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Sorry to hear that, we had to sack our first builder at our last place, it doesn't feel great but if they can't install an RSJ right bin 'em.
I agree with new builder guy. Suspended timber floors are pretty bad at letting cold in, and if you want parquet there's no benefit to keeping the original floorboards, which will be creakier and less solid sub floor than ply. If you don't insulate you'll regret it. Or I would.
Make sure it's done properly though, there's a good guide here:
https://www.ecologicalbuildingsystems.com/post/best-practice-approach-insulating-suspended-timber-floors
Fox
So we've been having trouble with our builder who did the knock through, he said he's been trying to get building control over for about a month now. I was aware we needed to contact them before starting the job but it all happened too quickly. Well we finally got sick of his excuses and got in touch with them ourselves, we're going to have to pay +50% as a fee for not telling them before which is fun. We know the beam will have to be boarded with fire resistant plasterboard but after it's been inspected. My wife made a friend at work who she told the story to and she recommended a builer that she used. He came around yesterday to have a look at the work, give some free advice or quote for a job if there is one. Turns out the beam will need taking out and resetting, it's not on straight and it's packed right, also when doing the knock through they cut a lintle that was holding a beam that goes under the staircase which is now sitting on a small wall instead so that'll need fixing too. Fun all round really, love chucking money down the drain.
A question, our kitchen is half in a small extension. The original floor is suspended with boards over a gap of about 2 foot, enough for pipes and to crawl through. The extension floor seems to be a shallower suspended area with OSB boards some of which have become rotten. We want to put down engineered wood parquet flooring through the whole ground floor with some kind of underlay on the boards then the engineered flooring on top. The new builder guy was saying because the different types of floor will flex different amounts we should pull up the original floor boards and OSB to replace with ply and they can put insulation underneath at the same time. Does this sound right? Would floors flexing different amounts really cause the engineered parquet to not sit correctly or create gaps? I'm thinking we just replace the OSB area with something more stiff like ply to match the original floor boards.