Hi Folks
I have a living/dining room in an old victorian terrace house where the front half of the room (the living room) has had the original floorboards replaced with a chipboard floor, while the dining room has the original floorboards. Currently the whole lot has been carpeted over.
I want to take up the carpet and replace the chipboard with reclaimed boards that are a close match to the original boards in the dining room.
The existing boards in the dining room (20mm thick, 165mm wide pine boards) are nailed directly into the joists.
Beneath this there is a basement/foundations level. The house has previously had damp problems as it is built on the site of an old spring, however there has been a lot of work done to fix the damp issues.
I am new to working with floors so have several questions, namely:
A - am I ok to lay the new boards in the same fashion as the old ones, by nailing directly into the joists? Or is it better to take the whole lot up and lay a subfloor (which I would much rather avoid if possible)?
B - what do I need to look our for in terms of potential damp/moisture issues that may affect the new boards?
C - I am aware that you need to leave an expansion gap round the edge but does there need to be a small gap between each row of board?
D - Is there anywhere I can hire a damp meter to inspect the moisture level in the joists?
E - Anything else I need to be aware of? Am doing this completely wrong and will I just end up with a ruined floor in 2 years time?
Any thoughts or advice would be absolutely fantastic.
Many thanks
Tom