It's major decision time, guys and dolls, and I need a bit of advice here. I have a 3 bed flat, two largish rooms and two tiny, small hall, small kitchen, small bathroom. I've been donated some maple reclaimed flooring - probably do one room and a bit more, so starting with reception/living room. I plan to leave the existing wooden floor which is under carpets right now, and consists of 6 inch pine planks, unfinished with holes between the planks (?original shrinkage). I don't intend to use that because I want some soundproofing and anyway it's pretty basic looking.
Questions: a) I'd like a layer of soundproofing - I'm a musician and on 2nd floor. Don't plan on anything very noisy like acoustic piano, but use electric keyboard (can use control volume). So what soundproofing to use - most damping for least height preferred - can you suggest types and suppliers pref. in W.London area.
b) This is going to add height, so to keep all surfaces in the flat the same I'll have to add height right through - maybe stone floors in bathroom etc. Anybody forsee problems with this?
c) I have a nice chap to fit it - jobbing handyman who already fitted the rest of the reclaimed flooring at a mate's place, so he knows the problems. There's original glue on the flooring so some of the tongues and grooves won't fit, others don't go right in. He cleaned up as best he could in laying it, and where the wood didn't go right in he planed off the tongues, or if the two surfaces didn't come flush he filled in with a mixture of PVC and sawdust. I saw his floor, and though not perfect, it looked pretty good. Question - will anything clean up the tongues and grooves fairly quickly, e.g. a router used on either the tongues or the grooves or both?
d) In my mate's place he nailed the flooring onto the old beams(joists), having taken up the old floor. In my place he'd be nailing through the soundproofing layer into the pine floor - do you foresee any problems with the nails holding, or the maple planks moving?
e) Using nails doesn't make it a floating floor - what am I going to lose from the soundproofing angle - a lot or a little?
Have to give the fitter a date to start, and want some information on all the above, so all help very, very welcome. Thanks in advance. Andy