Ply lining a floor without drilling?

[marky911]

Hoping for a bit of advice please. Our ground floors are asphalt e.g. the stuff they lay for roads. It' about an inch thick and forms the damp coarse for the floor. It is laid on the concrete base of the house.

Over the years, especially when subjected to heat from an open fire, furniture legs sink into the floor causing dips and troughs. I have a company lined up to smooth the floor out and fill any gaps which are left as we've taken some walls down, but we want to cover the floor with ply or similar to prevent any pressure points from furniture legs sinking into the floor again.

Drilling into the floor is not very wise due to it forming the damp coarse, so I need to stick it down with no-nails or some sort of glue. Or do I just leave it loose and rely on it not moving under the carpet. I'm guessing I'll need to leave an expansion gap around the edge of the room as per wood flooring?

Any advice welcomed. Thanks.

[B17NNS]

This stuff might work. Bitumen presumably sticks to bitumen and this also sticks to wood.

http://www.bostik.co.uk/construction/product/idend...

Alternatively I'm sure there is a Sikabond suitable.

[marky911]

Yeah that looks like it should do the trick. Big tin mind.

I'll look into it properly when back at a desktop. Cheers B17NNS.

[CoolHands]

what depth of ply? If it's 3/4" or something, I wouldve thought the weight of it would mean you don't need to glue? Assuming it's large sheets and not little tiddly bits anyway.

[Minemapper]

Asphalt for interior floors? I've never heard of such a thing.

Would it be possible to get some pics of this?

[Fotic]

marky911 said:

Hoping for a bit of advice please. Our ground floors are asphalt e.g. the stuff they lay for roads. It' about an inch thick and forms the damp coarse for the floor. It is laid on the concrete base of the house.

Over the years, especially when subjected to heat from an open fire, furniture legs sink into the floor causing dips and troughs.

What on earth? I've never heard of such a thing.

[magooagain]

I would imagine that you wont want a ply that is to thick due to the door hieghts etc.
So gluing may be the only option. If so make sure the glue will not react with the ashpalt.

How about finding an adhesive sealer then self levelling the floor all over? There are so many types on the market now you could be lucky finding one just for the job.

[sleep envy]

Minemapper said:

Asphalt for interior floors? I've never heard of such a thing.

Would it be possible to get some pics of this?

Pretty typical for a house built in the 1910-1920 period, had this in my house too.

I took it up as it was in poor condition and replaced it with a self levelling latex.

[marky911]

Fotic said:

What on earth? I've never heard of such a thing.

What in the dickens is going on? You've never heard of an asphalt floor? You've never lived man.

No I'd never heard of one either until we bought this house. It's apparently very good at what it does, well apart from your chair legs sinking into it if it gets too hot.

I may have a word with the builders and have it pulled up. That would give us 30mm to blind it off, put in a damp proof membrane and screed it. The guy guiding us through the project though said just have it patched or whatever then a thin layer of Aardit or Aardex or something. Worried a thin layer may break up though so thought some 6mm ply before the carpets go down would be enough to spread the load of chair legs etc.

Refurb thread here. Linked on my phone so may or may not work. I mention the floors early on.
Thanks for all the input. I'll look into everything. It only really affects the living room as the open plan kitchen has had a new floor for building regs and the asphalt area will be getting tiled over.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Edited by marky911 on Friday 25th July 09:44

[marky911]

Sleep envy that's interesting. Can you remember the name of the product?

How thick was it? And did you have to blind it off and lay a damp proof sheet before putting it down?

[sleep envy]

It was a Sika product, can't remember which as it was about 10 years ago.

Took the bitumen up, it was in poor condition so came up really easily, ground down any high spots and applied the latex.

Took a long weekend to do but worth it.

Didn't need any blinding or polythene and the benefit is you can apply a floor finish straight to it as long as you don't fix through it. Perfect for hard floor finishes such as timber or tiling.

[marky911]

Excellent thanks. I'm up there this afternoon so I'll see what the builders say.

Only problem is that room is getting plastered on Wednesday and I'll be reluctant to start ripping the floor up afterwards, so it may still be a case of working with what we have. I'll see.

[Minemapper]

marky911 said:

Refurb thread here. Linked on my phone so may or may not work. I mention the floors early on.
Thanks for all the input. I'll look into everything. It only really affects the living room as the open plan kitchen has had a new floor for building regs and the asphalt area will be getting tiled over.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Quality refurb thread! Asphalt floors and cement skirting. Bananas.

[Wozy68]

Mark, spoke to a surveyer friend, and unfortunately I have bad news. Basically it needs to be ripped up pronto and replaced. This is going to cost you a wedge buddy.

Anyway, if you need funds quickly I'm willing to take that GT3 off you pronto, well if the price is right. So shall we say 15k for a quick sale and just imagine how happy your missus will be with the extra dosh to spend on the house.

You know it makes sense.

[roofer]

B17NNS said:

This stuff might work. Bitumen presumably sticks to bitumen and this also sticks to wood.

http://www.bostik.co.uk/construction/product/idend...

Alternatively I'm sure there is a Sikabond suitable.

Do not, under any circumstances use bitumen on Asphalt. It breaks down the oil in the Asphalt. You can bond ply with PU adhesive without damaging the Asphalt.

[marky911]

Thanks Minemapper, yeah they knew how to do things during the war alright!

Off Topic
Hey Wozy, very kind offer. Ironically I'm back in crisis talks regarding the car. I think it's crunch time and it does have to go. Me and the wife both added another £5k to the pot the other month and the house has just sucked that up. We now have enough to finish the building work including bi-folds, front door, garage doors, etc, etc, but the money will gone. We then still need kitchen £15k-£20k, then driveways and landscaping. I've literally just text my mate Paul who wants it back, to say he can come and get it. He's got a 997 GT3 CS too.
To be honest the only thing I'm bothered about is the fact it's going to go up in value so it would have been a nice bit of pension plan I could enjoy in the meantime but at the same time, the basic thrill of car ownership has been lost with my GT3. I'm constantly watching the miles and not wanting to use it etc. I'll just go back to basics with something a to cheaper I think. We'll see.

Roofer, is that right?! As far as I'm aware the company who are going to patch the floor in and re seal the edges are going to pour molten bitumen in. I thought that would do. The plot thickens.

[japgt]

Just rip it up, put a dpm down and then insulation and ply onto battens effectively creating a floating floor.

[roofer]

marky911 said:

Roofer, is that right?! As far as I'm aware the company who are going to patch the floor in and re seal the edges are going to pour molten bitumen in. I thought that would do. The plot thickens.

Bitumen and Asphalt don't mix, different thermal movements for starter, so no seal to be had. We do a lot of movement joints on communal walkways, google Radflex, that's what we use to seal joints, or a good asphalter will come and use the hot poultice method.

[marky911]

japgt said:

Just rip it up, put a dpm down and then insulation and ply onto battens effectively creating a floating floor.

To be honest japgt we need to try and work with what we have as I want the room plastered and ready to decorate in the next couple of weeks. Plus it would have to be dug up a fair few inches to get a decent amount of kingspan in and lay a timber floor.

Ok roofer, thanks for that. I'll ring the original company who said they could repair and check they are using asphalt not bitumen. If they are I think I'll just bite the bullet and pay the £500 for the repairs and get on with other things.

I'll update when I get sorted.

[crackthatoff]

couple of bags of screed surely would solve the problem? self leveling and less than £50 to sort the floor out