www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

Hi,
I have a bungalow built in1991 with a floating floor. concrete, polystyrene then chipboard.

there doesn't appear to be any batons other than where the radiator pipes were.
I found out the flooring situation after having a new boiler and radiators installed. we moved most of the radiators to prepare for an overhaul my mrs wants to do before she retires.

The guy that did the boiler had to cut channels in the chipboard and polystyrene to run the new pipes. as there was nothing to fix the boards back to so we have some rather big bumps in the floor.

My wife wants to change our current carpets to laminate floor.

the current flooring isn't very even what are my options. the heating engineer thought that we would have to put plywood down over the chipboard before installing laminate.

would I be better off lifting the old chipboard and re do it?

any suggestions would be appreciated

NOTE _ just a DIYER
i have the same in my bungalow, chipboard floor on polystyrene - built 1932 ish, but has had extension x2 - last one was in the 80's
replace all the Kitchen flooring when we re redid the floor completely , and also replaced bathrorom/ensuite and the cloakroom

But apart from kitchen and dining room both laminated- cloakroom, cusion floor and bathroom/ensuite tiled - all are carpet

we had some rads moved in 3 rooms and the plumber had to cut the floor up to move the pipework , and seemed to have been able to make a reasonable job of putting back down - BUT not for cushion floor - I suspect laminate maybe OK, as it can take a small amount of change, at least when i did a couple of houses the full ground floor - seems to have been ok

I guess it will depend on if the current chipboard goes UNDER any walls , and the work involved and cost to lift all the old chipboard and replace the lot - will you be taking the skirting boards Up so the laminate goes under the skirting (leaving an expansion gap of course - we left 10mm)

How much laminate the entire ground floor

the current flooring isn't very even

why not - anything in particular - just where its been lifted for plumbing or over thresholds

Link to other forum removed. Mod 2.

Will the Doors need to be cut back ? with the plywood + laminate or are the existing thresholds in place and will those be kept

The removed piece of floor will have a saw cut depth removed all around so you can either make this good with an expanding polyurethane glue (like Gorilla) or even perhaps an expanding foam which will need a fair amount of scrape back. With a bit of care you could get it flush. Alernatively, d epending on how handy you are you should be able to make good the floor by cutting a new piece of chipboard to a tight fit into the slot cut out. For laminate a thin ply as a substrate or even self leveling compound can be laid. It is hard to comment properly without a photo.

DWD

thanks for the info guys, much appreciate the help. I'm going to replace the skirtings when the floors are done.

I will have a go at levelling out the area that have been lifted and see how that goes

cheers

Allan