House design and flooring structures

[dormermike]

Hello

Just been googling to try and find out about solid vs suspended floors and when they were "standard" in house building? My bungalow has solid concrete floors which are original, but a bungalow nearby has suspended. There are semi detached houses nearby which are also suspended.

I don't think mine has been converted to concrete, but guess it would not be possible to tell? 1930's, apparently, though nobody seems to know for sure (not the really old neighbours, nor the surveyor).

Cheers
Mike

 

[tony1851]

There is no 'standard'. Houses have been built with both solid and suspended floors for centuries.

 

[^woody^]

Generally properties up to the 1950s had timber floors and concrete to the kitchen

If you have airbricks at DPC level externally along the front and back (or signs of them being removed) then you had a previous timber floor

If the local estate is lots of differing designs, and not built by the same builder then there may be no standard for floor types, and small builders doing a few properties could have done either type of floor

 

[dormermike]

Interesting, thanks. There are 3 vents per bay (double bay) at DPC level but the concrete floor internal level is only about 2 inches or so higher than outside ground but the vents iirc are well above that. If there was originally a suspended floor the ceiling height would have been a lot lower as the floor would need to be much higher than where it is today. The vents are slightly odd though, in that they only vent the cavity.

As the floor is level throughout and original parquet floor throughout original part of building, presumably likely it is original concrete floor..

Thanks. I find flooring construction interesting, i guess from trying to solve ongoing damp issues (other thead).

Cheers

 

[tony1851]

Sometimes builders added a few smaller air bricks (9"x3") just to ventilate the cavity as well as the larger 9"x6" air bricks ducted through to the under-floor void.
Venting the cavity would not be done nowadays.

 

[dormermike]

Ah i see, these are indeed 9x3 cheers