Flooring Preparation, 99% prep 1% skill

As the Old adage goes, Preparation is 9/10th's of the law. In floorng terms this is absolutely true. Many new floors, fail or will fail due to inadequate flooring prep work.

It neednt be expensive either. Preparing your subfloor ( existing structural floor ) for th new floating floor covering, can be cheap, and easy to do. However putting right a new floor, that didnt benefit from good preparatory work, can and will cost far more than even the most expensive of prep jobs !

Basics of flooring preparation

This is fundamental, simple and often not required. But "better the devil you know than the devil you don't !" as someone once told us.

New floors and floor coverings, such as floating floors. Lets stop right there ! What is a Floating Floor ?

A floating floor, is new floor coverings, that rely on mass to stay in situ. The new flooring, rather than being fixed or indeed glued to the subfloor ( structural floor ) actually fix to each other.
Rather like a placemat on a dining table. However :

To ensure the floor is protected from your existing sub-floor, we fit a membrane and/or a cushioned foam/compressed board underlayment. The membrane ( or DPM [damp proof membrane ]) prevents transfer of damp/moisture. The foam/compressed board prevents flooring fatigue. ( also helps to reduce noise )

We prevent it moving sideways, by means of walls. These are the structures generally that hold our house up. Where the flooring meets the walls, or any other abutments, a expansion gap is left, and then covered with skirting/base boards or quadrant/scotia moulings.

We ensure each plank, is affixed to its neighbouring plank, by means of mechanical , glued, or glueless joints.

.......Back to Preparation

Floating floors, allow almost limitless possibilities and situations for installing new flooring.

Types of SubFloor

There are basically 2 types of subfloor. With many connotations / variations on each.

1. Concrete
   
   It is unlikely that you will need to go to this level of preparatory work for your new flooring. However, it is important to make sure your concrete floor is both flat and dry. It doesnt need to be level ( as in spirit level ) but flat.
2. Timber
   
   It is rare to get a timber floor quite as rotten as this. If it smells, musty, its probably dry or wet rot. Check outside to ensure all air vents in external walls, are free of obstuctions. More than likely, most flooring prep for timber subfloors, is a matter of securing the existing floor boards in place and ensuring they are flat, and do not squeak.

Concrete SubFloor Preparation

Preparing your concrete subfloor for new floating floors, is and can be simple and cheap. It however can be very expensive to sort out more underlying problems. Covering the subfloor, with new floating floors, will only camouflage the problem, it will just deteriorate under the skin of the new floor.

Get it Sorted

1. Concrete
   Check the concrete floor, for humps and bumps. Chisel bumps, flat using a bolster chisel and a lump hammer. Fill low areas with latex levelling compound.
   Check the floor for flatness with a long straight edge.
   If your floor is over 40 years old, it may not have a DPM. So check for damp. If it is damp, call a professional.
   

Checking for damp in your concrete floor, should really be handled by a professional. We use, a tool called a Hygrometer, for testing the humidity within concrete screed. The tool itself is quite expensive, and a local surveyor could come and test your floor, for a fraction of the cost.

Timber SubFloor Preparation

Preparing your timber floor, is pretty straightforward. This applies to all types of timber flooring underlayment, ie: planks , particle board panels, etc etc

The common problems, are Squeaks and uneven flooring.

Squeaks, are generally caused by loose fitting, or badly replaced flooring. Commonly in europe, flooring gets the rough end of the deal at the hands of central heating engineers, and plumbers. Who remove flooring incorrectly or indeed re install it badly.

To solve a squeak, find out WHY it is squeaking . Reasons could be:

1. flooring plank not fixed to joist beneath, fatigued fastener.
2. flooring plank has warped due to moisture/heat or combination.
3. flooring plank has rotted due to leak from a radiator, or rising or transmitent damp.
4. or the joist beneath is damaged. This requires more structural work.

Solving the Squeak.

1. fix plank to joist, with screws, and check all others.
2. replace or resize the plank, so that it fits nice and flat and not to tight. Always use dry timber sized as per original flooring planks.
3. remove rotted planks, and check joists beneath. Sort out the moisture problems, and replace treated planks. ( use a wood preservative / damp proofer )

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