Is it possible to remove part of a concrete floor base to lay reclaimed parquet?
Anonymous user 23/02/2024 - 3.44 PM
We live in a 1960's build house in London. The previous owners had a double extension built to the side of the house in the 1980's. The living room is carpeted and where the original living room would have ended and the extension starts is a slope downwards. I lifted the carpet to see what is underneath and found that the original square parquet seems to be present however this is butted up with concrete on the extension side which must have been poorly laid causing it to slope.
If it's possible to form an opinion without seeing it, do you think it would be possible to try and remove some of the concrete & level off the floor on the extension side, to then lay reclaimed parquet (area is approx. 2.55m X 4.8m in size) to match the original floor, or would it be more trouble & money than its worth & we should just replace the carpet?!
Thanks for your time.
Are you a tradesperson and able to answer this question?
You can take the concrete screed upThen you would have to then latex the floor and then put your Wood down you would then need to probably sand and seal the old and new wooden flooring to match A guide price I would say in the region of 2 to 2 1/2 thousand pounds
The process of levelling the floor (by removing concrete) involves involves using a really big angle grinder with (on basic versions) a spirit level and mechanism of course, attached to keep it true. This would obviously create a huge amount of dust so a really nice dust extractor and preseperator would also be required as well as extra time cleaning edges. Would probably be worth going over this with a thin layer of levelling compound to stop bits falling out where the concrete has been disturbed. The machinery and equipment needed alone is astonishingly expensive and the process noisy. I cant say I know anyone outside of manchester who has the equipment so would assume the price would be on the high side but it may be possible to rent the equipment from a local builders merchants.
Whole process should be done, easily inside a week but very unlikely that you would be paying a couple of labourers for the job, more than likely a team plus hidden extras like levelling compound (est. £2000) not including the new surface to be laid. Depends on experience tbh - more experience less worries getting the job done.
You could maybe set a concrete floor saw to a certain depth (i.e slightly below the depth of th parquet floor) and cut a load of strips a couple of inches apart. Then break the concrete out and use levelling compound to bring it back up to the required height to make the new parquet finish flush with the existing. Sounds incredibly labour intensive though and depending on whether there is underfloor heating/buried services may not be possible. Would maybe be better just to go over everything with a new floor and pretend you never saw the old parquet.
