Fitting a new floor, but a floating wall?

[russella]

Hi all,

I'm looking to replace an existing floor with a new solid wood floor. It's in an upstairs room, and the existing floor is standard t&g floorboards.

However - one of the walls in this room is actually sitting on the existing floorboards! The wall runs parallel to the joists, but is sitting on the floorboards between two joists.

What's the best way to proceed here? Am I going to have to fit the new floor on top of the existing boards, or is it going to be easy to fit a new joist under the existing wall, or is there some other crafty solution anyone knows of?

Thanks in advance all,

Russ

 

[mac391]

Unless you have a height issue or have to take the existing floorboards out for some other reason, just lay your new floor at right angles to the existing floorboards,, on top of the t&g flooroards..

That wall in question is not load bearing but is fixed to your floorboards..

 

[ladylola]

If you have to take up the exsisting floor do it in short sections under the wall and put in short sections of joists with hangers to support the wall. You may then have to put in another timber between your "new joists" to carry the end of the new boards.

 

[joinerjohn]

It is usual for stud walls upstairs to have the joists underneath them doubled up. One of the last extensions I worked on had stud walls upstairs and I doubled up the floor joists where the stud walls were going to be. The floorboards were then fitted before the stud walls were made and fitted in place. Where stud walls ran parallel to the joists, noggins were placed in between the joists to support the stud wall.
Maybe worth checking from below to see if there are noggins in place, or perhaps lift a few floor boards?

 

[ladylola]

Ok maybe not relevant in this case but I''relate anyway.
A couple of years ago I had to do some investigation work at Caton Hall, off the A38 south of Derby. Cracks had appeared at the skirting level in an upstairs hall and the structural engineer was concerned that there may be undue loading from a stud wall.
Well I lifted the boards and found there was no connection between floor and wall, the cracks were due to the floor sagging and dropping away from the wall.
Upon further investigation we discovered that the wall was hung from the roof trusses, mind you they were the over engineered massive oak type.
As the movement had occured over many years it was decided that no action was really necessary at that time.

 

[russella]

Maybe worth checking from below to see if there are noggins in place, or perhaps lift a few floor boards?

Alas, I've already done this and there's definitely nowt under that darn wall! At the moment all the signs are pointing to laying over the top of the existing floor, is this a common installation technique, or am I going to end up coming up against all sorts of problems because I'm doing something out of the ordinary?

Also, if I'm going to lay the new boards at right angles on top of the existing boards, am I going to need anything between the new and old boards if I'm secret nailing them? Or is it a better idea even to use glue?

Thanks for your advice so far guys,

Russ

 

[mac391]

You really don't need to remove any floorboards, going over the top of original is the norm plus it gives a bit more soundproffing leaving the original in.
You can fit a solid wood floor but most need to be installed by nailing down which isn't always ideal upstairs as the blows from a prtnailer are quite hefty and might damage the ceiling below, if the ceilings fine then you lay some building paper between the 2 floors.. You can also float some solid woods on underlay, glue tongue & groove but check with manufacturer before trying it. There's also engineered boards designed for floating which might be your est bet. All are doable but i'd definately leave your floorboards in situ..