Timber floor over concrete

Laminate is the semilla del diablo of the flooring world, and carpet is only marginally better.

A proper hardwood floor can be purchased for about £25/sq. m. (sometimes less) which is not significantly more than the cost of a good quality carpet plus underlay.

You can either fit it directly to the battens using secret nailing, or you could do a floating floor on top of the ply using a special underlay.

Finish can be in oil, oil/wax or if you must, varnish.

If well done, which is not very difficult if you rent a chop saw and a flooring nailer, it will look superb.

Interesting - very interesting. There is no way that I'd float it on the ply. The ply must go, if I put anything nice down. :) Care to recommend any suppliers? Preferably in London - I'd like to go there and take a look at the actual product.

have a look back through the archives of this group in Google Groups.

I am pretty sure when we had this topic a few months ago that there were some recommended suppliers in London.

But definitely take a look. There are numerous species of wood used for flooring and also different types (more or less live knots) depending on the style that you like and what else you plan to have in the room.

Check your lease if you have one or at least be aware that you'll probably upset your downstairs neighbours.

Another wounder. It clearly states that this is a no-no. So in one day, I've gone from halogen downlights and real wood flooring to normal lights and carpet. I'm not really annoyed though, which probably shows that my inital desires were not backed up with thought. :)

Antony

Lay the wood over the carpet and put the halogens in a second suspended ceiling :-)

suspended

exactly, you can probably have your wood floor if you lay it as a floating floor over the ply, so that when you go you take it with you.

If the price of hardwood is a problem, softwood is cheaper, and should still last a century.

If for some reason even these are not allowed, there is one last option. That is to remove the ply and replace with new ply, score a tile pattern into the wood surface, and varnish it etc. You get a nice looking wood floor if you use ply with an ok finish and cut it naetly.

NT