filling in cavity of a suspended floor

Odster

Hi

I live in an Edwardian ground floor flat with suspended wooden floors.

When we bought the place, the survey said that the bathroom and kitchen floors were solid. After taking up the kitchen tiles, we found this was untrue however the bathroom DOES appear to be a solid concrete floor.

This confuses me as I have no idea why it would be. Has anyone heard of people choosing to fill in a suspended floor? Or is it more likely to be some sort of levelling compound (there's no flex when you stamp the floor)?

We have damp problems on the bathroom walls which I need to sort out so I'm keen to understand the construction and what may be going on. Other than drilling through the floor, I'm not sure how else to find out what has been done.

cyclonebri1

With all due respect you can, or anyone else with a little structure knowledge can tell if a floor is suspended(wooden), concrete lintelled, or solid.

The issue I know nothing about is your liability and responsibility to the upper floor tenants re and "foundation work"??????

Odster

Thanks for your response. It sounds as though my and (more worryingly) my surveyor do not have the required structure knowledge :-(

I could tell if I could see from the side but the walls around the bathroom go down to the foundations so I can't look under from another room. I only have access to the top and it seems pretty solid....but then so did the kitchen until the layers of tile, adhesive and plywood came off.

DirectDebacle

Remove the bath panel and see whats behind it. You might find floorboards. If not then its a good place to do a test drill.

cyclonebri1

DirectDebacle wrote: »

Remove the bath panel and see whats behind it. You might find floorboards. If not then its a good place to do a test drill.

Good point :T, the level at which the bath drain exits the wall will give a good idea too

Daz2009

My 1930's house had a bathroom next to the kitchen.The bathroom was concrete floor and the kitchen suspended floorboards.
It has since been knocked thru to make just a kitchen.
I just think it was the way things were done back then.