Timber Floors

Patto

Hi There,

I am planing to lay timber floors in the living room of a 50 year old 3 bed semi. The original red deal floors are still in place. They are pretty ok but a little uneven in places. There is no obvious evidence of dampness. The house was originally damproffed with some black stuff in the concrete floors. I think it is ashalt (or something like that). I reckon the easiest solution is to put down the floamy stuff and float the new floors.

I'm not sure how much I like floating floors espiceally in this situation. I reckon there will be a few bumps and hallows and a bit of give in places. I have seen solid oak floors been glued directly to the concrete floors, it gives a great finish to creeks and no give what so ever. Is that a runner in this situation? I'm not mad about battons either I dont like the noise box effect.

What about solid Vs semi solids? What are the advantages/disadvantages of either?

Raytown Rocks

Hey Patto.
Had the same thing in my own house years ago. Got a guy to do the floors for me.
He raised the old floors to find that ( ashfalt : I think its called) underneath. It's a tar like substance.
Just to let you Know its a real Bi*ch to remove, takes a bit of hard graft to move it all.
Good luck with the floors though.

Chef

Patto

Hey Chef,

Thanks but there is no way I could face the prospect of hammering out 40sq yards of ashfalt. If I were to go down that road I would then have to put back in damproofing and redo the concrete floor, let it dry out etc, right? As far as I can see the existing damproofing is working fine.

I'm just wondering if it is feasible (assuming that there is no issue with dampness in the existing setup) just to lay a new semi solid floor straight on to the existing floor boards. Is it feasible to glue the new to the old or should it be floated?

Would it be better to pull them up and lay plywood instead? If you go the plywood route does it really need to be marine ply, will the cheap stuff do the same job? (I suppose that depends how confident you are that your damp proofing is sound right?)

Ideally i would like a firm finish with as little noise as possible i.e. I want to avoid floating and battons.

I'm sure this suject has been through the mill on this forum before but I'd really appreciate hearing people's experiences good and bad.

Patto.

kadman

Is the original deal floor set on joists or battons.

If its set on joists, then you could remove the existing boards, and set plywood onto the joists and then floor on top.

You would also have the opportunity to insulate and damp proof, and soundproof in the original joist zone of the old floor.

You have an excellent opportunity to deal with all the issues related to old floors, so dont go down the false economy route, of cheap substrata materials. Better materials , give a better floor.

If you must go the cheaper route, use plywood on the old floors. This has the benefit of being able to use shorter random lengths, which is cheaper. And prevents any movement of the old floor, affecting the new one.

If you must float the new oak floor, then try and buy quartersawn oak boards.
These have the rays running from top of the board to the bottom of the board. Any movement due to shrinkage, would be across the width, and warping or cupping, would be considerably less than a radial cut board. A radial board has segments of a circle visible at the end grain. During drying these segments will try to straighten, and hence cupping will occur.

So do your homework.

kadman

Patto

Thanks Kadman!

The existing floors are layed on battons.

What is the recommended method of damp proofing and sound proofing?

Good advise as regards doing the homework. I intend to get this right without breaking the bank. As they say you can take the boy out of Cork...

Patto.

Sleipnir

You wouldn't just give the existing floor a good sanding and staining would you?

Generally speaking, it's a bad idea to remove original features from an old house because people want them when they're buying. Unless of course they're damaged byond repair.

Patto

Not a chance. The existing floor boards are quite good but I took out two walls by joining the two living rooms and removing a hot press. This has left a few gaps which would look manky if filled in. So much for original features :rolleyes:. The same timer was not used in the two rooms, either that or one was once stained or/and varnished.

rooferPete

Hi,

The system you are describing was used a lot by Dublin Corporation, the laths were laid to give the boards a fixing point, it was usually coal tar pitch or blown bitumen (in later years) that was used.

Personally I would float the floors because the one fault in the original system was there is very little or no ventilation under the timbers, so to glue or solid fix the new floor would eliminate any ventilation.

Make sure to check the floor boards for woodworm and any signs of decay around the edges of the room as that is usually the first sign of problems if any.

If you float a solid oak 20 mm thick and the fitter is good you should get a very good floor, semi solid is in my view a decorative product, the decoration being the 6 mm of finished timber.

I have seen the semi solids with very suspect ply and block board as the base, there was one with chipboard as the base, not good by any standard.

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