chipboard flooring

[chipboard]

Hi Group,

which offers better resistence to damp & shrinkage/warping? chipboard flooring or plywood? it's to be laid on top of concrete floor which has a DPC below, but as a added precaution, we're laying plastic sheets on top of the concrete floor before we lay any floorings down. we've seen this

which is tongue & groove & easier to lay... but as we're in a lower ground floor property with a higher chance of rising damp + all the heavy rains recently, i don't want to see our floors bucking & moving in time to come. We've been told to have floating floors as securing it into the concrete might damage the DPC below & risk having rising damp. Any advice greatly appreciated!

chipboard novice:)

[Andrew Gabriel]

Both are available in water resistant types. Flooring grade chipboard is greenish in colour. I left a piece outside for a few years and it's still fine. Marine plywood is I believe similarly water protected, but it's very expensive and I don't have direct experience using it.

That's not flooring grade chipboard. It will probably turn to mush the first (or second) time someone spills a cup of tea. Flooring grade chipboard is also tongue and groove. Get it from a builders merchant (and specify water resistant so you don't end up with something like those loft boards).

[Andrew Gabriel]

Second question, why are you laying anyother floor on the concrete?

[GTS]

My house in Goldsworth Park, Woking, was built with floating floors back in

1980. The boards are the greenish flooring grade type - and I hate them! I think they are only guaranteed for 20 years max - and how many people want to replace their floor every 20 years! Mine have distorted - they dip in the middle and some 'rock' as you walk on them. Because thay go under internal partition walls, door frames etc I don't see how you could ever replace them. Worst of all they have an unpleasant odour, I guess where they are breaking down or have absorbed moisture over time. I assume builders only use this kind of flooring 'cos it's cheaper than any other type... GTS

[Andrew Gabriel]

This is rubbish.

This was bad workmanship when the house was built (sadly not uncommon). I rented a 1969 Anglia Homes house that had the same problem. The joins in the boards didn't line up with floor joists. That's just grossly sloppy building.