Laminate flooring over floorboards?

This might seem like an odd question but theres a reason for it so please don't shoot. :D

We are planning on moving and need to get the place presentable. Although we have really nice floorboards that I love (Jarrah I think), under cruddy 70's floral carpet, for a few reasons we do not want to sand and polish/lacquer the current floorboards if we don't have to - the reasons being: time and effort, dust from sanding (wife sensitive) and the fact that they can't be used for 24 hrs or so to dry. This is a pain in the backside.

Anyway, there seems to be some quite cheap laminate flooring around. I know its not everyones cup of tea but we are after a quick, easy way of bringing the place up to scratch (and the 70's carpet does nothing to sell the place) so I'm wondering if there is any way that laminate flooring can be laid over floorboards, (shock, horror) without having to wait 24 hrs for glue to dry etc. Basically it would be great if we could move stuff out of the room, pull up the carpet, chuck (for one of a better word) the laminate flooring down, then put the furniture back. I would think the job itself fairly easy as I would assume the current boards would give me a nice line to follow.

Alternatively, the boards are in very good nic and don't look like they need too much work - I might at a pinch clean them up (send the wife away for a few days) if there was a flooring lacquer/polish for raw boards that could be walked on fairly quickly. This would be a cheaper option I would think. It may not be the best for the new owners, but we don't need something that will last forever, even a short lasting, good looking option will do.

Can any experts come up with a solution?

Many thanks.

Hi Fishy

I don't know if what you mean by laminate flooring. If it is that stuff that clicks together.

If it is my brother in law just laid some down. It came with a foam under lay and the sheets were 1200 long x 300mm wide and just sat down on the foam underlay and snapped together and you can't see the joins. No glue or any thing and he just laid it over yellow tongue flooring.

It really came up a treat and looks great.

We are renting in the UK at the moment, the rental agreement is intended to be very long term and you are expected to decorate the inside as you feel fit. The house is about 100 years old is two story and has pine floor boards throughout.

I have a problem with house dust so, instead of carpet we have installed IKEA laminate flooring upstairs and It went over the floor boards just fine. We did splash out on some thicker underlay boards though not just the thin plastic stuff that is normal, I thought this advisable due to the extra movement.

We are pleased with the result, it's not real timber but it serves a purpose.

Cheers

Dave

Hi Guys,

Barry, laminate flooring, as in that prefinished stuff that looks like wood on top but is a thin layer on what looks like some sort of fibreboard - as in, not real wood all the way through. I assume it clicks together.

So these floorings have some sort of underlay required do they? Even on top of other boards?

I've done this over crappy pine boards - lay plastic sheet over the boards, roll your 5mm foam underlay out, start laying your laminate boards in a corner, make sure the direction of the boards is the direction the sun comes in the window, Use spacers beteen the wall and your first row of boards to keep them in place, they knock together pretty easily (tongue & groove type which are cheaper than the click together type) no glue needed & no wrecking the good boards underneath!

I've laid the click together boards and the underlay. They are not as simple as they sound. You need to leave expansion gaps around the walls otherwise the boards pucker and the very fine veneer chips off. Usually the gap is covered by the skirting but if your trying to retrofit the boards you might have a problem.You could also just nail a bit of quad to your existing skirting to solve the problem.

hi your best bet is to talk to the realestate agent selling your house as they know what sells and what dosnt i had hardwood flooring under crap smelly carpet but the boards had a lot of paint on them the realestate said to rip the carpet up and leave boards as is because new owners may want to put their own flooring down to their style or pull the house down so dont really care about floors.lucky i listened because i sold in 1 day to investers who didnt even see the house which saved me a couple of thousand.speak to your agent before wasting your time and money you may find the end result wont impact on your price.:U

Thanks guys.

That was another option actually, pull up the carpet and leave the boards as they are. We went 'WOW' when we did it in the one main room and thats with just straight plain raw boards. They are a bit dirty now, but I think if we did the less used rooms last, and cleaned up this one room we have pulled up with a bit of elbow grease, it will still present better than the carpet, with minimal work. Then again, the carpet is so daggy I think chipboard flooring would look better!! :) I'll add a pic tomorrow so you can confirm if they do look like jarrah.

Heres a pic of the floorboards. Gee the flash brings up the dirt, dog hair and scratches, doesn't it??!! This room had the carpet pulled up about 2 years ago without doing anything to the boards, so its worse than than what the other rooms will be so they won't need as much work.

Do we all think its jarrah? Its probably darker than what the flash makes out too. The top left corner is closer to the real colour.

Thanks

http://www.poundpets.com.au/other/jarrah.jpg

No doubt in my mind, that thats Jarrah.

I've worked with the stuff so much I'd know it anywhere. The variety of grain patterns is just a give away. It gets darker (oxidises) as time goes by, as long as it's not in direct sunlight that is.


Dave

So the darker the jarrah the older the wood would be? Does that explain why its quite dark as its at least 32 years old?

It's not an exact science as some Jarrah definitely starts out lighter than the rest (some of it even looks pink). It also depends on the finish and exposure to day light.

I'm wondering why someone would decide to lay such nice flooring just to cover it with crappy looking carpet!!

It depends on the quality of the boards, in some of the cheaper built houses, particularly in Perth. The boards were not tongue and grooved, so it could be drafty.

Also exposed Jarrah went out of fashion for a while and shag pile carpet was de rigueur :o meaning people forgot they were there.

Gday Fishy,
We have just purchased 55 square meters of Allure Vinyl Flooring from Harvey Norman. They are the only ones in australia who stock it, I read some forums from american sites and they all swear by it. It has been there for about 8 years from what I can gather. It has a lifetime warranty on the product, it can be installed over almost any flat surface (wood floors, old vinyl, cement, tiles (no more than a 6mm grout gap) etc) It comes in about 5 different colours that all look excellent all colours are of a timber finish. We just installed it in the sunroom and it looks great. You can install it yourself very easily with a little patience with cutting it. All you need to install it is a stanley knife, long straight edge and a tape measure. It is also 100% water proof unlike timber laminate flooring which if liquid is spilt on it, it swells because it is made of MDF. It cost about $50.00 a square meter. We intalled American Oak. P.S. The surface does not have to be levelled, just make sure the walls are straight.