To Lay Oak flooring on existing floorboards or not??

[highflyer79]

Please go easy on me as a total newbie.

I am currently decorating the downstairs of my house. But found extensive woodworm on the existing floorboards. So was going to replace these as well as protecting the joists and killing if any ww left. I have chosen an Oak flooring 18mm, but am now confused as to whether to fit these ontop of the new T&G softwood floorboards layed onto floating Joists. Or laying the Oak direct onto the suspended joints?

If it goes direct onto the floor joists the floor would be a little lower than than the kitchen floor tiles and carpet in the hall. But also if putting 18mm ontop of 18mm I understand this would increase the flooring (by 8-10mm due to the fibre board and laminate in place before).

Sorry if this isn't making much sense & probably has a simple answer

Any help would be much appreciated

Russ

 

[AronSearle]

Oak boards direct to joists should be fine.

Also worth checking once you have the floor up that there is plenty of ventilation to the sub floor (I assume suspended ground floor joists).

Is the woodworm definitely existing?

And install insulation between the joists before installing the new floor if not already present.

 

[highflyer79]

Thank you for your reply.

It is a suspended flooring. I have purchased some 50mm floor insulation, seeing as I had floor up already.

It's probably just me being a bit OCD but if I put the oak flooring on the joists there will be big gaps around the bottom of the door frames. I wouldn't mind if I was painting the wood, but having bare wood and would see the repair job. Also don't mind the flooring being slightly higher from the hallway into the lounge.

Local timber merchant has suggested 18mm ply instead of T&G softwood flooring as easier to lay. Am startin to think thy way as will be a lot easier when having the insulation everywhere. Do you think Ply is annoy substitute at all.

Russ

 

[AlexaCollinsDesign]

You're right, if you drop the floor, you'll have big gaps at the bottom of your door frames, but also under your doors. Which will be very drafty, especially if any of the doors were previously trimmed to allow for carpet.

And if you raise the floor, you'll have an issue everywhere the floor meets something else and the doors might have to be re-trimmed to accommodate.

You can get chipboard floorboarding sheets in varying thicknesses, down to 12mm. Would that work?

 

[WoodYouLike]

You can get chipboard floorboarding sheets in varying thicknesses, down to 12mm. Would that work?

If it goes straight over the joist, the OP needs at least 18mm. Best also to stay away from chipboard, rubbish product which reduces your options in top floors.

 

[AlexaCollinsDesign]

But if you have solid joists below and (I'm assuming) a solid oak product above, surely this is a spacing and fixing issue rather than a quality issue?

If you’re talking about laying directly on the joists leaving too much of a gap, what about applying a baton to the joists of exactly the right thickness to bring the new floor to the level of the old?

Or is it me being thick?

 

[WoodYouLike]

What I meant was, if you remove the existing floorboards and replace them with either new floorboards or sheet materials, these have to be at least 18mm thick to be load-bearing.

Chipboard is rubbish, no matter what thickness