We are renovating our ground floor kitchen in Edwardian (1930s) house in London. No extensions/structural/notifiable (as far as we know) work planned, just new flooring and kitchen units.
Whilst pulling up the old kitchen and flooring, the builder has highlighted that the current flooring is bad and recommended that we strip it all down to joists and fit exterior grade plywood on top. The area where the sink was is definitely loose with the floorboards falling apart. Now that we can see the layers, it is original suspended timber floor, layer of tiles, some sort of old LVT tiles.
We were not anticipating so much work to the floor, hoping we can lay LVT or re-lay new laminate (I know, not ideal, but we have time and budget considerations)
Question – should we just fix joists only under the new cabinets and replace laminate, hoping it will last another 5-10 years, or invest in doing the floor properly? Our major concern is unearthing even more work and problems as we will be lifting 100-year old floorboards for the first time ever, without external advice on how to fix things properly.
Are there any building regulations that we need to be aware of prior to going ahead with replacing all the flooring (up to the joists), or other things to consider?
Being a “simple” renovation, we don’t have an architect or structural engineer on the project. Our key concerns are around any building reg requirements for updating joists/ flooring – eg is it compulsory to add insulation (replacing 100% of the floor in that room), reinforce joists, is the spacing between the original joists important, does everything need to be brought up to 2024 building standards? What are the implications down the line if we don’t when it comes to selling the house? We trust our builders will do a good job but adhering to building regulations is what is giving us anxiety.
Your help and advice will be much appreciated - we are under pressure to make a decision asap so it adds to the stress!
Whilst pulling up the old kitchen and flooring, the builder has highlighted that the current flooring is bad and recommended that we strip it all down to joists and fit exterior grade plywood on top. The area where the sink was is definitely loose with the floorboards falling apart. Now that we can see the layers, it is original suspended timber floor, layer of tiles, some sort of old LVT tiles.
We were not anticipating so much work to the floor, hoping we can lay LVT or re-lay new laminate (I know, not ideal, but we have time and budget considerations)
Question – should we just fix joists only under the new cabinets and replace laminate, hoping it will last another 5-10 years, or invest in doing the floor properly? Our major concern is unearthing even more work and problems as we will be lifting 100-year old floorboards for the first time ever, without external advice on how to fix things properly.
Are there any building regulations that we need to be aware of prior to going ahead with replacing all the flooring (up to the joists), or other things to consider?
Being a “simple” renovation, we don’t have an architect or structural engineer on the project. Our key concerns are around any building reg requirements for updating joists/ flooring – eg is it compulsory to add insulation (replacing 100% of the floor in that room), reinforce joists, is the spacing between the original joists important, does everything need to be brought up to 2024 building standards? What are the implications down the line if we don’t when it comes to selling the house? We trust our builders will do a good job but adhering to building regulations is what is giving us anxiety.
Your help and advice will be much appreciated - we are under pressure to make a decision asap so it adds to the stress!
