Wood floor problem - advice please

tagz

Hi

I need to replace my wooden floor. At the mo we have floorboards that have been sanded (badly!) and varnished (just as badly!). The boards have split and in some places the joins are unsupported. We have two fireplaces with tiled hearths that are the same height as the floor. Or builder first advised us to replace the floorboards and then sand and varnish - but now he says we should fit a floating floor ontop of the old boards. He says not to bother lifting the skirting boards up and to just build up the hearth to meet the new floor level, otherwise we would have to replaster if the skirting boards were moved. He has gone against just replacing the boards as he said the fireplaces would have to come out as they are resting on the floor. Surely the new boards would just slide underneath them and go in the same position as the old ones? A huge problem is that fitting a floating floor would mean a step of about 2.5 cms from the hall into the living room, and as we wanted to replace the floor in a couple of other rooms too he said he would slope the floor in the office so that it would be flush where the hall floor joined it, but as it is a small room I think a slope would be very noticable.

What do you think? Money is a big consideration but I don't want a bodge job. Should I insist on the floorboards getting replaced, or go for the floating floor with steps and slopes. Is there a huge difference moneywise? Please help I'm getting really frustrated!

Inactive

tagz wrote: »

Hi



What do you think? Money is a big consideration but I don't want a bodge job. Should I insist on the floorboards getting replaced, or go for the floating floor with steps and slopes. Is there a huge difference moneywise? Please help I'm getting really frustrated!

I would get another builder if yours suggested " sloping a floor ".

You are paying the bill, so you tell the builder what you want doing, ask for a few quotes from different companies, preferably joiners / carpenters, not general builders.

debbie42

I went for the "floating floor" option of engineered boards. It does mean a rise in height of around 15mm, but we've bought a ramp thingy that goes in the doorway to adjust between the two heights. It's all sitting piled high waiting to be fitted at the moment, so I can't comment on the finished effect!

My skirting board was removed as the room needed skimming. However you can fit a bead around existing skirt. I have read on some sites about cutting below existing skirt, too, though that sounded tricky, to me.

A sloping floor in any room sounds decidedly dodgy to me: surely any desk you put on it will also slope??

edited to say: By the way, I'd have thought it nigh on impossible to replace floorboards without taking off the skirting boards.

silvercar

We thought we had knackered wooden flooring, all scratched, dodgy varnishing jobs and splintering ends. One guy recommended laying engineered wood on top. He was going to cut into the skirting boards and sand down the doors. There would have been a step into other rooms.

We got a second opinion from someone who sanded the boards, removing all the old varnish, re-varnished professionally. He used some filler that is mixed with the sawdust from the sanding to create exactly the colour of existing flooring to fill gaps and he replaced a few boards from the flooring inside the understairs cupboard. Good as new, with another 30 years life to it apparently!

tagz

Hi

Still wondering what to do! Debbie42 how did your floor go and are you happy? If we wanted to lay a new floor ontop of the old does anyone know how thick/thin we could have (don't want a huge step but want it sturdy enough!).

[EMAIL="I@M"]I'M[/EMAIL] GOING MAD!!!