How do I bathroom / kitchen / extension? etc.

Am I right in thinking that you are proposing an engineered floor board to the finished space? How big is the room and what is it’s function?

It is unlikely that your existing floorboards (assuming they are into timber joists) are fully rigid and/or flush, and you will struggle to get any board product thicker than say 6mm to fully follow these without some degree of bounce (either from the nature of the existing undulating boards, or from the inherent strength of the plywood being greater than the fixing between board/joist and pulling these apart over time).

You would be better to remove the boards and replace with 18mm plywood or OSB, best removing any huge discrepancies with the joists below with shims/packers. Figure out the difference between low and high points over the whole room and get a rapid drying Ardex or Mapei levelling compound to suit (no need to double board). Smoothness depending, a latex levelling screed on top of this with the finished engineered board adhered on top.

Answer to overall room size depending, you may want an uncoupling membrane between screed and finished board to take out any differential movement between concrete and timber substrates below. This assumes the concrete is not an old fireplace hearth that can be taken out above some of the above steps.

Potentially opening a further can of worms with existing skirting boards, doors etc but above will get you a level floor.

Thanks for taking the time to go through all that.

Final floor will provisionally be this: https://www.colourflooring.co.uk/collections/cork-flooring but not set in stone (so to speak).

It's a kitchen. It's 5m x 3m give or take.

2m x 3m of that room is raised bumpy concrete that is high in one corner (near some similarly concrete steps that go up into a utility room) and flows down to meet the floorboards at the opposite corner. There is a lip on the concrete near one end of the boards with a very severe angle (travels 30mm up over just 70mm across). I believe the concrete was originally an exterior floor (possibly an old toilet accessed from the alley) that had the wall knocked through from the boarded interior to make one larger room.

I'm open to putting ply down in place of the boards. The left hand side of the below plan has a door in the centre that goes down a step into a further wooden floored hallway. Would I presumably put some kind of batten at the edge of the step to stop the levelling compound flowing out and then build the step higher? The door opens into the kitchen and thankfully has 40mm clearance under it.

The corka stuff is 7.5mm thick. Then up to 30mm wobbly concrete (though I've written in the plan 2 inches, it's not).

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I'm currently calculating approx 3m x 3m of ply give or take. Then enough compound to cover 6 square meters at up to 18mm depth (though I'd have some left over because of the variation in height in the concrete).

But that's to apply ply to the existing boards. Your suggestion is for the same amount of ply, just replacing the boards, then enough compound to cover 15 square metres at a depth of up to 30mm?

You’re going to want a smooth substrate finish if you don’t want to feel any imperfections under the cork flooring, so I would consider a 1-2mm latex self levelling compound to go on top of your levelling screed. No need for an uncoupling membrane.

Any builder merchants should stock Ardex or Mapei products, and I would phone tech support of both to ensure you have the correct product codes. Definitely get fast drying screed with the overall thickness you need to achieve.

Threshold strip under the door tapering from cork to existing flooring outside kitchen.

I'm not super fussed how it feels underfloor and feel anything would be massive improvement on the existing situation, but I'll see what's available and local to me tomorrow. Finding enough ply (and fitting it in my car) to cover 4x3m will be half the challenge. Presuming I can butt boards close together and then will they need to be filled so they're seamless? And what about the edges by wonky plaster?

And to confirm, screwing a batten to stop it flowing out of the door is the way? Then remove the batten and either a threshold or raised step?

I guess one last question on fitting ply to the joists. How will I know where to shim? And isn't there just as much chance of the ply tearing out of the boards over time as the joists?

Get a level and place it across the joists in different places. You'll see where the hi/lo spots are

If I've got a narrow hall would traditional sized parquet strips - say ~70x40 make the space look bigger or smaller than basket weave/mosaic parquet ~10x1?

Cheers.

Bonus question: any images, ideas or inspiration for having ceramic tiles in a hall and running through to the kitchen. More mid century than grand Victorian.

just thinking, wouldn't it be better to use t&g chipboard flooring rather than ply over the joists?

Have had a look through the Hafele site but can only see complete systems that include shelves and therefore cost £££.

Could do what @ben6899 suggested and get in touch for spare parts, but I'm looking at building 3-4 of these so it might be a bit suspicious if I say 4 full sets of hinges have all gone wrong at the same time!

I've spoken to SDS in the past and they've been helpful. I'd be tempted to give them a call and just ask the question.

nice gaff. the kabric looks decent too. can’t believe they were quoted £9k to have the floor done professionally - steep

Both these have fitted coir matting inside the door - which is cheap and practical for the first section of a hall.

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Cheers and good shout on the coir matting.

I like the black, but the problem is lack of light in our hall. That place seems to be bathed in it. The second shows the problem I'm having with flooring in general - all the spaces look sick to start. Although I appreciate that online images are rarely going to show an average semi.

This made me lot more confident about standard parquet in our hall.

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Also makes me think a sliding version of that door would be a good idea if we ever redo our kitchen.

Precisely zero idea what I'm about to embark on.

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good luck!

Thanks. Fully committed to moving into a finished caravan next time I move.

Bravo. Good luck!

Holy fuck.

Lessons:

• Don't mix 100kg by hand. Get a whizzer thing.
  
• Smaller batches. This was partly because mixing by hand and concerned about time from activation to setting - but gosh that was heavy.
  
• Cover everything you don't want splattered.
  
• Close the window before you can't reach it.
  
• Beer after, not before.
  
  

But otherwise, think it went OK. Far from perfect (can spot a couple of small bubbles in one corner which I suspect are lumps - to be covered by a bin unit so very few fucks given). We'll see what the morning brings. It's still not perfect on the big ridge but I may see if I can either sand/grind that down or just stop caring - one or the other.

That corka stuff I mentioned says it doesn't need underlay - would it be beneficial to put some down anyway to help mask minor imperfections or would that actually be counter productive?

https://www.colourflooring.co.uk/pages/corka-installation

That corka stuff I mentioned says it doesn't need underlay - would it be beneficial to put some down anyway to help mask minor imperfections or would that actually be counter productive?

They specifically make some, so i guess it cant hurt

https://www.colourflooring.co.uk/products/amorim-eco21db-15sqm-roll

Ha! Wonderful, thank you.

Yeah bang a few rolls down so you raise the floor enough to match the half step.

Re underlay… but you’ll also get away without it. We just laid some similar stuff in - what will be - the bike/turbo room, and went without.

There was a small divot where we’ve taken out a toilet and the waste - we used some left over fibreboard (from the wood floor in the rest of the flat) to fill that divot.

If the Corka stuff is as easy as what we have, you’ll be done in a morning in a nice big room like that. Not much cutting.

Good luck!

Can literally never tell if you're serious on this thread.