Floating a wooden floor over wonky floorboards

[bigfootlittle]

Hi

Thanks in advance to anyone reading this!

I'm doing up a 3 bed terraced house, and I want the look of solid oak floors throughout, while also floating them to reduce sound transmission.

My first thought was actual solid oak, as I installed that at my last place and had no problems. There's a big difference though. My last place was reasonably modern (60s), and had a concrete floor, to which the timber was glued.

This place is an old, run down Victorian terrace with wonky floors. I mean there's some serious sloping which needs levelling. How is that done?

So, having read through some of the excellent advice here, I assume now that I should buy engineered flooring, as it will be more stable to float. Is this true, or is it still possible to use solid oak?

There seems to be some good deals here:

Solid oak:
18x125mm, 30-1.2m random lengths (£21.66+VAT per square metre)
18x150mm, 1m lengths (£24.98+VAT per square metre)

Engineered Oak - all suitable for floating according to the website:
18x4x127mm, 30cm-1.5m random lengths (£22.48+VAT per square metre)
15x3.4x190mm, 1.9m lengths (£25.83+VAT per square metre)
15x4x150mm, 1.9m lengths (£26.64+VAT per square metre)
20x4.5x190mm, 'fixed lengths' (£27.46+VAT per square metre)
20x6x190mm, 1.9m lengths (£30.53+VAT per square metre)

I'd like to know:
What would the best option be, the best width, and length? Should I avoid the flooring with random lengths in case there's too many short bits? Is engineered the way to go, seeing as they'll look the same as solid once laid? And should these be glued together with PVA?

And what about underneath the oak?

I've been advised by an acoustic company to put down 8mm ply, and then one of their products, which adds between 15 and 17mm. Then the wood floor on top of that
Absorbalay Rubber Mat
SBx Boards

The problem is, these underlays work out about £30 per square metre with VAT. It may be worth it for me if they do their job, as I'm a musician and make some noise! Any cheaper acoustic underlays recommended?

Lastly, I'm wondering about fitting costs. The builder I'm probably going with for other major works in the house has quoted £6k inc VAT to do the floors in the whole house, about 100 square metres. This would include preparing the floorboards, removing and replacing skirting. Does this sound about right?

Thanks for any help

 

[crazydaze]

A floating floor will be more noisy than a bonded/fixed floor.

Don't float Solid wood

Engineered is way more stable and in some circumstances can be floated or bonded/fixed to the subfloor.

Ply the floor is a good way of helping to level the floor but without a site visit, it's hard to advise.

You could secret nail a good Engineered to 9mm ply if the levels are good.

Floating a floor over anything deeper than 4-5mm can be asking for trouble as the boards can over flex.

Whilst the depth of the floor will indicate how 'solid' it feels underfoot, the top surface finish is more important to what it will be like to live with, Lacquered is really 'fit and forget' just sweep and wipe clean with a lacquer spray cleaner, UV Oiled will be a little susceptable to spill marks etc and may need oiling at somepoint, an Oiled floor is hard to keep looking good, will need semi regular oiling and will discolour/soil and show water marks/spills etc easily.

 

[bigfootlittle]

Thanks for the info crazydaze