The T&G flooring in my bedroom is pretty rubbish. Over the years, it
has dried out a lot, to the point where it's a contour map of knots
that can be felt through the carpet. In thinking about doing the room
up this summer, the options seem to be to either get a big floor
sander thingy on hire and level it or replace the lot. SWMBO think it
would be nice to have a hardwood floor, so it looks like replacement
might be on the cards. Looking for boards, however, almost everything
hardwood I can find seems to be a bit thin for actual floorboards and
seems more to be designed to go over an existing floor, whereupon it
would be pretty thick.

Am I missing the point somewhere here? I know that hardwood is
probably pretty expensive but, if I'm going to rip the existing stuff
up, I'd rather like to re-lay one floor, not two, and to wind up with
roughly the same level I started with. It may be that the most
sensible option is to settle for pine or (more simply) chipboard and
carpet, but I wondered if anyone here can tell me a better way (no,
not a 1 inch layer of car body filler laid using an angle grinder!).

Cheers

On Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:40:22 -0700, GMM wrote:
Looking for boards, however, almost everything
hardwood I can find seems to be a bit thin for actual floorboards and
seems more to be designed to go over an existing floor, whereupon it
would be pretty thick.

We're mostly on hardwood (Maple, I believe) at home - the (1-1/2" wide)
T+G hardwood strips are about 3/4" in height, laid over some sort of
cardboard-like material (maybe 1/16" thick), laid over the top of typical
rough floorboards (3/4" thick again).

The floorboards run at 45 degrees to the hardwood strips above (i.e.
diagonally across the rooms, with the hardwood strips parallel to the
longest wall) - maybe that helps absorb any distortion.

There's no sign that they ever sanded the floorboards down or anything to
make them level before putting the hardwood strips over the top; maybe the
cardboard layer's there to help absorb minor distortion (although more
likely there to stop critters getting in - I can't imagine it's any good
as insulation, sound-deadening, or as a damp barrier)

wondered if anyone here can tell me a better way

astroturf! :-)

cheers

Jules

On Jul 2, 4:40*pm, GMM wrote:
The T&G flooring in my bedroom is pretty rubbish. *Over the years, it
has dried out a lot, to the point where it's a contour map of knots
that can be felt through the carpet. *In thinking about doing the room
up this summer, the options seem to be to either get a big floor
sander thingy on hire and level it or replace the lot. *SWMBO think it
would be nice to have a hardwood floor, so it looks like replacement
might be on the cards. *Looking for boards, however, almost everything
hardwood I can find seems to be a bit thin for actual floorboards and
seems more to be designed to go over an existing floor, whereupon it
would be pretty thick.

Am I missing the point somewhere here? *I know that hardwood is
probably pretty expensive but, if I'm going to rip the existing stuff
up, I'd rather like to re-lay one floor, not two, and to wind up with
roughly the same level I started with. *It may be that the most
sensible option is to settle for pine or (more simply) chipboard and
carpet, but I wondered if anyone here can tell me a better way (no,
not a 1 inch layer of car body filler laid using an angle grinder!).

Cheers


Just so youre aware, a cheap easy option is to lay either 3mm
hardboard or 6mm ply on top of the existing floor.


NT

Owain wibbled:

On 2 July, 16:40, GMM wrote:
... *Looking for boards, however, almost everything
hardwood I can find seems to be a bit thin for actual floorboards and
seems more to be designed to go over an existing floor, whereupon it
would be pretty thick.

What you want is "structural" wood flooring that does not need a sub-
floor and goes straight over the joists.

It will probably be noisier downstairs though with people walking
about upstairs.

Chipboard and carpet is of course the sensible option :-)

Owain

IIRC Kahrs 15mm engineered said it was structural, with joists at up to 2'
spans.

I've also seen oak in 18mm somewhere.

Owain writes:

On 2 July, 16:40, GMM wrote:
... Â*Looking for boards, however, almost everything
hardwood I can find seems to be a bit thin for actual floorboards and
seems more to be designed to go over an existing floor, whereupon it
would be pretty thick.

What you want is "structural" wood flooring that does not need a sub-
floor and goes straight over the joists.

It will probably be noisier downstairs though with people walking
about upstairs.

Just put some mineral wool batts between the joists before laying the
new boards. It works fairly well accoustically (short of doing the whole
rubbber sheet + floating joist thing).

--
Jón Fairbairn
http://www.chaos.org.uk/~jf/Stuff-I-dont-want.html (updated 2009-01-31)