Amtico flooring on parquet and concrete - how to prepare

angelatax · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 8:33 pm

We are getting different advice from fitters and don't know who to believe. We want to put Amtico down in our hall. The door end of the hall is concrete, which has been down for about 25 years (we think). The rest of the hall is parquet which was laid when the house was built in the 1930s. It is all covered by carpet at present.

One fitter advises taking up the parquet, putting down a new concrete screed and then a latex-based covering.

The other says that in view of the time the parquet has been down he believes it would be sufficient to apply a leveling compound to the whole area.

Who is right? Does anyone have any views or comments? Should we revert to carpet and avoid any potential problems?

mattysupra · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 9:31 pm

never ever put a smoothing compound over any type of hard wood floor. Who ever told you this has not got a clue. The floor will take in the moister and expand causing big problems. You also shouldn't install amtico, karndean, vinyl etc. These floors seal the floor causing it to sweat which will also cause your base floor to start moving around. You could use a isolator membrane which allows the floor to breath underneath but is very expensive as designed so you can take up in a couple of years and there would be no damage to base floor. Your best bet is to do it the correct way and take up the parquet. Is the parquet fitted to a concrete base or wooden? I guess it will be concrete which may be your next problem. In 1930 it was very rare to use dpm under concrete. You may find it is a surface dpm which parquet is layed into. Also where it does change into new section of concrete it will vent moister. How thick is the parquet?

angelatax · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:39 pm

Thank you for the advice.

It sounds like it would be a lot of work getting the floor ready for Amtico. I don't know how thick the parquet is because we've never taken any up but, based on floor levels as compared to other rooms it is probably about 3/8 to 1/2 inch thick. I'm certain the parquet is on concrete or something similar and not floorboards.

If we take the parquet up and put new concrete down, will there still be a problem? I presume new concrete will need to dry out for a long time before the waterproof Amtico goes on it. Can we put a new dpm under the new concrete?

mattysupra · Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:11 am

ye the best way would be to dig up old floor and put in new concrete with dpm underneath . And yes you would have to wait for it to dry. Approx 1inch per month depending on mix, humidity, temperature etc. You could also install a surface dpm on top of new concrete base to save waiting for it to dry. Or you could up lift parquet and if sound concrete underneath, use self levelling compound (F-ball 200 acrylic mixed with Aggregate) which can be used up to 20mm in one go. Then install surface dpm over this.

angelatax · Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 3:17 pm

Thank you so much for your helpful replies.

sandwell · Joined: 01 Apr 2005 Posts: 325 Location: United Kingdom

We have a Amtico floor in our kitchen, which was laid about 20 years ago.
It gets heavy wear, but still looks as good as new, so I can heartily recommend Amtico.
We had it laid by the local agent, who prepared the floor the day before they came to lay it. I recommend the same procedure. Amitico seems expensive, but it wears so well, and lasts so long, it is cheap really.
Have you enquired from the local agent whether they will lay it for you.

One of the few jobs in the house I was happy to leave to the professionals.
They came straight to us after laying a new floor in the De-Gaulle Airport in Paris.

mattysupra · Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 8:48 am

If they sell amtico they will be trained to fit it as well. Amtico are very strict on useing approved fitter if you want a garentee. Have a look at karndean to. Much cheaper and almost the same product. You pay a lot for the name with amtico.

28mearin · Joined: 08 Dec 2008 Posts: 1 Location: United Kingdom

we have a 1930,s house and also decided to have amtico in our hallway. the fitter put ply over both the original wooden floor and also over the original quarry tiles. a word of advice however, the fitter has completed an awful job. we paid £2,300.00 for the flooring and its awful. make sure the fitter is a registered fitter with amtico and try to see examples of his work beforehand. we were informed that our fitter was amtico registered but unfortunately we are getting no help from the amtico company in resolving the issue.

mattysupra · Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2008 6:57 pm

Amtico approved only gets you your garranty on wear not install quality! Try to get a NICF master fitter. These are tested rather than going on a course that you pass no matter how crap you are! Its a shame but amtico seem to have gone down in quality of products and there approved fitters. The nicf are very strict tho.

jumjum · Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 8:24 am

We have parquet laid onto concrete in a 1970 house. It is a bit loose at the edges and I took these bits up and filled gap with a 3/1 concrete sand mix. Can vinyl be laid on top of this or should all the parquet be removed and a latex finish laid down?

mattysupra · Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 5:02 pm

remove it as vinyl will make it sweat and cause problems.

dodger007 · Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 8:25 pm

I need new floor covering for our kitchen+diner and utility room off the kitchen. The kitchen and utility room have just had a make-over by Kitchen Restoration Co (new worktops, doors, drawers etc.). The kitchen has parquet tiles over quarry tiles/concrete which I laid 30 yrs ago. The dining area also has parquet tiles laid around 10/15 yrs ago. The utility room currently has vinyl flooring over concrete (which is not perfectly flat). The parquet tiles are STAYING! There's NO WAY I can get these up. I have had two companies around to quote for vinyl flooring (Amtico/Karndean tiles too expensive). One was concerned with the slight ridges in the parquet and the uneven utility area. He suggested removing old vinyl and re-screeding with SLC. OK. Then lay vinyl over new screed and over the parquet. The other company refused to lay over the parquet but suggested felt-backed vinyl OVER the existing in the utility area.

I'm stumped. Researching this tonight I discover that laying ply over wood flooring is recommended as a substrate before laying vinyl. But ply is 'wood' isn't it? I get the feeling that this is just to iron out the 'bumps' - well my parquet floor is very flat. So why can't I lay vinyl straight on top?

Confused of Chelmsford.

mattysupra · Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 7:31 pm

i have replied to your other thread.

dodger007 · Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 9:15 am

mattysupra wrote:

i have replied to your other thread.

Thanks Matt - continue on other thread.

AFloorLayer · Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 11:35 am

The myth behind solid wood floors. Matty is right, there are other products which could solve the problem quite simply......

Jumpax

Forbo also make a subfloor system for their Marmoleum lino.

It would save a few quid on drying times because there aren't any!!

Its a bit of pain for the floorlayer because he has to install 2 layers of the boards, twice as much cutting ahhh!