Hello forum,
I've started down the road of replacing the laminate flooring in my flat, which is old & quite badly scuffed (and didn't look very nice in the first place).
Would like to replace in the lounge/hallway/kitchen with either solid wood flooring or engineered wood. Or maybe even reclaimed wooden floorboards.
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My flat is a basement flat. Have had someone round to measure up. I've already lifted the old flooring in the kitchen and he commented on how thick the underlay was underneath it. He said it was a lot thicker than is usually used and wondered if it was for extra damp protection. He did a damp check with a meter of some kind on the concrete subfloor in the kitchen and got a number of about 58. Not sure what that means but when I asked him what a good number would be he said "less than about 35". Talked about applying some kind of latex covering on the concrete before going any further.
Also am getting conflicting opinions on whether or not the existing underlay could be left in place & reused. The guy today said it wouldn't be advisable because it's so thick it makes the flooring feel a bit soft underfoot (can't say I've ever noticed this) - also it may have been damaged in places by damp (can't tell without lifting everything up).
I've got a square of polythene taped to the kitchen subfloor now - will see if any condensation comes through.
I'm not sure what my questions are...
Well, one is: would reclaimed floorboards be advisable to use? And is it a bad idea to fix them directly to a concrete subfloor? If I didn't it'd probably drop the floor level by about an inch which might mess up the doorways etc. - or should I put them on top of something eg. the existing underlay or something new? Confused.
Could pay someone else to take all these problems away of course but my budget is tight.
Also struggling to find wooden flooring I like. The reclaimed oak/pine stuff is very nice but seems to be £120+ per square metre. The new tongue & groove stuff is cheaper but I don't like it so much.
I'd like to create something that looks like the attached photo (nabbed from the John Lewis website).
Grateful for any advice/comments. Feeling a bit lost.
