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Carpets, Lino & Flooring

Laying a modern Solid wood or engineered wood floor over original suspended wooden floor

Anonymous user 03/03/2024 - 2.39 PM

I have an edwardian terraced house with suspended wooden floors. I would like to lay solid wood/engineered wood floors in the dining room and downstairs hall. These rooms have thresholds with the kitchen (tiled floor) and living room (underlay and carpet). At the moment the hall/dining room are carpeted and they are at the same level as the other rooms. I don't want to restore the original floors as I want an easy to clean / draught free finish. I don't think I can lay the new flooring straight onto original joists as the original poured hearth is in place and there will be a new hearth laid over it. I would like to know what the steps involved are in this situation. I don't mind about the skirting board coming off during fitting but I am concerned about keeping the floors level throughout the ground floor, what type of underlay/liners/ply should be used first...if any and any other issues I haven't even thought about! Thanks for your help. That's really useful, thank you. I will look for engineered wood and probably go for the fibreboard underlay as the original floorboards are solid enough..just not very pretty! My only concern now is the thresholds between the dining room/hallway (where the new floor will be) and the two other rooms (kitchen with tiled floor and Living room with carpet) - is this something a fitter will be able to deal with easily? I don't want to buy the flooring/underlay then find it's too thick - :S - does it always come in the same depth? Thanks again. Jacqui

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2 Answers

Majestic Flooring Ltd

Rating: 4.9 out of 5

Plymouth

HI there 1st engineered wood floors to be honest from what you have written this would proberly be your best bet this floor can be layed to the original floorboards with a fibreboard underlay and pva joints this will leave you with the minum of fuss regarding having to do much preperation regarding your sub floor, before laying make shore all floorboards have no bounce / noise's ect screew down any that move or are lose make shore there are no pipes cables ect before doing this if the subfloor is really bad it might be a good idea to ply 9mm should be enough depending on how bad the floor is if you do ply you can do a full stick down using a B92 glue instead of fibreboards make shore you screew the ply down about every 8 inc some people pin these can work lose and cause noise 2nd solid wood solid wood flooring is more involved you will need to ply the areas 9mm min screewed down 8in between screews ps do not use screews over 1 1/4 inc max as you do not want the screews hitting cables /pipes ect now some fitters use porternails to lay solid floors personally i prefure to fully stick down again use B92 i just think it gives the floor a better feel when finshed every fitter has there own opinon regarding this now solid wood floors can cap or cove while the floor settles after laying the floor can move a little leaving small gaps while again the floor drys, if the gaps dont tighten after a month or so mix fine saw dust and pva glue in to the gaps to fill you dont tend to get these problems with engineered wood floors regards to skirts the finsh look dose look better if beading is not used and the skirts are fitted on top hope all this helps any further questions just call jd flooring & Blinds LTD or re post and i will try to help you further

Answered18 August 2011

doc carpentry services

Rating: 5 out of 5

Cricklewood, London

when laying engineerd flooring. You need it layed on a flat even surface, id advise that you screw down 18mm plywood onto your joist, this will leave it firm and even surface to lay your new floor,

Answered23 April 2020