What type of Kitchen Floor?

Hi

I have recently moved into a Victorian House built around 1900. The house is in need of complete renovation and I am now ready to start the Kitchen.

The Kitchen itself is Appox 5m x 3m with doors either end. One coming from the hallway and the other leading out through to the Garden.

originally their must have been a fully Suspended floor but now Its 2/3 Suspend starting from the Hallway entrance and working its way back with the remaining 1/3 being of concrete construction. I suspect the old joists may have rotted and this is how it was repaired.

Currently the Concrete side is starting to crack at the join and is not level with suspend floor. About 5mm higher.

There is also piping and Electric cabling under the suspended floor and a hot water cylinder in the corner of the room next to the Hallway entrance.

My my first job will be stripping out the kitchen and making the floor ready for tiling.

As far as I can tell I have three options: 1: Dig out the concrete floor and reinstate the suspended floor, 2: Rip out the suspend floor and make one of concrete construction or 3: repair the concrete cracks and lay down some sort of boarding.

I was originally going to rip up the suspended floor and lay a concrete one but my main worry there is the piping and electric cables and the more I think about it the more I think that option 3 would be less hastle and cheaper.

So has anyone got any advice on what I should do? Thanks.

OK found this answer so I know what i'm doing now Thanks:

//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=18182&highlight=plywood+concrete

Hi,
that previous post refers to preparation for ceramic tiles, which can't take movement in the subfloor below.
The way you describe it it sounds like there isn't much movement at the timber/concrete junction and if your intending to lay a flexible floor like cushioned vinyl or a timber floor then you could probably just lay 4mm construction grade plywood over your timber floor, butting it to the edge of the concrete. This would almost bring the two surfaces almost level and then just scrape a run of latex screed along the junction to marry them in.
Also linoleum tiles like the ones made by Forbo-Nairn look well in a Victorian interior, espescially in a checkerboard colour, laid diagonally.

Thanks for the advice Jim.

I believe we are going for ceramic tiles. I like the idea of removing the existing flor boards and replacing them with a suitable height Plywood that would minimise the step into the room.

Currently our floor boards are approx 2cm. Would I just use 1" ply and nail it into the joists. Then I would use a Latex Screed to level out the concrete. Would there be problem with cracking where the two meet?

nails will come loose, screw it down

Hi tg,
can't really advise you re putting down a new subfloor, better ask a joiner, but once done its back to the original link you posted.
There will always be some movement at the timber/concrete junction. It might be that it is so slight that it won't be a problem (so long as you make sure the ceramic tiles are centred over the junction). Otherwise its safer line the timber subfloor with 4 or 6mm plywood and make sure the plywood extends over the junction for a few inches to protect the floorcovering from the movement.