Ash & earth quarry tile floor

Nix74

Pulled up a carpet and found a quarry tiled floor laid on what I believe is an ash & earth floor. House was built in 1920’s and has been empty for 2 years. My question is, can this floor remain without issue if uncovered or should it be removed. I’d like to keep it as long as its not going to cause problems.

Doozergirl

It's fine. It'll be happier left uncovered too.

FreeBear

Doozergirl wrote: »

It's fine. It'll be happier left uncovered too.

Or if a covering is put down, make sure it is just a rug or hessian backed carpet. Don't be tempted to lay a foam backed carpet or rug as moisture will build up leading to mold. For the same reason, don't seal the tiles with a modern floor sealant.

tacpot12

The floor will have very little thermal insulation. I found the same floor in a Victorian terraced house I bought. I had it replaced with a concrete slab with six inches of insulation and a damp proof membrane. The house is warm and floor coverings aren't at risk from rising damp.

FreeBear

tacpot12 wrote: »

The floor will have very little thermal insulation. I found the same floor in a Victorian terraced house I bought. I had it replaced with a concrete slab with six inches of insulation and a damp proof membrane. The house is warm and floor coverings aren't at risk from rising damp.

The danger of replacing the floor with a concrete slab is that it will push the moisture in the soil up in to the walls - Victorian & later properties should have a decent DPC in the walls to mitigate this problem.

One solution that I have heard used to good effect (over on the Period Property forum) is to excavate the floor down to a good depth, put in a decent layer of compacted foamed glass, and top off with a limecrete floor. The foamed glass minimises the transmission of damp as well as providing insulation, and what little damp does get through evaporates through the limecrete.