Joiner or builder?
Discussion
Interesting one....
A few years ago I put down a laminate floor in one of the ground floor rooms, inc underlay all went fine. We took up a carpet that was put down over chipboard/MDF, thought it slightly odd but no further thought than that.
About 6 months ago I noticed a dip at one side, meant to have a look but it meant I'd need to take up the laminate. Anyway, curiosity got the better of me this morning. 2 boards came up and I put a hand through the chipboard into, well...nothing.
It's right on a joist, and that looks like it's rotten as well from the bottom up.
Who could sort that? Joiner, or is that too much of a job for one and I should start talking to builders?
A few years ago I put down a laminate floor in one of the ground floor rooms, inc underlay all went fine. We took up a carpet that was put down over chipboard/MDF, thought it slightly odd but no further thought than that.
About 6 months ago I noticed a dip at one side, meant to have a look but it meant I'd need to take up the laminate. Anyway, curiosity got the better of me this morning. 2 boards came up and I put a hand through the chipboard into, well...nothing.
It's right on a joist, and that looks like it's rotten as well from the bottom up.
Who could sort that? Joiner, or is that too much of a job for one and I should start talking to builders?
A joiner could replace the joists and put down a new floor easy enough but the question you need to be asking yourself is why they've gone rotten in the first place. Could be any number of reasons :- damp proof course failed, rising damp, wet rot, etc.
Floor would need to come up to thoroughly investigate
Floor would need to come up to thoroughly investigate
Cheers for the reply.
The other rooms on the ground floor are all concrete floor, except this one. The worst area according to my bounce test seems to be against an outside wall, ie the floor is stronger towards the middle to end of the room. House faces West and the joist I've found thats rotten runs west to east, or vertically I guess.
Would the laminate have caused this perhaps? The joist is pretty crumbly so it's a cause for concern regardless and needs fixing
Have spoken to a joiner who's coming to have a look, expecting a deep intake of breath while he inspects of course
The other rooms on the ground floor are all concrete floor, except this one. The worst area according to my bounce test seems to be against an outside wall, ie the floor is stronger towards the middle to end of the room. House faces West and the joist I've found thats rotten runs west to east, or vertically I guess.
Would the laminate have caused this perhaps? The joist is pretty crumbly so it's a cause for concern regardless and needs fixing
Have spoken to a joiner who's coming to have a look, expecting a deep intake of breath while he inspects of course
how do the internal/external floor levels compare?
If all the rest of the ground floor is concrete then you probably have almost no ventilation of the subfloor void.
I'd also guess that the joist has been in contact with the external wall (recessed into it?) and that has lead to it being damp and rotting. There will be other supports which is why it sags at the wall.
Its possible to splice in new wood but you will want to check out the situation and the condition of all the other joists.
If all the rest of the ground floor is concrete then you probably have almost no ventilation of the subfloor void.
I'd also guess that the joist has been in contact with the external wall (recessed into it?) and that has lead to it being damp and rotting. There will be other supports which is why it sags at the wall.
Its possible to splice in new wood but you will want to check out the situation and the condition of all the other joists.
TooLateForAName said:
how do the internal/external floor levels compare?
They're higher...by a cm or two possibly. TooLateForAName said:
If all the rest of the ground floor is concrete then you probably have almost no ventilation of the subfloor void.
I'd also guess that the joist has been in contact with the external wall (recessed into it?) and that has lead to it being damp and rotting. There will be other supports which is why it sags at the wall.
Its possible to splice in new wood but you will want to check out the situation and the condition of all the other joists.
Ta for that. Joiner who came round earlier said similar, general lack of ventilation and it's damp in that area, there doesnt appear to be any other ventilation and me throwing down a laminate probably hasnt helped, but it's been going on for a while. I'd also guess that the joist has been in contact with the external wall (recessed into it?) and that has lead to it being damp and rotting. There will be other supports which is why it sags at the wall.
Its possible to splice in new wood but you will want to check out the situation and the condition of all the other joists.
It makes sense to just take the floor up and see how bad it is really. In my head I'm prepared for replacing the lot, its around 18x22 feetso that'd be around 9 joists. Guesstimate on costs from those in the know?? I had somewhere under 4 figures as reasonable to take out and replace all of them and add in some kind of ventilation, whether that be a block on the outer wall. Appreciate it's a piece of string question though
Edited by andy-xr on Friday 28th May 18:29
With a similar situation what I did was move to a sort of solid floor.
I got a 2m3 of hardcore and 1m3 of sharp sand and hired a compactor, to make a flat base (my floor was uneven and had some biggish rocks in it). Then put a layer of garden fabric mesh, layer of polythene dpc and then 18" of insulation (polystyrene). I topped that with standard flooring chipboard stuff, then 4x2 as joists screwed into the chipboard. I ran the electrics and heating pipes around and then put nice oak flooring on the top fastened down with 'tongue-tite' hidden screws.
Its only been down about nine months but it is much warmer and nicer than the old floor.
I basically decided that I would never be able to ensure proper ventilation when part of the external floor was higher than the inside and it wasn't possible to have any airflow through the void (concrete floor in adjacent room).
The removal of the old floor and the install of the new up to the chipboard was done over a weekend with my Dad helping.
While I was doing it I took the opportunity to re-route and improve the layout of the downstairs plumbing and electrics (I found some cables were stretched taut under the floor, previous owner of my house was an electrician...) so the final finishing didnt happen for a while because I ended up doing a lot of other stuff and didnt want to put the new top floor down until I was happy with everything. Also the recommendation from the oak supplier was to have it in the room for a couple of weeks prior to install to allow it to acclimatise to the house humidity.
The oak cost me £30/sqr meter (around £900 for this room) from a place in Skipton (all long wide boards 185mm wide and 20mm thick). I can't remember the costs for the insulation and chipboard but it wasnt huge. Copper pipe and electric cable at B&Q using Dad's OAP discount card was as cheap as anywhere else. I also bought a few packs of spacers and used an electric plane to get the mini-joists level across the room.
I bought a big sliding mitre saw which was around £200 to trim the boards. I also bought extra flooring and used a router to turn a simple curved edge and make my own deep oak skirtingboards.
So far the floor is pretty rock solid (one corner isnt perfect but there was a large boulder sticking out from the foundations and I dont think I packed the insulation well enough - still better than before though) and there are no squeaks and no give (other than the one corner). I'll see how it holds up over the years, but I'm fairly happy with it.
I got a 2m3 of hardcore and 1m3 of sharp sand and hired a compactor, to make a flat base (my floor was uneven and had some biggish rocks in it). Then put a layer of garden fabric mesh, layer of polythene dpc and then 18" of insulation (polystyrene). I topped that with standard flooring chipboard stuff, then 4x2 as joists screwed into the chipboard. I ran the electrics and heating pipes around and then put nice oak flooring on the top fastened down with 'tongue-tite' hidden screws.
Its only been down about nine months but it is much warmer and nicer than the old floor.
I basically decided that I would never be able to ensure proper ventilation when part of the external floor was higher than the inside and it wasn't possible to have any airflow through the void (concrete floor in adjacent room).
The removal of the old floor and the install of the new up to the chipboard was done over a weekend with my Dad helping.
While I was doing it I took the opportunity to re-route and improve the layout of the downstairs plumbing and electrics (I found some cables were stretched taut under the floor, previous owner of my house was an electrician...) so the final finishing didnt happen for a while because I ended up doing a lot of other stuff and didnt want to put the new top floor down until I was happy with everything. Also the recommendation from the oak supplier was to have it in the room for a couple of weeks prior to install to allow it to acclimatise to the house humidity.
The oak cost me £30/sqr meter (around £900 for this room) from a place in Skipton (all long wide boards 185mm wide and 20mm thick). I can't remember the costs for the insulation and chipboard but it wasnt huge. Copper pipe and electric cable at B&Q using Dad's OAP discount card was as cheap as anywhere else. I also bought a few packs of spacers and used an electric plane to get the mini-joists level across the room.
I bought a big sliding mitre saw which was around £200 to trim the boards. I also bought extra flooring and used a router to turn a simple curved edge and make my own deep oak skirtingboards.
So far the floor is pretty rock solid (one corner isnt perfect but there was a large boulder sticking out from the foundations and I dont think I packed the insulation well enough - still better than before though) and there are no squeaks and no give (other than the one corner). I'll see how it holds up over the years, but I'm fairly happy with it.
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