Floor insulation - ventilation question

stuart45

ChasingtheWelshdream said:

Actually @stuart45 I meant to ask you (as one of the many knowledgeable ones here) who knows about old buildings.

I’ve wondered why houses were built with a mixture of solid and suspended floors.

We have a front and back room with suspended timber, and the kitchen/utility (original scullery possibly) and hallway are solid. Just curious why not either all solid or all suspended.

Would you know?

Because kitchen floors get wet a lot more than the other rooms, it was thought to be better to have solid floors in them. Timber floors in other rooms were preferred for comfort reasons. It was only after WW2 when timber was in short supply that concrete floors for the whole ground floor became popular.

ChasingtheWelshdream

Thank you, curiousity satisfied. :-)

stuart45

It is also a better base for tiling, as halls and kitchens were often back then.
Downside to concrete for a lounge was also that before the DPM, they were more likely to be a bit damp.