solid wood flooring on plasterboard

bretts

Hi

I got solid wood flooring done a year ago, its floating so its not joined anywhere to anything, my builders were absolute rubbish so I am going to redo this but I just want to know the correct procedure. I have a normal semi detatched 1930's house, at the moment the wooden flooring is on top of the floor board.
underlay is http://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Fibreboard-Flooring-Underlay-5mm-20-Pack/p/215589
I think I have a lot of draught coming through the floor and no matter how much heating is on it turns freezing cold in an hour at the max.
Can you please recommend what is the correct procedure to lay it, the floorboard is not very stable, this is what i was told by the builder but I dont think he did anything to make it stable.
I really want to incorporate some damp proofing and insulation as it is absolutely freezing cold in the house with RH at about 80 to 90% all the time

Sorry I meant floorboard not plasterboard on the thread header and I cant change it now.

jc808

You can lay a floating floor on plasterboard if you want. It has no unsulating properties.

Sounds to me like you have two problems

1) Cold/ damp
2) Floor 'unstable' (You mean out of level? pls clarfiy - if you mean 'unstable' as in it moves or is falling through the ground then that needs structuarl work!!!!)

To level the floor you can get a builder to lay some self levelling screed in low points (easy) or rip up the floor boards, fill the gaps inbetween (making sure theres still airflow in the subfloor) with insulation and put new floorboards down nice and level. (hard)

Once this is done, lay some underlay or better, thin insulation batts (if you didnt insulate the floor below earlier, and IF you have enough room still to open doors etc) then ley your final floor.

Make sense?

Yo mentioned damp - have you checked the subfloor vents outside arent bloced???

bretts

Hi

Thanks a lot for your reply
Sorry I mentioned Plasterboard, I actually meant floorboard
When the builder was doing the flooring, I found massive gaps in between the floor tiles, they were normal t&g, I never saw such untidy flooring anywhere, when I questioned him he said that the flooring is not correct and its inconsistently cut, it was from wickes, I insisted it cant be as they sell to a lot of people and if there was so much complaint they could not have continue selling it, well he always used to find fault with the place we bought the stuff from, he even said ikea did not deliver everything and later we found everything in the same place he just did not look for it.
So when he saw I was not taking it that the flooring was incorrectly cut by the manufacturer he blamed the floorboard saying that is quite wobbly and that he has had to nail it down in a lot of places to make it suitable for the wooden flooring.
I kicked him out as he was just taking a p*** out on everything but now after he has gone the flooring as it was neither insulated or protected in anyway from damp is swelling in places not only on ground floor but on first floor too.
This is the reason of my thread, I want to redo it but dont know the correct procedure.
I have the airbricks open, I have not blocked them even though I am tempted to as its freezing and I have a 10 month old baby who crawls and his hands are freezing even though we have rug.

jc808

pictures?

Well done on kicking out that cowboy, wickes stuff may not be the best, but doubt itll be noticably out!!!

You need to sort the damp out before you do anything.

Whats the floor made of - **exactly?**
- Wooden subfloor (ie joists underneath floorboards) direct onto ground below with no gap underneath?
- Wooden subfloor (ie joists underneath floorboards) with a gap underneath? IF so how deep is this gap?
- Concrete floor?

bretts

http://postimg.org/image/g2bvqlrjx/
http://postimg.org/image/jkgfq4uqz/
http://postimg.org/image/mtvg8l7bl/
http://postimg.org/image/rs4mn4g9x/
http://postimg.org/image/c9ph3o94n/
I know wickes is not best but it cant be this bad
A lot of it is under rug and the swelling and creaking is something i cant capture
Subfloor is wooden and joists i think are wooden i was never standing when he was doing work
there is some gap between joist and floor but i dont know if that is concrete or mud

bretts

http://postimg.org/image/ebm4fcng9/

jc808

Hmmmm

If it went that way (ie with all the gaps) after, say a few years or after a flood, id say fair enough.

If it was like that when laid, its your floor fitter...

With the laying of a wooden floor, its all about the prep ie
- Floor level
- Damp eliminated
- movement eliminated (ie any shaky joists firmed up)
- Proper underlay fitted etc

Get someone who knows what theyre doing to take it back up and sort the damp out/ any insulating levelling needed, then relay it

Or you can do yourself.

jc808

Also was the boards 'acclimatised' before laying

http://www.peakoak.co.uk/blog/should-engineered-oak-flooring-be-left-to-acclimatise

wealdroam

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bretts

Hi
Well it's been horrible as he did reskim the whole house and in less than a year it's all cracked up.
The flooring was left in the room for almost 6 weeks as the job he was supposed to finish in 4 weeks he did not finish in 16 to 18 after which I got so irritated I kicked him out.
Well I am doing dpc these holidays and as far as flooring is concerned I would have to take it out and check what's under the floorboards and joists but I just wanted to know what is the normal procedure so once I start it I know I am doing it or getting it done correctly.
The flooring was laid as it is in the pictures, if you see closely in a lot of places he's just filled up the gaps with some crap I don't remember what it was. He completely ruined the skimming electrics plumbing flooring everything and I am doing things on my own slowly every week when I get time. He could nott even get the painting work right which I did on my own in a much better way I guess.

cyclonebri1

Wickes flooring is absolutely fine, the issue is with that incompetant so and so that butchered it's installation.

People underestimate how much these floors move due the thermal expantion/contraction and even more so the humidity changes, the floor must be allowed to move at all edges otherwise it will pull apart, bulge or lift and creak and moan depending on the change in climate.

One dodge is beading nailed to the skirting with a strip of foam draft excluder to the underside, stops most of the draughts.