old house - old floor

[RogerS]

Next project is to lay some oak floorboards in my study. It's L-shaped. Trouble is that the floor level (driven by the old oak beams below) is all over the place. From the door threshold it dips down but then starts to rise as it nears the far wall. And keeps on rising to end up about 1-2" higher than the door threshold 4m away. A step at the door threshold is out of the question as the door height itself is very low to begin with. I can live with a slight upward slope from the door to the far wall.

If the slope does look to be too much then I can remove one of the existing chipboard floorboards by the far wall to drop the end height. So that's all good then.

But not only does it dip then rise in this direction....it slopes down on the other axis. You can see from the photo how much.

but that's workable as well.

The main problem however is the L-shape bit because the floor rises quite steeply and then flattens out for the last metre.

The increase in height is large....and if I take a level back from this point to the starting door threshold then there is a height difference of about 4". So Plan A was to put a step in at the start of the L-shape. This seems a logical place to me especially as at some point in the future we might convert the far end of the L-shape to be an en-suite.

I could see it all coming together...bearers fixed to the chipboard and adjusted to height. It would even hide this kink in the floor by the door.

Then Chief Designer vetoed the step. "What's wrong with having sloping floors in an old house. A step would be just plain wrong."

So - Plan B. Lay the oak floorboards straight onto the chipboard. Only problem is that that chipboard is not coplanar. Nowhere near. So I'm looking at fiddly little bits of spacers, trying to guess their positions. Otherwise the oak floorboards are going to be all over the place with gaps opening up between some of them. I reckon they are going to flap around as well as they will end up floating above the chipboard on high points.

Which seems to me to be a bit naff.

So I am stumped. I can't see an easy way to do this. One option might be to take up the chipboard and then lay my own sub-floor supports coplanar but it's still going to be a turnip as I am effectively laying a sloping floor....so levels aren't much use. Time for some alcohol. Lots of alcohol.

 

[tbone]

Ok then this is what I would do. I would forget about using a level. Put a screw in all the corners and use a line or straight edge to find the average flatness. Then mark a load of lines on the floor at 90 degress to the directions of the oak flooring say at 400mm centres. then cut rippings of soft wood, some may have to be tappers. Pack and fix with grip fix etc you get the picture. A lot of work, what do you think.
tbone.

 

[SteveF]

i would run the slope as-is until it reaches the flat
mitre \ chamfer the edge to meet the flat bit

not sure about the rest

Steve

 

[Bod]

As the new floor boards,are not structural, could they be laid in the best/easy way for the slopes?
This may give a pleasing pattern in keeping with an old building. Would the old boys who build the house, have done the job perfectly, or "best way" for what faced them?
Just a thought.

Bod

 

[nathandavies]

carpet

 

[BECKS]

carpet

+1

 

[RobinBHM]

Oak Amtico or Karndean will follow the floor perfectly!

 

[tbone]

If you wanted to go all the way the just take up the chipboard and ground out the joists. You could go ontop of the old joists or bolt/fix timbers to the sides or you could cross ground it at 90 degrees to the joists with noggins beteen the joists with a notch on the end that goes over the old joist. If you are going to be in the house for a long time it would add value and you would get your use out of it over the years.
tbone.

 

[RogerS]

Amtico or carpet :shock: Mat your chisels hit a rusty nail, sirrahs !

Not when I have this nice stuff

Some interesting ideas there, thanks chaps. I'm reluctantly coming around to thinking of taking up the chipboard for one very important reason - the chipboard was laid well over 20 years ago and long before digital cameras were around. Neither did I think to take a photo of what lay beneath. I have a pretty good idea where the hot water pipe goes but there is the possibility of central heating pipes and electrics. In places the TongueTite screws are going to be going through chipboard into......what?

Luckily I had the foresight (OK...it made them easier to screw in) to put linseed oil down the screwholes and an initial foray had me taking out quite a few slotted screws...which given (a) the length of time they have been in and (b) what they have gone into....200yr+ old oak beams ...nothing short of a miracle!

 

[deema]

Had a similar problem in my bathroom, except I wanted to tile it. The only solution was to take up the original floor boards, find the high spot, and then cut strips of softwood to lay on top of the beams to pack them up to the correct height to achieve a flat floor that was level. If your going to the effort and have the head room I believe in the tears to come it will be worth the effort, book cases etc look better when standing straight against a wall!

You need to place wood along the entire length of the joists to prevent bounce which is not good for oak floors or in my case tiles. After 5 years, my tiles are still down, without cracks or hair line cracks in the grout.

 

[dericlen]

I agree with tbone, but, what about the ceiling below? (if there is one.) I have on one occasion stripped everything to the old (oak) joists, then placed plasterboard for the ceiling below, leveled out on top with furring pieces then laid the new floor.

 

[RogerS]

Ah the ceiling below....that's remaining as is

Did a little explore this afternoon and looking at those wires, that chipboard is definitely coming up.

And now heres' the really embarrassing bit See that single 13A socket?

I have absolutely no recollection of what it is supposed to do. There's another one on the other side of the doorway. It has lighting cable going to it and part of me thought that it was perhaps for floor lights powered by the room light switch. That's what I did in other rooms. But no power comes when the lights are turned on. So I put them in for a reason but that was over 20 years ago and I've had no cause to even think about these sockets in all that time as they've been hidden behind bookcases. Answers on a postcard, please....

 

[AndyT]

Roger

If your wiring is anything like ours, you might have some sockets which used to be fused spurs for storage heaters, and so are quite separate from the ring mains serving the other sockets in the room. Possibly going back to an empty place in the fusebox or to a separate isolater switch.

 

[RogerS]

Roger

If your wiring is anything like ours, you might have some sockets which used to be fused spurs for storage heaters, and so are quite separate from the ring mains serving the other sockets in the room. Possibly going back to an empty place in the fusebox or to a separate isolater switch.

Good idea but I put them in!