Upstairs flooring suggestions?

[Halfarita]

Hello

This is my first post on this site, am hoping to pick the hive mind!

I am in the process of buying a grade 2 listed thatched cob house. The flooring upstairs is currently carpeted, but due to having two very hairy shedders (dogs) and being quite sensitive to dust and pet hair I would much prefer a non carpet option. Something that is easier to clean and pref steam/mop as needed.

The house dates back to around 1750 and has gloriously wonky floors under the carpet. One room in particular has quite a slope in one corner. Apart from any listed building restrictions on making changes to the floor, I wouldn’t actually want to alter this lovely feature and would want to retain and preserve the character of the flooring anyway.

So my question is... does anybody have any non-carpet suggestions for me?

I don’t yet know what the floor looks like under the carpet, it may well be perfectly presentable as it is, though I couldn’t live with exposed gaps! I don’t know whether filling the gaps with wood slithers (or other suitable material) would even be allowed?

Failing natural floorboard finish, I would have liked cork flooring for its warmth, though am not sure this is going to work on uneven sloping floors. Have noticed that marmoleum and linoleum are quite popular nowadays and wasn’t sure if this might be an option if in roll form? Assuming that it didn’t look awful, and wasn’t compromised by any bumps underneath.

I’m assuming floating floors are out so have been looking for as flexible a material as possible. Something breathable, sustainable, as eco-friendly as poss with low chemical content.

I’m meeting the seller in near future for a q&a session, so will find out as much as poss about the current state of the floor. In the meantime however, I would love to have some options to consider and start investigating pricing etc. So if anybody has any advice or ideas, it/they would be gratefully received!

TIA

 

[MatthewC]

Hi Halfarita, and welcome the mad house. We're all mad here as you must be to own an old property!

The house dates back to around 1750 and has gloriously wonky floors under the carpet. One room in particular has quite a slope in one corner. Apart from any listed building restrictions on making changes to the floor, I wouldn’t actually want to alter this lovely feature and would want to retain and preserve the character of the flooring anyway.

Well done for wanting to preserve the character but you ought to ask whether the slope has a recent structural issue which has caused the slope? If it's been there for ages then fine, but I vividly recall the estate agent here saying "the floor's a bit springy here" as a result of which I found I had to rebuild about half of that suspended floor due to rotted joists!

So my question is... does anybody have any non-carpet suggestions for me?

I don’t yet know what the floor looks like under the carpet, it may well be perfectly presentable as it is, though I couldn’t live with exposed gaps! I don’t know whether filling the gaps with wood slithers (or other suitable material) would even be allowed?

Failing natural floorboard finish, I would have liked cork flooring for its warmth, though am not sure this is going to work on uneven sloping floors. Have noticed that marmoleum and linoleum are quite popular nowadays and wasn’t sure if this might be an option if in roll form? Assuming that it didn’t look awful, and wasn’t compromised by any bumps underneath.

I’m assuming floating floors are out so have been looking for as flexible a material as possible. Something breathable, sustainable, as eco-friendly as poss with low chemical content.

I would say that you are on the right lines and it really does depend on what state the floor is in. Best idea is to keep the natural wood floor if at all possible. I removed all the old lino from my upstairs rooms and have carpeted them all (and the boards underneath were nothing great), but clearly with dogs that's out for you. I have also heard that linoleum is making a comeback as it is better environmentally than modern stuff. I would say that sounds a good option but, failing that, you need someone here to have a great idea! Wait and see.

BW

Matthew

 

[Abi Cott]

LVT luxury vinyl floor tiles is getting a lot of love from my fitters because it's "fit and forget" I.e. they don't get many after sales complaints, and it's totally waterproof.

With undulating floors what you are most interested in with a "non roll" floor is the stave width. Narrow boards will settle into the undualtions much more readily than wide boards.

 

[Halfarita]

Thank you for the comments and the welcome.

The steeper slope I referred to is in the back corner of the bedroom that joins us to our semi detached neighbour. From memory the steeper part didn’t cover the entire width (depth) of the bedroom from front to back of the house, it was only in front of an alcove, so who knows what’s going on there! Having dug around a little online I gather one possible explanation could be from where the house has settled in its foundations? Maybe something permanent was removed and new floorboards added to that corner only created a steeper angle between settled joists? Am speculating so much and probably making no sense to anyone but myself :lol:

Have had a few issues come up with the title register/plan this week so was starting to wonder if I’d ever get to find out what is under the carpets!

Interesting and good point about stave width potentially being more forgiving.

I guess I need to contact the local CO to find out what I can and can’t do to the original floor first? If using wood slivers between the existing boards is an option that sounds like simplest solution. I don’t mind it looking a bit ugly - that’s what rugs are for

 

[Flyfisher]

We also have 'wonky' floors in some bedrooms, though we may be using the word differently. In our case it would be more accurate to say they were sloping quite distinctly, but that's because it's a timber frame building and has quite clearly moved over the years despite being completely stable today. Seeing how the floors have moved in our house, I can't really understand how that sort of movement could lead to a significant slope just in one corner of a room as that seems to imply the beams/joists must have deformed in some way - which I suppose is possible but I'd have thought unlikely if they were up to the job in the first place. I've no experience of cob houses so I may well be misunderstanding something but I do agree with MatthewC that the reason for such a localised 'wonkiness' should be investigated, especially if the floor is 'springy'.