Cost to repair/replace floorboards in 3 bedroom terraced house.

Aetherling

Me and the husband recently purchased a 3 bedroom terraced house built in 1961, and since moving in we have discovered the floorboards are in very bad shape and in need of repair or replacement sooner rather than later. There are patches of creaky floorboards in every room, with the largest ones being about a 1x1m. In two areas, the kitchen downstairs and the upper hallway, the floor seems to sag or bounce when walked on, and the joints between floorboards show as visible bumps or dips underneath the vinyl and carpet.

We had the house surveyed before buying it, and no structural damage was found, so we assume (and hope!) that this is just a case of old floorboards which haven't been maintained properly.

I am looking for advice on the following:
what kind of problem am I looking at - in the best scenario and the worst? There is no smell of rot or damp, but I know that the previous owners did not maintain the house at all while in possession of it, and I am slightly worried about what I might find if we start ripping up the carpets.
what would I be expected to pay on average, if I wanted to hire a contractor to lift the carpets, repair the subfloor (if we have one), repair or replace the floorboards throughout the whole house and put the carpets back down? It is a small terraced house, with the lounge being the biggest room at 4x10m.

I apologise if my questions seem vague. I have very little knowledge of DIY, which limits my ability to ask the right questions.

ic

Chances are most of it can be fixed by screwing the boards to the joists, watching for pipes and electrics below. Typically the floor will have been lifted to install central heating or whatever, and the boards have since worked loose.

phill99

I run a property maintenance company and am used to this type of thing. As the post above suggests, it can often be repaired by some well placed screws. If you want to lift the floors and have them relaid, the cost of Tongue and Groove floor boards is very high. More cost effective would be Moisture resistant floor Grade Chipboard, (known as 'Caber Flooring' or 'P5'). Its around £15 for a 2400 x 600mm board. So on a standard 3.5m x 3.5m room, you would need 9 boards, plus screws. Allow a days work per room for a chippy and a labourer (its a 2 man job moving the Caber Flooring around). So you are probably at £400/ room. Plus removing and refitting carpets (which would need to be done by a proper carpet fitter) who will fit new gripper rods and may need new underlay. Plus a skip to remove the old waste.


So your at around £2k for floor replacement plus a skip plus carpet refitting. I guess in total £3.5k

firefox1956

It could be the joists that the floor boards are fixed to that have rotted away at the ends where they sit on the supports.
It really needs some more investigation.
Get access under the floor & have a look with a decent torch.

A.Penny.Saved

Be aware that houses of this age use imperial size floorboards. The floorboards from the local DIY shed will not fit because they are metric sized and are smaller. Therefore actually replacing the floorboards is likely to add more cost.

My home is of a similar type and age and my floorboards are all imperial sized. Finding floorboards to fit is quite difficult.