Flooring for a Newly built Sun room

[bp]

Hi,

I live in a old terraced house. The garden has ben blocked paved by the previuos owner (red brick sized paving often seen on driveways etc). It is sound and flat and in good condition

I have had a sun room fitted in a part of the garden. In order to clarify what I mean by Sun room, It is like a conservatory, but alot cheaper, and it was custom built out of wood with a polycarbonate roof. It is a lean-to type of contruction. You enter into it from my kitchen and it has a door at the other end to go into the garden.

In order to protect the exposed wood the builder has clad the ouside and inside with plastic facia and put guttering etc. He did not i any way touch the flooring as we did not agree that with him.

I am not going to live in it - it really just for storage etc.

Once he had finished we talked about what type of flooring I could put down. He sugested that I could put some timber battens down, then use tongue and groove flooring (similar to the loft flooring material) and fix that to the battens. Then I could cover the floor with whatever I wanted (lino, laminate or nothing).

Will this create a damp problem for me or any other kind of problem later on Any suggestions as to what type of flooring I could put own. I dont want anything too complicated, just a way of neating the inside of this room

Many Thanks

[sm_jamieson]

Is the sun room built straight onto the block paved garden ? Is there a small low wall with the timber on top, or just timber (hopefully with a DPC under it) ? You could line the floor with a DPM, turn it up the sides into any DPC that may exists, then batten and floor over that. If no DPC, carry the DPM a little way up the wall (behind skirting boards etc). You'd do the same thing if you had a solid floor with no DPM and wanted to floor over it. Simon.

[Phil L]

But it was built on top of the existing block paving? - IE, it's not raised up in any way and water can easily get under the timber construction into the sun room?

Any timber you put down will last as long as if you laid it outside, probably less, because outside it has plenty of ventilation.

If it were mine, I would simply leave the paving down and coat it with a block paving sealant, this adds a bit of sheen, and it will make it easier to keep clean and stop it dusting up. The sealant is available from builders merchants and costs about £25 for 5 litres, which is sufficient for about 30m2 - it's similar to varnish and you can put it on with a roller or brush, and you'll need acetone or nailpolish remover to clean it off your skin afterwards