Floor over a floor?

[Geoff]

My house is a north london victorian semi. The floorboards under the carpet are in a sorry state but what's more, where the back of the living room used to be a kitchen, there is a small area that has tiling rather than floorboards (I don't know what is under the tiles).

I want a new wooden floor (now that we have a dog, carpets are not such a good idea) and I'm tempted to just lift the skirting boards, lay a new floor over the old one, then put the skirting back. Is this ok with regards to ventilation etc - any issues with doing this? Or is the only way to replace / fix the existing floor?

If I can overlay a new floor, is it ok to nail the boards to the floor underneath?

Thanks,

Geoff.

[Brian]

Geoff,

Perfectly feasible to do and you can nail new to old although you should be aware of the following:

1. Ensure that all pipes and cables are out of harms way of the nails before laying the boards. 2. whilst you are checking this, make sure that you locate all the cable and pipe runs and leave "traps" in the new boards for access along the whole run if possible - this ensures that if you have a problem there is no need to rip up entire boards. 3. you will probably need to reduce any doors to go over the new boards. 4. There is no need to lift the skirting, just cut the boards neatly to it and this will certainly save quite a bit of mess and redecoration (this will depend on the board thickness) 5. Ensure that any rot in the old flooring is eradicated first

If you think about it, if you were to lay a laminated flooring then you would have to put some sort of boarding on the old floor to straighten it all up.

Hope this helps

Brian