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Carpets, Lino & Flooring

Hard Wood Floor Bouncy over soundproofing

Anonymous user 09/03/2024 - 3.04 PM

I recently bought a small 1 bed apartment in a converted attic of an old House. It was converted 15 years ago. The apartment has hardwood flooring throughout (including kitchen and bathroom). The floor is bouncy in areas presumably where it has warped over time and bulged (?). My intention was to take it all up, back to the floor boards and then just put underlay and a new carpet down. However, under the hardwood floor seems to be a soundproof course (kinda spongy), about an inch. I'm thinking this must have been part of the requirements for the conversion. However, I've already purchased the underlay and carpet for the full apartment and lino for the bathroom and kitchen. Could I just screw the hardwood floor down? In the places it is bouncy, just put a screw through the hardwood and soundproofing into the floorboards? Just choosing screws long enough to bite into the floorboards without the risk of going through in case there are wires or pipes under the floorboards. Many thanks for any advice.

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4 Answers

Finesse Carpentry

Rating: 5 out of 5
Southsea
This is an alternative to providing insulation between floors of new builds or change of use by lowering the ceilings and fitting layers of acoustic insulation, which is not always possible. Sounds like you have the Rigid Flooring Insulation which is a layer of Polystyrene as far as I am aware. If the floor is not excessively bouncy then I would leave it as because as you say you might well hit a pipe or wire, but if you must secure some boards down, then you need to drill through the floor board first, then gently go through the insulation layer until you hit the floor below, then you can assume that the boards below are around 20 mm so you can do your sums and hopefully get a screw length which is exact! Best of luck!
Answered14 October 2019
2

Primary Interiors

Rating: 5 out of 5
Chester Le Street
Sounds like it may have expanded slightly due to damp,the boards sound like they are pushing against themselves and forcing up under pressure. You could try screwing them down but ideally the boards need to be trimmed back around the perimeter to release the pressure and to give the boards somewhere to expand into. I hope this helps.
Answered14 October 2019
2

Anonymous user

Hardwood flooring should have been nailed down when fitted through the tongue. If it's warped it could be because it wasn't nailed or its not had a big enough gap ldft when fitted I would screw or nail through the tongue if it can be lifted back
Answered14 October 2019
1

A.c.brown Cambridge carpets and flooring

Rating: 5 out of 5
Cambridge
If it's an rigid acoustic underlay and you screw it to the floor you might as well take it up, because you'll render it useless as the screws will act as transmitters through it. Sounds like it wasn't laid properly
Answered18 October 2019
0