Flooring woes

I'm hoping that someone can give me some advice. As we are decorating our hall, stairs & landing, my wife has decided that she'd like some laminate flooring in the hallway. After pulling up the carpet, I noticed that the floorboards looked a bit damp in places, the nails are all rusted and the boards are curling across their width. After lifting a couple of boards it is now evident that the previous occupant has at some point filled in between the joists with concrete but without any form of damp proofing so now the joists are like putty, the concrete is not level. I thought about about lifting the boards, laying a dpm and just laying new t&g boards to give a base for the laminate flooring. My question is - is this a crap idea ?

Many thanks

Franko.

Reply to
Franko
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This sounds more serious than your floorboards. How has the mositure travelled from the concrete to boards, are they in direct contact with the concrete or has the moisture travelled via the joists? Why was the concrete added, is it stabilising the building? Is there any ventilation of any remaining space between concrete and wood? Is there any sign of wet/dry rot? Are you sure the moisture is permeating through the cocrete rather than a pipe leaking into the underfloor void? One possibility may be a layer of ashpalt over the concrete, but first step is to find out why the concrete was put in.

Reply to
dom

Thanks for the swift reply,

I haven't a clue why it was done in the first place, all the other floors in the house are solid and damp free and seem to have been concreted/screeded properly at some point in time. The concrete is near enough level with the joists so the moisture is reaching the boards via both means. The joists are rotten and soft. there is no underfloor void as I presume the concrete has just been shovelled in between the joists and levelled off roughly - there has been a thin layer of some sort of bitumen painted on top of the concrete at some point in time but this is now cracked & bubbled. I don't think it adds any stability to the building as it is only in the hallway.

Thanks for any input.

Franko

Reply to
Franko

The message from "Franko" contains these words:

If the joists are like putty then I'd fix that first.

Reply to
Guy King

Did Fred West ever live or work in the house?? Baz

Reply to
Baz

I think the missus will want to bury me when I let her know how much work is involved in putting it all right ! Franko.

Reply to
Franko

The message from "Baz" contains these words:

I had a boss once who lived in Nielson's old house. Got it cheap.

Reply to
Guy King

If the joists are that bad, I'd suspect a leak, especially if your mains supply comes in from the front. You might be able to hear it if you put your ear to the mains when nothing is being used. Then turn the stopcock off in the road (if it works) and listen again. Last time I had experience of this the Water Board ran a test for free and luckily the fault was just on their side of the wall.

Reply to
Stuart Noble

Think you could be right Stuart, the water board have been out this afternoon digging up next doors pretty new block paved front garden - I asked them if they found a leak and they told me it is just inside the house !! Probably been leaking for years for it to rot the joists as bad as this so it looks like major work for me ahead. The Missus has just put the finishing touches to all the gloss work today so I don't think she'll be too pleased ! Franko.

Reply to
Franko

How close is their leak to your damp floor?

Chris

Reply to
chris_doran

Just the other side of the party wall so within about 5 feet minimum. Franko.

Reply to
Franko

If it's their leak causing your damage, it's highly likely you have a claim against them. Check they have insurance.

Reply to
dom

I doubt that I'd have a valid claim if the previous occupier filled the void between the joists with concrete - besides, i get on well with my neighbour and would rather not have a good chance of spoiling good neighbour relations by trying to claim on their insurance. Looks like I have a busy weekend then :-( franko.

Reply to
Franko

Either way it should be an insurance job. The important thing to stress is that you weren't aware of any problem until you took the carpet up, which you only did to put laminate down. If loss adjusters become involved, they might say it's a long standing thing that you've allowed to deteriorate. I had a similar problem in a house I was working on but that was a vinyl floor which had insulated the room from the devastation below for several years, so they accepted the claim.

Reply to
Stuart Noble

Rip it all out and do a concrete/DPM/insulation/screed job on it. Unless you are selling, in which case lay some supermarket polythene bags over the boards and then carpet.

Yes, folks, thats how MY house was originally sold to me...;-)

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

But surely you cannot put in a claim for the result of a stupid diy error even if it was dine in ignorance ? Franko.

Reply to
Franko

I think I'll go for the former option, I'd feel guilty forever if I sold the house at some point knowing that I'd bodged a job for someone else to find in the future and curse me, I still run through jobs in my mind that i did in my last house over 10 years ago wondering if I did everything correctly ! Franko.

Reply to
Franko

An insurance claim doesn't have to be acrimonious. Your neighbours may feel guilty if they discover their leak involved you in work and expense and you _didn't_ claim. In any case, AIUI, you claim on _your_ insurance and the insurance companies fight it out. How much is your excess? If you are going to claim, don't touch anything until the assessor has looked at it.

Your flooring -- concrete with embedded wood battens to take the nails

-- is not unusual, whether original or a previous DIY. After a similar incident on such professionally laid flooring, I was told that mould spores from the wood can permeate the concrete so this may have to be replaced too or the new floorboards will rot. OTOH it could just have been a builder on a job creation scheme and a douse with fungicide would be enough. What does the panel think?

Chris

Reply to
chris_doran

I worked with a bloke who was formerly Nielson's boss in the Civil Service.

Tim

Reply to
Tim S

How much gap have you got now? - that is to say, how much lower is the concrete / rotten joists below the other floors in the house? Is the concrete up to the top of the joists? If it isn't, you can remove the remainder of the joists and put a few inches of concrete in, then get it asphalted about half an inch thick, I've seen asphalt laid over quarry tiles, rough concrete without DPM underneath and loads of other surfaces without any problems, the asphalt itself is a much better damp barrier than anything you can buy on a roll.

Reply to
Phil L

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