Chipboard flooring for use in a damp situation? Can it work?

cyclonebri1

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Food for thought.

What concerns me though is that like i said - whoever put this in place all those years ago took the same approach you suggested (felt), and for whatever scientific reason that is beyond my capacity, it hasn't worked. I've seen felt there as a barrier & slate too in sections. Some joist ends are wetter than others.

I guess i'm lucky since i can get various materials either dirt cheap or even free. As such i would probably go for the overkill approach. Put visqueen down on the sleeper wall but then perhaps felt on top of this to stop any sweating getting to the joist.

Can't harm things & i guess overkill isn't bad

Though a thought has just come to me - i remember someone (one of the many builders i've spoken to i think) saying they'd put a sand & cement mix down on top of the sleeper wall first, with waterproofer in the mix.

Let me just clarify my info here.

When I suggested felt etc, it was for over the joists to protect the floor boards or whatever surface you settle on, not to protect the joists although there is no reason it shouldn't.
Poly/Visqueen etc is perfectly suited as a barrier between the joists/joist ends and the end walls or sleeper/skeleton walls, sweating isn't an issue in those cases.

Now, the reason the timbers are rotting is the fact that the air is constantly saturated down there, it will jump any amount of isolation materials as it's likely being absorbed from the air, not transmitted via brickwork.

You can slow the process, but without removing the root cause,...........

JustAnotherSaver

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Let me just clarify my info here.

When I suggested felt etc, it was for over the joists to protect the floor boards or whatever surface you settle on, not to protect the joists although there is no reason it shouldn't.
Poly/Visqueen etc is perfectly suited as a barrier between the joists/joist ends and the end walls or sleeper/skeleton walls, sweating isn't an issue in those cases.

Now, the reason the timbers are rotting is the fact that the air is constantly saturated down there, it will jump any amount of isolation materials as it's likely being absorbed from the air, not transmitted via brickwork.

You can slow the process, but without removing the root cause,...........

Ohh right sorry, my misunderstanding. I thought you meant felt between sleeper wall & joist, not between joist & floorboard.

There is currently felt between sleeper wall & joist but as you can tell from the photo, it's not working the best.

As for wet floorboards, that's a strange one. I don't know why they're wet. I think it's funny that the majority of it surrounds the hearth of the fire. We're looking at having this removed anyway. I've had a look underneath & i can't see any reason why the floorboards should actually be visibly WET.

But yeah, slowing down will do me. Like i say, if we get 40 years out of this then i'm happy.

heretohelp

If this was my house and I was going to be living in it for many years to come I would use block and beam. If you lay the beams short ways 3.5m I think you said.
The shorter lengths will make it easier to handle as you will most likely have to take a window out to get them in your house.
Pick a spot where you want a hatch and cut a section out of the beam say 1m long, build two sleeper walls with proper foundations so nothing sinks under the cut ends.
Lay the beam back in resting on the sleeper walls and continue laying the blocks. The section you have made removable fix some heavy duty rawl plugs into the blocks to aid lifting out at a later date.
If you screed the floor fix a piece of plywood over the removable blocks and one beam so you can find it at a later date.

JustAnotherSaver

heretohelp wrote: »

you will most likely have to take a window out to get them in your house.

We're quite lucky that way - i don't think we would.

We'd just walk them down the side of the house in to the back garden & then through the patio doors to the diner, continue on through the french doors & bang you're in the living room.

With all that said, i think replacing like-for-like but with a few differences (such as replacing wooden floor with wooden floor but with wrapping ends, visqueen under joists on sleeper wall etc) will meet our requirements & be cheaper/easier.

Our requirements are not for a floor that will last from today & still be fine in 200 years time. It just needs to be good during our time there. At the very most this is going to be i would guess approx. 40-50 years.
With the current floor having been there 80 years as it is & could still very likely remain there for years more, i'd say a wooden floor setup would (should) be fine for us.

In addition, because of the help given we will be looking at including a few more air bricks. 4 is the maximum i think we could add, so we'll certainly be looking at that. I know some have commented on how this will make the house like a wind tunnel with the draughts, but i don't see it myself. It's not draughty at the moment & once the underlay & carpeting is down i don't see it making any wind tunnel.


This does NOT mean i'm ungrateful for the help given. This isn't set in stone (no pun!) but if we change our mind & go block & beam then the advice given has been helpful. Even if we don't go with B&B, we appreciate the time taken to offer help.

heretohelp

Just had a crazy idea so had a Google for plastic floor joists and found them company called plastecowood.com based in wales.
There is no prices on the site but a call or email will sort that out.
You might have to build some sleeper walls to support them but might be worth a try. Also ask them for a big discount and you will let them take pictures and other promotion stuff might just be a way for them to sell the plastic joists to the building trade.

JustAnotherSaver

What a bizarre idea. I'll look into that tomorrow as i'm about to hit the sack. Thanks.

Ruski

Well you can get plastic fence posts.. so I don't see why not!

Russ