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.

"William McNicol" wrote in message
...
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.)

Underlay up to the slab and around it.
PVC sheet over the slab
Fit carpet
Minimal height difference

its an old concrete fireplace hearth. knock it out and replace with
floorboards the right thickness. you might need to support the floorboards
in the centre with a short piec of joist.

tiscali wrote:
its an old concrete fireplace hearth. knock it out and replace with
floorboards the right thickness. you might need to support the floorboards
in the centre with a short piec of joist.

Looks like a big slab of real stone and goes under the (closed up)
fireplace, so removal starts to be problematical....

William.