Good people of uk.d-i-y,

I have a coldish, north facing, ground floor room which we would like
to make more comfortable and usable rather quickly.

The floor is old T&G floorboards, in good condition (sanded and
sealed 3 or 4 years ago), but obviously a bit gappy since they've
probably been down as long as the house has been up, so say 160 years.

In the centre of one wall, there is a stone slab, say 150*50 cm, at
about 7mm (but rather uneven) above the level of the floor.

If I wanted to carpet this room, (and SWMBO says that I do!), how
would I go about this? My concerns are mainly:

* How to avoid damp in the stone area (either coming up through it or
condensing on the top surface of it.

* How to avoid having too much of a bump where the stone hearth slab is
- it's an old house, so a little bump would be in character if the
carpet wouldn't wear on the edges of the bump.

(I know I could take the boards up, insulate below and relay them
without the gaps and also remove the stone slab while I was about it,
but I really don't have time for that right now.)

Cheers,

William.