Why Flagstones should never be covered

[housewinnie]

40 years ago the owners put down laminate flooring with plastic under, fortunately they had not glued and were all just floating, but most skirtings are gone except the hallway which are Lime plaster skirtings. You can see from the pics as we lifted them the damp drying and plant growth in the corner.

 

[Stevers]

Those look a lot like the flagstones in our semi-basement, which I would class as 'Blue Lias'. Ours were covered with between 1/4" and 3/4" of hard cement screed topped with vinyl tiles. A lot of the screed was/is sort of floating so it lifts easily. We had no idea that they were there until I investigated a damp spot in a corner where the copper had been. Over the years I've been exposing them room by room and whilst they look a bit rough initially, they do polish up with foot traffic. Once exposed ours dry well, though they have occasionally been known to 'sweat' for short periods. Once the chimney breast is finished, I'll expose the rest of the flags in the old dry kitchen and am intrigued at what I'll find. One of my regrets is that I made a reasonable job of diagonally tiling two of the rooms (one tiny) before I realised that they were there! Some of the flags are 3' square or larger, all in different thicknesses, with no joints anywhere greater than 1/8" - how on earth did our ancestors manage that? I can only conclude that they must have laid the floors, then built the house!

 

[Cubist]

- how on earth did our ancestors manage that? I can only conclude that they must have laid the floors, then built the house!

When you recall that some of those ancestors dug canals, quarries and mines with little more than a shovel, laying a few flagstones was probably a past-time for the kids when they weren't up a chimney.

 

[housewinnie]

Those look a lot like the flagstones in our semi-basement, which I would class as 'Blue Lias'. Ours were covered with between 1/4" and 3/4" of hard cement screed topped with vinyl tiles. A lot of the screed was/is sort of floating so it lifts easily. We had no idea that they were there until I investigated a damp spot in a corner where the copper had been. Over the years I've been exposing them room by room and whilst they look a bit rough initially, they do polish up with foot traffic. Once exposed ours dry well, though they have occasionally been known to 'sweat' for short periods. Once the chimney breast is finished, I'll expose the rest of the flags in the old dry kitchen and am intrigued at what I'll find. One of my regrets is that I made a reasonable job of diagonally tiling two of the rooms (one tiny) before I realised that they were there! Some of the flags are 3' square or larger, all in different thicknesses, with no joints anywhere greater than 1/8" - how on earth did our ancestors manage that? I can only conclude that they must have laid the floors, then built the house!

Yep Blue Lias some of which are four and a half feet by two and a half all a little flakey but that is history to us and love them. Not even gonna replace the rotten skirting as it would probably take the plaster off the wall too. just placed a chair in front, call me lazy but that's history too. Anyway more important things like the roof at the moment.