Carpet over underlay on plywood?

[Arese]

Gents

I ripped up the laminate flooring in what is to become my cinema room this afternoon, only to be surprised when I found the following:



The laminate had been nailed onto these batons, which in turn are nailed into the concrete below. I have carpet coming a week tomorrow, but I'm not really sure what to do. The distance from the concrete to the bottom of the skirting board is about one inch, so obviously carpet/underlay can't go directly onto that.

Would it be ok to get a load of plywood and nail it to the batons so that I've then got a flat plywood floor ready for the underlay and carpet?

Any other ideas?!

Cheers

[B17NNS]

That should be fine. I'd imagine your 'laminate' floor was actually probably a solid timber floor which should nit be laid as a floating floor over cocrete. Correct method is either to glue to the sub floor or batton and nail.

Personally I'd whip off the skirtings and renew level with the concrete but ply.would be fine.

If you go with the latter it might be worth insulating between the battons too.

[Laurel Green]

I think it would be best to use flooring-grade tongue & groove.

ETA: Sorry Matthew didn't see your post.

Edited by Laurel Green on Sunday 25th July 18:16

[Arese]

Thanks Gents. I'm trying to do this on the cheap, so rather than remove the batons and replace the skirting (which is already quite new) I'll price up some plywood. I'll post up pics when I'm done so you can laugh at my incompetence!

[rudecherub]

about one inch?

actually most carpet fitters will welcome a gap between the floor board and the floor, it makes for a better fit, and ensures the knife doesn't mark the skirting

Basically it's down to the thickness of your underlay + carpet, gripper as I recall is about 1.5 cm thick, so underlay is at least that thick, then you add the carpet on top of that.

I'd check with your carpet installer.

[Arese]

rudecherub said:

about one inch?

actually most carpet fitters will welcome a gap between the floor board and the floor, it makes for a better fit, and ensures the knife doesn't mark the skirting

Basically it's down to the thickness of your underlay + carpet, gripper as I recall is about 1.5 cm thick, so underlay is at least that thick, then you add the carpet on top of that.

I'd check with your carpet installer.

Hmm, you make a good point. He's going to pop in tomorrow night just to have a look.

Thanks

[Simpo Two]

Battens. As in what you do to hatches.

Batons are for conducting and twirling

Edited by Simpo Two on Sunday 25th July 21:13

[Spudler]

Arese said:

I'm trying to do this on the cheap

Whip the battens up, lay the carpet and underlay, any gap left cover with decorative moulding.
Cheap, and if done right could look effective.

Only other way is as already mentioned, T&G flooring but its unlikely the battens will be spaced at 2.4 which means adding more battens or cutting the lengths of flooring, which means possible squeeks etc.

[recalluk]

You COULD get some WHITE Moulding round the bottom of the skirting board if gap is still there. By this I mean the type of stuff you usually use to cover gap at wall when you lay laminate (if you cant be assed to move skirting.

Just looks like part of skirting then .... and has advantage you can hide speaker wire etc behind it (depending on room).

Edit : Oops just noticed coped Spudler ... sorry

Edited by recalluk on Monday 26th July 16:46

[Arese]

Thanks Gents

The problem with 'extending' the skirting is that I then have two doorways to deal with too. Though I suppose I could fashion some kind of mini-skirting or something. It's hard to explain without pictures.

The room is 4.7m x 3.3m, which I have rounded up to 20 square metres. It's going to cost me £140 delivered for enough 9mm plywood to cover.

[Busamav]

relay some cheap laminate flooring to raise the level .

If you do lay 9mm ply , be sure to put some battens under the unsupported edges.

[Laurel Green]

Arese said:

Thanks Gents

The problem with 'extending' the skirting is that I then have two doorways to deal with too. Though I suppose I could fashion some kind of mini-skirting or something. It's hard to explain without pictures.

The room is 4.7m x 3.3m, which I have rounded up to 20 square metres. It's going to cost me £140 delivered for enough 9mm plywood to cover.

Using Wickes T&G flooring it would cost half the price. Clicky.

[Fume troll]

T+G chipboard. It is T+G on all sides so the batten spacing doesn't matter, so long as you stagger the T+G joints. Screw it to the battens. For your gap probably 2400 X 600 X 22mm.

I'd fill in the gaps between the battens with kingspan too.

Cheers,

FT

[Arese]

Busamav said:

relay some cheap laminate flooring to raise the level .

If you do lay 9mm ply , be sure to put some battens under the unsupported edges.

Noted

Laurel Green said:

Using Wickes T&G flooring it would cost half the price. Clicky.

That looks great, but 18mm will be too thick

[Fume troll]

Sorry, read that as the gap from the battens to the skirting.

Probably rip off the battens then, and lay T+G chipboard as a floating floor on the concrete.

Cheers,

FT.

[was8v]

Cheapest would be to put your old wood flooring back down and carpet on top of that !!!!

Edited by was8v on Tuesday 27th July 14:54

[Arese]

Fume troll said:

Sorry, read that as the gap from the battens to the skirting.

Probably rip off the battens then, and lay T+G chipboard as a floating floor on the concrete.

Cheers,

FT.

Ok, I think I have two options.

1 - If I use the 18mm chipboard on top of the battens, I think they will end up slightly higher than the skirting boards by about 3mm. Is this a massive issue? The carpet fitter will be putting grippers down, but does the carpet really have to tuck under the skirting?

2 - Rip up the battens and put the 18mm chipboard onto the concrete. I can't recall how deep the battens are, but I think I'll then run the risk of the floor being too shallow.

Sigh. Stupid home-improvements-before-selling-up-and-moving idea.

[rudecherub]

Arese said:

Fume troll said:

Sorry, read that as the gap from the battens to the skirting.

Probably rip off the battens then, and lay T+G chipboard as a floating floor on the concrete.

Cheers,

FT.

Ok, I think I have two options.

1 - If I use the 18mm chipboard on top of the battens, I think they will end up slightly higher than the skirting boards by about 3mm. Is this a massive issue? The carpet fitter will be putting grippers down, but does the carpet really have to tuck under the skirting?

2 - Rip up the battens and put the 18mm chipboard onto the concrete. I can't recall how deep the battens are, but I think I'll then run the risk of the floor being too shallow.

Sigh. Stupid home-improvements-before-selling-up-and-moving idea.

Nope the carpet doesn't need to go under the skirting, 9/10 times it doesn't, it's just pinched in the gap between skirting and the gripper - if the chipboard floor is higher you just get slight shorter skirting visually.

[Fume troll]

You might get away with 18mm T+G on the battens. I think the max gap between battens is 450mm for 18mm, but check with some manufacturers. E.g. http://www.norbord.com/Caberboard_FAQ.shtml

Cheers,

FT.

[Arese]

Fume troll said:

You might get away with 18mm T+G on the battens. I think the max gap between battens is 450mm for 18mm, but check with some manufacturers. E.g. http://www.norbord.com/Caberboard_FAQ.shtml

Cheers,

FT.

Gents, you've potentially made my day. The max gap permissable for those 18mm boards is 450mm which I think I'm well within.

To floor the room in the chipboard will be £80. Wickes want £25 to deliver, but as these are only 600mm wide I should be able to fit them in the car. Might have to do a couple of trips mind as I need 14 of them.