quarry tile floors-- help

[hoppo4.2]

as some of you may recall im renovating my first house. an 1880's terrist job.
the back half of the house ie rear reception, kitchen etc has a quarry tile floor.
when it rains areas of this floor get very damp. further investigation shows that the tiles are just laid on to the earth.

so the question is do i put down a plastic sheeting and lay a thin'ish screed over the top or do i dig the whole lot out and fill the lot with concrete?

or

is there another option,? one of the rooms has had the tiles covered with that looks like a very fine tarmac type stuff which is very good at holding back any signs of damp.

what do would u guys do?

please consider all this has to be done by me and digging it all up sounds like a lot of hard work!!

[tokyo_mb]

Depending on your views of keeping period detail - this thread may help:

http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.ph...

Very useful forum for anyone with a period property they want to maintain "sympathetically".

[Gav147]

hoppo4.2 said:

so the question is do i put down a plastic sheeting and lay a thin'ish screed over the top or do i dig the whole lot out and fill the lot with concrete?

or

is there another option,? one of the rooms has had the tiles covered with that looks like a very fine tarmac type stuff which is very good at holding back any signs of damp.

what do would u guys do?

please consider all this has to be done by me and digging it all up sounds like a lot of hard work!!

What you should do is dig it all out and start a fresh, yes it is a lot of work but as the say if a jobs worth doing etc.

If you try and put a dpm and thin screed straight on the old quarry tiles chances are over time it will crack up and also be very cold due the lack of insulation. Again with the thin tarmac/bitumen screed that has been used in another room, its just another way someone has tried to botch the floor up.

Personally I would dig it all out a put a new insulated concrete floor in, then at least you know its right and your not going to have further problems with it once you get everything finished and new flooring down.

[Simpo Two]

hoppo4.2 said:

terrist

[hoppo4.2]

Simpo Two said:

ooops !

well i spent the day digging out the tarmac floor.
its not as bad as i expected under there just need to make up my mind what to do next.

[rvttim]

The Daughters house was the same tiles layed on soil. We dug out 12 inches put DPM down and up to above the hieght of the finshed floor level, 6 inch of insulation then 6 inch of concrete. Then relayed the tiles on top therefore recicling and replacing the period look. Must say even in the bad winter we have just had the floor was not cold to walk on

[ColinM50]

Looks like you're on your way already to doing it properly, only thing I'd recommend is to add underfloor heating pipes while you're at it. So dig down, lay DPM on an inch of sand so it's nice and perfectly level, then 6 or ideally 12 inches of insulation foam and then plastic underfloor heating pipes topped off with about 3 inches of concrete.

You'll be so pleased you did it and it will add tremendously to the saleability and value of the house