Take up floor boards, fill in and concrete over?

travel_freak

Hi,

I've moved recently and the house is terraced. In one of the downstairs rooms I can hear (and sometimes feel vibrations) when my next door neighbours walk across the adjoining room in their house.

I'm not sure why this is - it seems maybe the joists might run through both houses. The room in question has wooden floorboards - strangely these are laid in a different direction to all the other floorboards in the house so I wonder if the originals were lifted at some time and these ones laid down incorrectly? Part of the floorboards here also seem to be "sloping"/

I had a builder round to quote for other things and picked his brains over this - he said it would be an option to lift the floor boards, put ballast etc., inbetween the joists and then concrete over rather than replace the floorboards.

Please does anyone think this would be worth doing, should it solve the noise and vibration problems? I would then probably either tile or laminate on the top.

Many thanks in advance for any tips.

Regards,

travel_freak

Hi

Just bumping this - please does anyone have any comments - does it sound like a mad idea or are there any alternatives to stopping the noise and vibratinos from next door?

Thanks in advance.

shandypants5

Filling in sounds like a good Idea to me...
But you would need to be carefull of damp course and ventilation issues..

dugowly

you should never concrete over a wooden floor or leave bits of the old wooden floor insitu, this could easily cause major problems such as a dry rot outbreak, or if they left enough wood in the concrete floor could 'settle' when the wood rotted.
It is also very probable that your original damproof course would be breached by the new concrete as the other person has already stated
apart from that it sounds like a great idea

djheath

This may be a really stupid suggestion and is based on what is in my head rather than what is real or correct, but if the joists run under the partition wall and into next door, could you cut each joist where it goes under the wall. This way it is no longer joined to next door and therefore cant move!!

Obviously, if the joists aren't supported then this wouldn't work and I am sure it would cause problems I have chosen to glaze over!!

Just a thought though!

ormus

your house is highly unlikely to have the same joists running into another house.
think you need to investigate further before you make your mind up as to what to do.
ie lift the flooring up first.

if you do the concrete floor thing, then remove all traces of wood first.
depending on what you find underneath you will prob require a 2ins layer of sand then a water barrier. ie visqueen membrane. 4ins insulation, then the 4ins concrete.
http://www.visqueenbuilding.co.uk/

travel_freak

Hi

Many thanks for all the helpful replies.

When you say to remove all wood first - sorry to be really dim! - but do you mean the floorboards only? I'm assuming the joists underneath are wooden and obviously they will remain, but it would be okay to fill in around the joists with hardcore/rubble, then a damp proof membrane and then concrete over the top? Have I understood this correctly?

I have no idea if the joists run through to my neigbours, this is just based on what a couple of visiting builders have suggested...

Every time I look around it seems there's something else to do in this place - just found out about various plumbing disasters and may need a new boiler, so I'm having a lot of fun at the moment - not!

Many thanks again.

ormus

no.
if you are going to do it then remove all wood inc the joists.
depending on the levels you may fill in first with hardcore. you need to be at summat like 10 inches below the final floor level. before the sand etc... as described above.

ie my house has a 4ft void under the floorboards. i would require a lot of hardcore lorries!

miss_corerupted

if you remove the joists and they are running under both houses u are going to have to fill in under both house aren't u??

u may have to discuss this with next door

Mikeyorks

In old houses .... all things are possible. So, whilst unlikely, it is a remote possibility you may share joists with the neighbours.

The floorboards have to run opposed to the joists (otherwise they'd fall down!) .. so they can't have been taken up and replaced incorrectly. The only other option is that someone has put sub-joists across the main ones, then put the boards back .. but can't think why and the resulting difference in levels would be hard to disguise.

The concreting doesn't sound sensible. All sorts of problems with damp proof / electrics etc. And you would have to remove the joists - you can't do it round them .. which will really cheese the neighbours off if you are sharing!

If it's really a problem - you need to get some boards up (must be a trap somewhere in an old house?) and have a look. Don't need to do many - shining a torch down into a hand held mirror - is something I'm very well rehearsed at, and you can see everything. If you do share .. and don't like being in a bouncy castle .... a few brick piers under the joists (topped with tile both as a DPC and tapped in to give the final tight fit) is probably the worst you need?

HugoSP

If there are vibrations coming through from your next door neighbour then the floor joists may only be part of your problem.

I would be keen to know what the party wall footings are like as well. Is the party wall just resting on the joists or is it built around the joists - ie joists go through wall?

My only thing you can do is as others say, take some boards up near the party wall, stick your head in there with a torch and have a look underneath.

It would be a good idea to have a chat with your neighbours as well. They may have the answer.

Solid concrete floors are not all bad btw. If they are done properly then no problems will arise.