Floating engineered over solid wood?

[misaka]

Hello!

Our Victorian flat still has what appears to be it's original solid wood floors ... great in theory, but they are in bad shape with splits, dips, protrusions, gaps and drafts ... the works! Fixing these floors up seems like an onerous task so we are wondering if we could get a decent floor by simply floating some engineered boards overtop of it.

Is putting in a floating engineered floor overtop of old solid wood floors as easy as putting down a good overlay and fitting the boards ontop? Would this heal most or all wounds of our existing floors?

Any advice appreciated as we need to fix up our place for a new baby!

 

[PaulJR]

I have just laid some engineered flooring as you describe over the top of our floorboards. Ours is a 1950's house but the floors are pretty rank after years of re-wires, replacement plumbing and central heating etc. It took me 3-4 hours to lay the flooring in a 4X4m appx room. Flooring is Oak veneered (6mm) T&G 21mm o/all thickness. depending on which type you get - click lock systems might be quicker - it's straight forward, just take your time and follow the instructions. Finished floor is very flat and looks brilliant - even if I say so myself.

I also bought the installation kit with a hammer block and a bar for ends etc. For the sake of £12 on top of almost £1000 worth of flooring it seemed a cheap option. (I have enough flooring for the landing and another room, it was about £33/m²)

I got my stuff from http://www.flooringsupplies.co.uk who were helpful with advice & which products were better for my needs in my price range.

I would suggest you get yourself a good power mitre/chop saw, or if you have one, get a new cross-cut (fine tooth) blade for it so you dont splinter the finish.

DONT buy the fancy edging bits - as others on here have suggested use quadrant dowel painted to match your skirtings, cheaper and looks nicer. (get SWMBO to pre paint them)

HTH.

 

[misaka]

Thanks for the response PaulJR;

I have just laid some engineered flooring as you describe over the top of our floorboards. Ours is a 1950's house but the floors are pretty rank after years of re-wires, replacement plumbing and central heating etc. It took me 3-4 hours to lay the flooring in a 4X4m appx room.

After my post, I took another look at our floor at realised that there are a couple pretty bad dips in it. I read somewhere that there shouldn't be a dip of more than 1.5mm over 1.5m ... on our floor, in one spot in particular we have a dip that's closer to 1cm over 1m. Do you remember how much you were able to get away with in terms of dips with your floors?

Flooring is Oak veneered (6mm) T&G 21mm o/all thickness. depending on which type you get - click lock systems might be quicker - it's straight forward, just take your time and follow the instructions. Finished floor is very flat and looks brilliant - even if I say so myself.

...

Many thanks for the advice, that'll prove very helpful. I think my wife might balk if I start shopping for a power miter saw, but she might let me rent one.


--Misha

 

[PaulJR]

After my post, I took another look at our floor at realised that there are a couple pretty bad dips in it. I read somewhere that there shouldn't be a dip of more than 1.5mm over 1.5m ... on our floor, in one spot in particular we have a dip that's closer to 1cm over 1m. Do you remember how much you were able to get away with in terms of dips with your floors?

I think 10mm in 1m is too much. The stuff I have talks of 3mm over 2m, I think you will need to get the dips sorted.