DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hi all

We’ve recently started renovating a 50s house which has a lovely parquet hallway.

Half of the area seems fine but where there was heavy traffic (bottom of stairs to kitchen) the parquet is not fixed to anything, and is very loose.

Due to how loose it is we can pull it up with ease and would like to repair it but I’m not sure whether it’s ‘too far gone’.

The bricks are tongue and groove, with a layer of bitumen adhesive on to a (presumably) concrete base.

The problem we have is that the bricks are not loose from the bitumen losing tack, but the concrete disintegrating. Each brick when lifted has wood, then bitumen, then between 10-20mm of concrete.

Does anyone have any experience of this and whether we can just scrape the concrete/bitumen off then level the floor and start again?

Thanks!

Sounds like the concrete is breaking up possibly due to age/moisture/poor mix or possibly all three!

I deally you would pull all the blocks up, clean the floor and ascertain why the cement has broken up. You also need to confirm if the floor has a Damp Course in good condition. If this is ok, then its a case of repair mortar, screed and refit the cleaned up blocks.

If the DPM is damaged or does not exist, the concrete needs repairing, then a liquid DPM laid, followed by a screed and the blocks can be cleaned up and re-fitted.