Hi

I've got a concrete floor that I need to fix. It's a bit uneven, not too
bad, but not good enough to lay a carpet or laminate flooring directly onto.



The thing is, the whole downstairs floor (kitchen and living room) could do
to be raised up about 2.5 inches, so I was thinking of laying down wooden
battens (47x47mm), levelling them up then laying down 18mm chipboard
flooring on them. Then probably laminate flooring on top of those.



Seems to be the most cost effective way of levelling the floor and raising
it at the same time. Is this is a good idea, or does anyone have a better
one ?



Thanks

Zen coughed up some electrons that declared:

Hi

I've got a concrete floor that I need to fix. It's a bit uneven, not too
bad, but not good enough to lay a carpet or laminate flooring directly
onto.


The thing is, the whole downstairs floor (kitchen and living room) could
do to be raised up about 2.5 inches, so I was thinking of laying down
wooden battens (47x47mm), levelling them up then laying down 18mm
chipboard flooring on them. Then probably laminate flooring on top of
those.

That would work. Have you also considered floorboards or thicker engineered
wood as both of those can be laid direct on the battens?



Seems to be the most cost effective way of levelling the floor and raising
it at the same time. Is this is a good idea, or does anyone have a better
one ?

Seems a good idea as you want to bring it up so much. It would be a good
idea to engineer some ventilation in between the battens even if it's just
leaving a gap between the ply and the wall and another gap between the
skirting and the floor.

Cheers

Tim

Zen wrote:
Hi

I've got a concrete floor that I need to fix. It's a bit uneven, not too
bad, but not good enough to lay a carpet or laminate flooring directly onto.



The thing is, the whole downstairs floor (kitchen and living room) could do
to be raised up about 2.5 inches, so I was thinking of laying down wooden
battens (47x47mm), levelling them up then laying down 18mm chipboard
flooring on them. Then probably laminate flooring on top of those.



Seems to be the most cost effective way of levelling the floor and raising
it at the same time. Is this is a good idea, or does anyone have a better
one ?



Thanks



Without ventilation under the chipboard I'd say the battens are sure to
rot. I'd top up with more concrete

Zen wrote:

I've got a concrete floor that I need to fix. It's a bit uneven, not too
bad, but not good enough to lay a carpet or laminate flooring directly onto.

The thing is, the whole downstairs floor (kitchen and living room) could do
to be raised up about 2.5 inches, so I was thinking of laying down wooden
battens (47x47mm), levelling them up then laying down 18mm chipboard
flooring on them. Then probably laminate flooring on top of those.

It is certainly possible, but you would have to consider adding
underfloor ventilation, and also address how you would get
airflow perpendicular to your battens.

I once had a house where something like this had been done.
Allegedly, although the whole street was built with solid floors,
the original purchaser of this property had insisted on wooden
floors, so they had used something like 2 x 1 on its side, laid
on dpc membrane on the concrete, then floorboards as usual.

There were only a couple of air bricks, and I had a mortgage
condition to add more, though I don't think they really
understood what was actually down there.

One small problem was that getting the whole floor evenly
supported was a bit tricky. I had to do some work under there
anyway, so tried to sort out the areas that were moving, but it
was rather like leveling a table ;-)

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Have dancing shoes, will ceilidh.

Thanks for your comments.



With regards to the damp problem, I should probably add that although it's a
concrete floor, it's not resting on the ground. Below the concrete is a
layer of sand and below that is the vaulted brick ceiling of the cellar that
extends the full width and length of the house.