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Hello,
I live in a Victorian flat, 1880s ish, I have the first and second floors, the second being an 'attic' room, sloping ceiling type of thing, one huge bedroom with some walls for a big cupboard, water tank etc, my biggest room by far.
All wooden floors downstairs which I really like, very tatty 1980s carpet upstairs which has been there since way before I moved in and I just haven't got around to dealing with yet.
I would like wooden floors upstairs too.
Underneath this carpet the floor is roughly half very nice victorian floorboards, a quarter 1960s not very nice floorboards and a quarter huge sheets of chipboard. Going to be a right PITA to replace all of these with nice ones (I would love to keep the origianl ones but I also want them all to match)
So, questions - Any reason I can't just put nice new ones over the top of current floor?
Potential problems I can see:
Lose an inch of ceiling height under my slopey roof (not fussed about that)
Won't be able to access anything under the floor (no pipes or anything there anyway)
Weird 1" step at the top of my stairs (how should I deal with that? Make a feature of it? Big sander and blend it in in a huge gentle slope?)
New floor won't have the 'spring' of the current one on the joists, is ths going to be an issue?
Harder to fix. How do I raise a huge cast iron radiator an inch without replumbing everything and putting 1" longer pipes on it? Cut an inch off a foot, slide floorboard under, cut next foot, repeat, etc?
And the biggy, how is doubling the weight of my floor going to go? How can I tell if this is going to be a problem? Joists are 9" if that helps
.
Since they will sitting on top of the current floor and won't need to take any weight are there are half-thickness floorboards out there? I do want proper ones, not some pretend laminate ones. Or will I have to do it properly and take up the existing floor? There's a couple of internal walls and things which sit on top of it which means this really won't be easy
.
Thanks all
Hmm... Sounds like a lot of hassle for not much gain. Replace the carpet with a really nice one?
Probably easiest to replace the lot with something modern or reclaimed if you can, rather than board over.
Just seen the bit about internal walls making it hard to replace. Re-carpet is definitely my suggestion. What is the room used for?
One problem putting nice new ones down on top of the old ones is if you use screws long enough to go into the joists, you risk screwing through cables / pipes. I'd just redo the whole lot...
eg this is what you'll find underneath the old floor:
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/3859/14732553898_5999c24a79.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/3859/14732553898_5999c24a79.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/orSbZY ]Lifted remains of original floor boards[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
Lots of opportunities to create a flood / short out the lights etc...
I just replaced the whole lot:
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/5583/14928865465_2b04fd48ff.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/5583/14928865465_2b04fd48ff.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/oKdkAa ]New radiator pipes are next[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
NB Still managed to screw through a CH pipe - very last plank, was quite tired and just wanted to finish and hit the main CH ring main on a corner! Was a total PITA to fix....
Why not just fit a quality laminate and get that wood look without ****ing about trying to bodge everything an inch.
You'll also not be plagued with floor space draft coming through the floors.
Also .....our floors are wood throughout except the bedrooms. Much nicer to have warm soft carpet under barefoot when you wake in the morning
Since you don't have the whole building, I assume it's leasehold? Does the lease restrict what you can do? I appreciate the floor concerned is between the two storeys you have, which cut out a lot of possible issues, but worth checking.
Don’t do the one-inch ramp at the top of the stairs, it’ll be like walking on glass if you wear socks or have wet feet. Learned this the hard way by chipping a piece of bone off my elbow.
Replace the chipboard area only with reclaimed flooring. Make a feature of the different floor finishes. Nothing new will look as good as the old stuff unless you spend a fortune.
Thanks all. Consensus seems to be that it's a no-go. I do prefer wood floors and thick rugs so I think I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and do it properly. The walls aren't insurmountable, but could be a faff. My flat is freehold so I can what I like to it (yes, building regs, etc, but you know what I mean)
Is it worth putting some loft insulation under there while I've got the boards up? I assume a wattle and daub ceiling will hold that OK?
Do you mean lath and plaster?
I do. Having a complete blonde moment there.