrane (not sure if this is correct? Can anyone recommend what membrane to roll out on the wooden floorboards please?).

The membrane should be taped to the walls with airtight tape where the skirting will go.

The underlay for the new floating floor then goes on top of this.

The floating floor then goes on top of underlay.

The skirting then goes on the walls covering the floating floors expansion gaps.

Am I correct here?