Which extension floor option is best?

savagelyric

I've got a ground floor extension which has been damaged by water and damp due to patio flooding and water entering the air bricks (which are too low). The flooding has now been fixed (patio lowered away from air bricks and shared drain cleared) so I'm looking at fixing the inside damage now. 

The floor for the extension is timber suspended and I can see from the gap between the skirting board and the floor that some remedial work is needed.

Worst case scenario is that the floor needs replacing  - the question is do I replace with another timber suspended floor or go for concrete? I work from home in this room and it feels colder than the rest of the house, especially the floor, so would concrete help with this? 

Any advice appreciated - thank you.

LuckyHappy

Well, the concrete does not have thermal insulation properties so I guess it won't help you to make the room warmer. The best option, but also the expensive one is to cover the subfloor with a heating floor and put tile on top. A less expensive option is to cover your subfloor with laminate with cork underlay. But, it's not waterproof so you would need to check for any risk of flooding. In any case, I would not replace it with a wooden floor cause it's expensive, it's durable but not against the water, and it is hard to replace damaged parts and, again, it will not get warmer if the wooden floor is right on top of concrete.

FreeBear

savagelyric said: Worst case scenario is that the floor needs replacing  - the question is do I replace with another timber suspended floor or go for concrete? I work from home in this room and it feels colder than the rest of the house, especially the floor, so would concrete help with this?

If more than 25% of the floor needs to be replaced, Building Regulations would require insulation to be added if none is currently there. Even if the floor doesn't need replacing, it is worth insulating anyway (although it isn't always practical).

Replacing the suspended timber floor, you would have to put down quite a bit of insulation. If you go for a concrete floor, it would be worthwhile installing wet underfloor heating at the same time - Expensive, but puts you in a better position for the day when you have to install a heat pump. You may also need to install ducts under the concrete if you have suspended timber floors in the rest of the house..

savagelyric

Thank you both for the replies - since my original post, I've had the sub-floor replaced with another timber suspended floor and it has been well insulated.  When the floor came up, I discovered there no insulation at all before, no wonder it was cold!