wooden flooring

[micjamwat]

Hi, I have a victorian terrace and would like some advice on laying a wooden floor over the origional solid down stairs floor. I'm thinking of batoning then nailing the boards in place, but if I do this should I put some damp proofing membrane down first?

Thanks

Michael

 

[robgil]

my land lord did this in our living room. battons down on the hard floor and the white oak floor screwed to the battons.
within 6 months the floor took on a rippling effect , there is around a 3-5 mil difference in height from the centre of each board to the edges of each board, on each one the centre of the board being the lowest. i have no idea what went wrong , the floor was left in the room for a week or so to acclimatise and expand but it still looks as though its expanded with nowhere to go.

 

[micjamwat]

Thanks, I guess that's what I want to avoid.

Michael

 

[Andrew Bodenham]

The main things to consider here are moisture management and floor thickness.

If the existing solid floor is original to the house then it may not have an effective moisture / vapour barrier within the construction, so that a certain amount of dampness will permeate up through it. This is likely to be incompatible with laying a wooden floor on top, unless you take careful measures to form an immpermeable layer (e.g. polythene) under the new flooring.

However, if the solid floor is a more recent addition (perhaps replacing an earlier suspended floor) then it may well have a DPC built in - this may be visible running up the wall a little if you remove some skirting board.

The other potential problem is the loss of headroom associated with battening and boarding - say 25mm for battens, 20mm for floor plus any levelling required. Your tall friends may start to find your doorways rather low, and there is also the problem of how to manage the level change with adjoining rooms.

Faced with a similar situation I laid a 12mm ply subfloor on a 3mm neoprene/pvc underlay, then pinned and glued 10mm solid oak overlay flooring onto that. A couple of years on it still looks good and has stayed flat.

If you're laying real wood it takes a good long time to adjust to the humidity before laying. I would aim to unpack it, stack it with spacers between each plank and leave it to aclimatise for 6 - 8 weeks in the room where it will be laid.

 

[micjamwat]

Thanks. The solid floor looks like the original, I wonder if effectively waterproofing the floor may cause problems with moisture trying to escape up the walls?