wood over stone flags

[capri1600l]

I've been trying to find a site like this for years and here you are, Thankyou.

We live in an old 1800 farm house with stone flag floor, all we have at the moment is a carpet over the top of them, My better half would like to have a wood floor. Hmmm
Anyway I've been trying to find a way to lay engineered boards down over the stone with out blocking the stone from breathing, we have had a number of flooring guys round giving different recommendations,but all seem to involve covering the stone with some form of liquid DPM which would stop the floor from breathing ( would it ? )
we have not suffered with damp so far with the floor,all the skirting are original ( so I wouldn't be cutting under them, I use a beading ) and the walls are all ok
Is there any product that I can use in this situation.
Thanks in advance

 

[Keithj]

Not my area - we've left the flags in the kitchen - but I'd be leery of anything damp proof over a stone floor. How damp does it get, do you know? Do the carpets show signs of damp?

You may "get away" with wood over the flags, although an airspace would be usual.

 

[88v8]

Hello and welcome.

It can be a problem when one person loves living in an old house and the other likes the idea of living in an old house in a sort of Disneyesque colour-supplement sense, but not the reality.
I'd love to have a decent flag floor in place of our wonky quarries.

You're right to be suspicious of liquid dpm. Arrrgh.
It's essential that flags be able to breathe. Once any sort of sealant is applied, the stone is ruined. The damp underneath it - and with no dpm beneath the stone there will inevitably be some damp - will be trapped and pushed sideways into the walls. The walls have no dpc so they will become damp.
Thus the walls which currently are not damp, will become a 'problem'. And then one day some moron will come along and inject it with a useless chemical dpc.

Also, as Keith says, a wood floor must have air space. It must also have ventilation, which means putting air vents through the walls.

And anyway, an engineered floor looks modern.

All in all, I think this is a bad idea.

If it would help make the flags more palatable, it could be carpeted all over, with wool carpet, no artificials, and felt underlay.
http://www.carpet-underlay-shop.co.uk/wool-felt-carpet-underlay-12-c.asp?gclid=CKKSkc6_0LACFVMetAodYTJrXQ
Then it will be able to breathe, and no harm will be done to the house.

Turkey rugs can also look superb, and can be laid on felt underlay if wished.
http://jenningsrugs.co.uk/index.php

Ivor

 

[plasticpigeon]

Yes, that seems strange. Some people spend thousands laying a flagstone floor. They are expensive and desireable. I echo all that has been said. Liquid dpm is not a great idea, in fact anything that is irreversible is a bad idea, as at some time someone will be overjoyed to find original flags on the floor even if it isn't your other half.

 

[capri1600l]

Hello and welcome.

It can be a problem when one person loves living in an old house and the other likes the idea of living in an old house in a sort of Disneyesque colour-supplement sense, but not the reality.
I'd love to have a decent flag floor in place of our wonky quarries.

You're right to be suspicious of liquid dpm. Arrrgh.
It's essential that flags be able to breathe. Once any sort of sealant is applied, the stone is ruined. The damp underneath it - and with no dpm beneath the stone there will inevitably be some damp - will be trapped and pushed sideways into the walls. The walls have no dpc so they will become damp.
Thus the walls which currently are not damp, will become a 'problem'. And then one day some moron will come along and inject it with a useless chemical dpc.

Also, as Keith says, a wood floor must have air space. It must also have ventilation, which means putting air vents through the walls.

And anyway, an engineered floor looks modern.

All in all, I think this is a bad idea.

If it would help make the flags more palatable, it could be carpeted all over, with wool carpet, no artificials, and felt underlay.
http://www.carpet-underlay-shop.co.uk/wool-felt-carpet-underlay-12-c.asp?gclid=CKKSkc6_0LACFVMetAodYTJrXQ
Then it will be able to breathe, and no harm will be done to the house.

Turkey rugs can also look superb, and can be laid on felt underlay if wished.
http://jenningsrugs.co.uk/index.php

Ivor

Thanks for the reply.
The flooring I'd found is custom made not the nasty of the shelf stuff. Oak distressed in different lengths and widths, it did look very good.
I'd come across this stuff http://safeguardstore.co.uk/oldroyd-xs-slimline-drainage-membrane/
but again unless I've heard of it being used by someone, I'm very cautious about using it.
I do agree about the wool carpet, that might be the way to go. I have to be seen to be looking into this so I have the ammunition to stop it.

The carpet that's down is wool and show no signs of damp, buts its now so thread bare its hardly there. its been down since the 70s

 

[Zebra]

I echo all that's been said. Liquid dpm is absolutely not breathable, it's a black bituminous tarry substance, and will ruin your lovely original flagstones.

 

[mims&pip]

Hi and welcome

Personally I love old flagstone floors. Unfortunately at our last house (a relatively large Georgian thatched village house) they had long gone to be replaced by a previous owner with a mix of quarries, modern parquet and Lino (the latter being glued down and nigh on impossible to remove.....grrrr!)

We looked into replacing with reclaimed flags but the price was prohibitively high for a house we had no intention of staying in beyond a handful of years. Instead we laid antique limestone - also blooming expensive - in the kitchen breakfast room and aged/distressed engineered oak in the three receptions. Had we intended staying forever we'd have definitely opted for flags throughout the ground floor, made cosy by the addition of our vintage wool rugs.

As your other half is intent on covering your existing flags, I'd be inclined to take the advice of previous posters and go for wool carpet - far less permanent a change and definitely not as damaging as that nasty liquid DPM!

Mims x

 

[MatthewC]

Hi

All the above is great advice and spot on. Every so often, someone on here discovers an old floor that a previous owner had covered, and there are always cries of envy from everyone else! My kitchen floor was awfully damp (quarries with bitumen, newspaper and lino) and I laid a limecrete floor with imported black limestone flags on top. I wish I'd had your floor, dry without that expense.

I had a Capri 1600L once (or was it an XL?). Wish I still had it!

Matthew

 

[Zebra]

I've seen that Oldroyd stuff before but not used it. It's textured like DPC, but in bigger sheets. It would have a distinct advantage over liquid DPM, in that it would not be irreversible, should it turn out to cause a problem, or should a future occupant want to reveal the original floor. So, if you were to go that route, and lay that stuff, then oak over the top, how would you fix the oak? It would be a bad idea to screw anything through the membrane, for obvious reasons (it renders the membrane ineffective, as well as damaging the flagstones). Gluing it directly down to the membrane wouldn't really work, I don't think, as it would lift the membrane up. You could lay a "floating floor" - ie lay battens on top of the membrane but not screw or glue them down, and then screw or nail the oak to the battens.
However, then you have the issue of breathability and what the knock-on effects may be to other areas, as 88v8 outlined above. You wouldn't know these for some time, and it's not worth creating a problem you didn't have before.
Another possibility would be to have a floating floor but without the membrane. Each batten could sit on its own little strip of DPC to protect it from any moisture, without compromising the breathability of the flagstones so much. The moisture may then need somewhere to go - can the space be ventilated with vents in the oak floor, or airbricks in the walls at the sides? Or you may get away with it without, although the floor may not last forever, and may succumb to the usual perils of damp wood - rot and woodworm.
I'm not saying this is what you should do, but just trying to look for the least damaging compromise if you do decide to go that route.