kitchen concrete floor question

[Stephen]

Hello,

I was looking at buying a 2-up, 2-down terraced house which has a kitchen built onto the back. For some reason (I think to make it level with the garden) the kitchen floor is higher than that of the house, so there is a step-up as soon as you go into the kitchen from the lounge, which I didn't really like. I think I would have preferred a step up into the garden rather than a step in the lounge doorway.

I was wondering if I went ahead and bought it, whether I could use this as an opportunity to hire or buy a 15kg breaker and take 4 or 5 inches off the height of the floor to make it level with that in the rest of the house. Is this possible? Presumably I would have to be careful not to pierce the DPM or if I did, I would have to re-lay one. Who knows, I could put insulation in the floor at the same time!

It sounds simple but messy. Are there any pitfalls to be aware of? Should I just knock out the step and make a ramp instead and live with the height difference that way?

Thanks, Stephen.

[Kipper at sea]

kitchen built onto the back. For some reason (I think to make it level with the garden) the kitchen floor is higher than that of the house, so there i s a step-up as soon as you go into the kitchen from the lounge, which I did n't really like. I think I would have preferred a step up into the garden r ather than a step in the lounge doorway. I was wondering if I went ahead an d bought it, whether I could use this as an opportunity to hire or buy a 15 kg breaker and take 4 or 5 inches off the height of the floor to make it le vel with that in the rest of the house. Is this possible? Presumably I woul d have to be careful not to pierce the DPM or if I did, I would have to re- lay one. Who knows, I could put insulation in the floor at the same time! I t sounds simple but messy. Are there any pitfalls to be aware of? Should I just knock out the step and make a ramp instead and live with the height di fference that way? Thanks, Stephen

There could also be services underneath, such as gas and water.

[harryagain]

The DPM is the least of your worries. If you take up that much, you will be removing the entire thickness of the floor, ie down to whatever's under the concrete. Then you will have to remove/dig out some, (probably the best part of a foot) to get in some blinding material, DPM and insulation followed by new concrete floor. All this material will heve to be barrowed in/out of the house.

In and old building, you may uncover the building footings with so much excavation, they may only be a few inches below the floor level.

You risk water ingress by reducing the floor level below the outside level unless you dig away/reduce ground level outside as well. (All the way round the outer wall)

So major job, even for a small room. There would be issues with the communicating door height, you would need a special door or take out/refit the lintel above.

[Stephen]

I'd have a survey before committing to buying anyway but I have been to have another look and there are air bricks and apparently the ground floor was concreted 12 years ago. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing but I guess it's 12 years too late to do anything about that now without spending a lot of time and money to put a timber floor back in.

[Stephen]

Thanks, you have given me much to think about. I knew it would be a big job, so now I have to think whether it would be worth all the time, hassle, and money to do right. Thanks again.

[stuart noble]

IME a bad thing. Friends off ours had a solid floor terraced house and they never got to the bottom of various damp related problems. They also said it made their feet ache, and the place never felt "right" somehow.

[Tim Watts]

I had to fix one room here that is 4" concrete on earth. Used an epoxy DPM and a special prescription of levelling compound (regime supplied by F Ball, makers of the levelling compound and DPM).

It worked very well at sorting the damp out.

But yes, the floor is very cold in winter and not wearing slippers is bad. Which is why I put 12-20mm marmox insulation under the bathroom tiles and the bedroom floors (engineered wood on top). That worked very well at the expense of some variations in floor levels - but that was easily disguised with solid chamfered oak thresholds (planed lumps of wood screwed down across the doorways, not "trim").

However, if you concrete one room in a house that should have suspended floors, you are supposed to duct the air bricks through the concrete with drain pipe for the sake of the remaining timber floors. I guess that's moot if everything is concreted up.

[sm_jamieson]

A very common pattern is solid floored hall and kitchen (tiled), suspended timber everywhere else. If you've ever had a washing machine at full spin on a timber floor ... Simon.