Hi all,

The floor in my flat is currently awful carpet, on awful ply "slabs",
on battens, on concrete. I was pondering fitting carpet or laminate.
But it just occured to me that it might be possible to fit "real"
floorboards on top of the existing battens. Is this likely to cost
much more (or less) than carpet or laminate? Is it even possible?

Antony

On 28 Mar 2005 15:58:06 -0800, "antgel" wrote:

Hi all,

The floor in my flat is currently awful carpet, on awful ply "slabs",
on battens, on concrete. I was pondering fitting carpet or laminate.
But it just occured to me that it might be possible to fit "real"
floorboards on top of the existing battens. Is this likely to cost
much more (or less) than carpet or laminate? Is it even possible?

Antony

Definitely.

Laminate is the semilla del diablo of the flooring world, and carpet
is only marginally better.

A proper hardwood floor can be purchased for about £25/sq. m.
(sometimes less) which is not significantly more than the cost of a
good quality carpet plus underlay.

You can either fit it directly to the battens using secret nailing, or
you could do a floating floor on top of the ply using a special
underlay.

Finish can be in oil, oil/wax or if you must, varnish.

If well done, which is not very difficult if you rent a chop saw and a
flooring nailer, it will look superb.



--

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

Interesting - very interesting. There is no way that I'd float it on
the ply. The ply must go, if I put anything nice down. Care to
recommend any suppliers? Preferably in London - I'd like to go there
and take a look at the actual product.

On 28 Mar 2005 16:54:48 -0800, "antgel" wrote:

Interesting - very interesting. There is no way that I'd float it on
the ply. The ply must go, if I put anything nice down. Care to
recommend any suppliers? Preferably in London - I'd like to go there
and take a look at the actual product.

have a look back through the archives of this group in Google Groups.

I am pretty sure when we had this topic a few months ago that there
were some recommended suppliers in London.

But definitely take a look. There are numerous species of wood used
for flooring and also different types (more or less live knots)
depending on the style that you like and what else you plan to have in
the room.


--

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

antgel wrote:
Hi all,

The floor in my flat is currently awful carpet, on awful ply "slabs",
on battens, on concrete. I was pondering fitting carpet or laminate.
But it just occured to me that it might be possible to fit "real"
floorboards on top of the existing battens. Is this likely to cost
much more (or less) than carpet or laminate? Is it even possible?

Antony


Check your lease if you have one or at least be aware that you'll
probably upset your downstairs neighbours.

wrote:
antgel wrote:

Hi all,

The floor in my flat is currently awful carpet, on awful ply "slabs",
on battens, on concrete. I was pondering fitting carpet or laminate.
But it just occured to me that it might be possible to fit "real"
floorboards on top of the existing battens. Is this likely to cost
much more (or less) than carpet or laminate? Is it even possible?

Antony



Check your lease if you have one or at least be aware that you'll
probably upset your downstairs neighbours.


Another wounder. It clearly states that this is a no-no. So in one
day, I've gone from halogen downlights and real wood flooring to normal
lights and carpet. I'm not really annoyed though, which probably shows
that my inital desires were not backed up with thought.

Antony

Antony Gelberg wrote:
Check your lease if you have one or at least be aware that you'll
probably upset your downstairs neighbours.


Another wounder. It clearly states that this is a no-no. So in one
day, I've gone from halogen downlights and real wood flooring to
normal
lights and carpet. I'm not really annoyed though, which probably
shows
that my inital desires were not backed up with thought.

Antony

Lay the wood over the carpet and put the halogens in a second suspended
ceiling :-)

wrote:

Another wounder. It clearly states that this is a no-no. So in
one
day, I've gone from halogen downlights and real wood flooring to
normal
lights and carpet. I'm not really annoyed though, which probably
shows
that my inital desires were not backed up with thought.

Lay the wood over the carpet and put the halogens in a second
suspended
ceiling :-)

exactly, you can probably have your wood floor if you lay it as a
floating floor over the ply, so that when you go you take it with you.

If the price of hardwood is a problem, softwood is cheaper, and should
still last a century.

If for some reason even these are not allowed, there is one last
option. That is to remove the ply and replace with new ply, score a
tile pattern into the wood surface, and varnish it etc. You get a nice
looking wood floor if you use ply with an ok finish and cut it naetly.


NT