Floating floor

I'm looking at replacing a 6x4m floor in a 1920's vintage house. Existing floor is a mixture of original floorboards plus many patched areas, apparently at several different times. This was all covered first by lino over hessian, then later by carpet over foam underlay over the old lino. Floor had some creaking, so up came the various layers. The floor is not in good condition. Some termite eaten sections, though no evidence of present activity. Floor is quite springy now the coverings are up. Property was inspected for termites and no activity found.

I'm looking at floating flooring packs as sold by Mitre 10 etc. Two questions:

1. I was thinking of covering the old floor with approx 9-12mm ply, then installing the floating floor. Is this a bad idea due to the present condition of the floor? I was thinking the ply sheets (nailed or glued?) would bind the old boards together and remove the springiness. Right or wrong?

2. Is the whole floating floor idea not a good one and would I be better just removing the old boards and laying standard T&G floorboards over the old joists?

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Originally Posted by Eddie Jones

2. Is the whole floating floor idea not a good one and would I be better just removing the old boards and laying standard T&G floorboards over the old joists?

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Definitely !

A 1920's vintage house deserves solid timber floors, not the floating Mitre 10 stuff.

Unless you're doing it to sell, don't do option 1. If the joists are at 450 centres centres then 19mm solid t&g boards would be a good, cheap option. If the joists are out to 500-600 mm you might want to ask a couple of specialist flooring places about thicker floor boards or alternatively relay structural ply or t&G sheet sub flooring and install a floating 12mm floor over the top - any of these options can remove the springiness and last another lifetime - just depends on the amount of work you want to do, what sort of timber is available to you and how many $'s you want to throw at it.

Eddie its highly likely that the flooring is 'cut in' between the wall plates & if this is the case removing the boards & replacing them is a simple job.
I'd personally be ripping the lot out, find out what's causing the bouncing, fix it and replace the area with new t&g flooring.
Some early baltic pine flooring was manuf. with a 'rebate', not with a 'groove' and this can cause individual board movement but springyness is usually a sign of overspanned joists or bearers or a dropped stump.
Whichever way you go I'd be checking the subfloor first.

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Originally Posted by Eastie

alternatively relay structural ply or t&G sheet sub flooring and install a floating 12mm floor over the top - any of these options can remove the springiness and last another lifetime - .

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That's the option we went for here. Solid hardwood floor (12-13mm) over sheet flooring. It used to squeek a bit on the joins, not any more. It's rock solid, looks and feels great, is easy to clean and you can sand back to reseal in the future. You can't do that with cheap floating floors. One mark and it's stuffed.

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Originally Posted by Gumby

That's the option we went for here. Solid hardwood floor (12-13mm) over sheet flooring. It used to squeek a bit on the joins, not any more. It's rock solid, looks and feels great, is easy to clean and you can sand back to reseal in the future. You can't do that with cheap floating floors. One mark and it's stuffed.

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You can re-finish some floating wood floors. You usually get about 3-5mm of real timber before the ply. That means that you should be able to sand back once or twice before replacing the boards.

But I agree with most people above - T&G would be the go.

Trav

Ok most of you seem to be saying a new T&G floor will be better than a floating floor, and after a bit of a think I think that is the way I will go. More questions:

I have 2 rooms both with old timber floors with more patching jobs than you could poke a stick at. Patched with pine of different widths, hardwood of different widths , even patched with masonite. Also some old (hopefully) termite damage. Also some creaky places. Would it be a good idea to lay a new T&G floor direct over this? Would it likely fix the creaking? Would I be making more work for the future? I know I would be up for trimming all the doors, but that's ok.

Any help appreciated, and I won't spellcheck - honest!

Eddie

As you've said the existing floor is in poor condition and you have had termite activity, best to get rid of the flooring and make sure your subfloor is in good condition.
Make sure your bearers and joists are ok, if needed replace.
Check bearers are sitting on piers and pack if needed.
Check joists are sitting on bearers.
Check the tops of joists are reasonably straight.
Lay your new boards.

lastly...enjoy your lovely new floor :)

Sorry to reopen this after all this time, but I've been looking further into possibly installing a floating floor after all. I like the idea of it being pre-finished. Looking at gluing with Bostik forgotten-it's-name - as recommended here - and using Boral Silkwood flooring. The Boral installation guide mentions using "Mickey Pins", apparently some sort of nail-with-washer-attached, to temporarily hold boards down while the glue sets. Two questions:


1. Even though these mickey pins are small diameter, wont they leave visible holes in the surface?

2. What do you experts thing of the Boral Silkwood?

Silkwood is a floating flooor no fixing required, pre -finshed.

silmwood is T&G 12mm, mickey pins are used when going over concrete, in your case are you going over timber if so use a secret nail gun to hold the boards, still glue with ultraset.

The 12mm stuff is not much of a cost saving compared with using the 19mm,