Quarry tile query. Any help.....

Rachr

I live in a l1905 middle cottage in a row of 5. Its alwayshad its qurry tiled which run from the fedge of the front room, under the stairs and i to the kitchen (originally the kitchen and main dining room.).

Thwy qihave to come up. My concern is
1) i am assuming tjat thete isnt a damp course

2) once i lay fown membrane can i lay something else over the top rathet than concrete - issue is i have a dog and e en if i csn keep her away, if i concrete the floor how long nefore i could walk on it in order to access the top of the house.

3 in two minds as to whether to lay wood floor / laminate or whatever. Could i just lay underlay on it??

The wonderful quaintness has now been overtaken by how cold they are and me reading up tnat it prob foesnt have a damp course which explains one of the damaged skirting boatds.

I know that taking them up will be a pain. But any info would be grand.

FreeBear

1905 build - You may well be right in thinking that there is no damp proof membrane under the tiles although it is possible that there is a layer of bitumastic under the tiles - Your house is on the cusp of when DPC & cement started making an appearance in house construction. The use of slate & bitumastic had been in use as a DPC in walls for quite a few years prior to 1905.

Regardless of construction, please don't lift the quarry tiles and certainly don't put cement screed down - Leaving the tiles gives you a period feature to use as a selling point if/when you decide to move. Slapping cement down will trap moisture under the floor and force it in to the walls and give rise to further damp problems. Covering the tiles with foam or other plastic materials will also give rise to problems with damp.

Cork tiles would be an excellent choice as they will allow any moisture to evaporate as long as they are not glued down with a latex or rubber adhesive. Or felt underlay and a hessian backed carpet or rug.

Fire_Fox

Welcome to MSE. Please don't do anything based on assumptions.

Your description is eerily similar to my first property (Cambridgeshire). Our structural survey noted possible rising damp, and advised further investigation. Two freebie 'specialist' damp surveys/ reports recommended extensive DPC.

Third report we paid for, after we moved in. I went around with the Rentokil 'specialist'. We had damp in two chimney breasts (airbricks blocked by chimney detritus), and in walls to the rear of the property (concrete floor of later extension breached original DPC; plastered right down to concrete floor behind skirting).

Neither the original quarry tiled hall nor the kitchen/ living wood block floor were causing any problem, only the later additions. Sold the cottage some years later without damp being mentioned in survey ....fat profit.

Traditional style carpet runner looks well over quarry tiles and up the stairs IMO.

HTH!

FreeBear

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Two freebie 'specialist' damp surveys/ reports recommended extensive DPC.

This is a good point to suggest having a read of a thread recently posted on another forum - http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=16465

The "surveyor" was recommending a series of expensive remedial work to address problems with damp and completely missing the actual cause. Fix that, and the internal damp would evaporate.

Doozergirl

A rug will allow the floor to breathe around the edges of the room.

If you have some damp, then the cause won't be the floor. Of course it's possible to have water ingressing to a degree that the floor can't realease it quick enough, though.

Check that the ground levels outside are at least 150mm below your floor level and that your rainwater pipes are discharging neatly etc.