Levelling floor

[Sleepyjet]

I've got an old 1900 terrace house with a terrible wood planked floor in the front room. The previous owners covered it in very uneven laminate flooring. I think this was really to hide the floor.

Below the laminate was a reflective underlay. Below this (patchy thou) is hardboard with vinyl tiles. One or two boards need chopping out and replacing due to rot. Also one area of the floor moves underfoot. Additionaly where the original fireplace sat there is still a concrete base that doesn't sit level with the whole floor.

The skirting board is sitting proud by 10mm to 20mm accross the whole room. I need a practical solution to this. My first thought was to remove and repair what I could then place hardboard down packed and levelled. But I have no idea about a screed and the application.

Would a latex acrylic screed be ok?

Any thoughts please

Sleepyjet

 

[Autonomous]

Floor screeds/ levelers are essentially 'ceramic' materials i.e. they're great under pressure (e.g. if laid on a solid but uneven concrete floor) but have little strength in themselves if bent/ sheared. If, after hacking off every bit of old tile/ board/ rotten board, you're left with a surface which moves underfoot, any leveler will soon just crack and move too. They're also very liquid on application and will quickly drop between boards through any small gaps you have.

Have you considered (once the rot has gone) reboarding the entire room with something solid such as 2'x8' tongue and groove chipboard flooring? Ideally directly onto the joists below, but possibly on top of your old boards if you've got room under the skirting for 18mm.

Whatever you put down, might be worth checking that there are no stopcocks/ wiring junctions etc etc underneath as access to these will clearly be impossible when you're finished!

 

[Pewit]

I had a similar problem with the flooring in my hallway and some of the rooms had a few bad floorboards too.

One problem is that if the floorboards are victorian original then you cannot get replaecments except from a salvage yard (where it is expensive) since new timber flooring is sold in different sizes.

The solution I used was to rip up all the floorboards in the hallway and use any good ones for the bedrooms.

I then replaced the floor in the hall with new timber (not chipboard) and as I was laying laminate over the entire flat I have used different thickness of plywood (3-6mm) to create an even subfloor over the entire area.

If you have areas of your floor that are sound but uneven then you can lay plywood as a subfloor over and use expanding foam to fill the dip. Lay the ply over the foam with multiple screws to hold it level (check with spirit level).

Hope this helps