Flint built house

[Flintstone]

Hello all,
I'm new on here and am after advise please.

I'm working on my new house which is lime and flint construction, it has had the external/internal walls cement rendered with a dpm 300mm up the internal wall, the floors have a mot type 1 base with a dpm and a 150mm cement finish.

I'm removing the internal cement and replacing with lime plaster, the floor I was thinking of taking up and replacing with a limecrete one with wet ufh.
My concern is, once the new floor is down can I still have carpets down, will it end up damp??

 

[MatthewC]

Hi Flintstone

Welcome onboard. Best of luck with your house and on your plans to remove the curse of cement from your walls and ceiling!

I did a limecrete floor which has limestone flags on it. The issue (as you might have guessed) is that if you cover it with anything impervious then you stop water from evaporating and so the carpet will get damp. You will need to find carpet or mats which are natural material and do NOT have a rubber/plastic/man-made backing. I have some woven hessian mats on the floor of my kitchen which have no backing at all, and they never get damp, just dirty.

Matthew

 

[88v8]

Hello and welcome.

Quite an undertaking.

Limecrete breathes, and you are right, it is therefore 'damp' to a degree. However, as Matthew has said it's OK to put permeable coverings on it.
So, felt underlay not rubber not plastic
https://www.tradepriced.co.uk/enviro_felt_underlay.html

Then wool rugs with no artificial backing, Turkey rugs or carpets always look good in a Period setting.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2060353.m570.l2632.R3.TR4.TRC2.A0.H0.Xturkish+carpet.TRS0&_nkw=turkish+carpet&_sacat=37978

Don't go too thick with the underlay or it will make a big step at the edge of the carpet/rug.

Leave the perimeter of the room uncovered and you'll be fine.

One point; carpets are an insulator. They go well with radiators. Or open fires. Or stoves. As found in Period houses. But would you wrap your radiators with carpet to stop the heat coming out? I realise ufh is the latest craze, but do you really want to put an insulator on top of ufh. Just a thought.

Ivor

 

[Damon]

We've done the same and laid a limecrete floor with wet ufh - originally with a view to having limestone flags throughout.

A little one arrived however and we were in a bit of a predicament, with me wanting to stay with the original plan of flagstones and the other half wanting carpet. So we compromised and went for carpet...

We went for a loose twill natural carpet and a underlay made from wood fibres (sourced from different places). We found that even the thinnest felt underlay had a tog rating of around 2.4. Way too high to be laid over underfloor heating.

This wood fibre underlay has a 1.3 tog rating so is perfect.

https://www.flooringsuperstore.com/underfloor-heating-underlay-43041.html

Don't believe the marketing trollop of it allowing you to "breathe better' though. Their test of it filtering 90 odd percent of dust is nonsense and isn't applicable when its laid on the floor. :lol:

 

[Flintstone]

Thank for the replies, we have been working hard on the house over the last few weeks, didn't realise how much hard work this would be!

We have bags and bags of cement render now, the walls are stripped back to the stone and the floor is up, amazingly we have found little damp in the walls and no rotting timber.

We are near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, has anyone got a contact around this area who can lay a lime floor please?

We have also discovered two fire places which are going to be restored, somehow the house already feels nicer to be in.

 

[Flyfisher]

Anglia Lime Company is just down the road from BSE in Sudbury. They are suppliers rather than builders but will surely know many suitable buiders in your area, so might be worth a call?

I've no connection with ALC other than as a satisfied customer.

 

[livias]

http://www.emmersoncritchley.co.uk/
are based near BSE. They did ours and all is well 18 months later