1930s Floor issue. Seems very soft. How to make it stronger and lasting

[Jonny Vee]

It looks like an ashfelt floor to me, but not easy to tell as I can't see the whole area. I would leave it alone unless absolutely necessary.

You mean laying new engineering floor on top of it directly?

 

[catlad]

If its not rotten and its stable why not, obviously you will need to trim doors.

 

[bobasd]

Then do you intend to trench-in your 110mm soil pipe run from the WC - or is the soil pipe going thro a wall, not trenched in the floor?
I harp on about this trenching business because trenching might alter the balance of things in the floor and introduce damp?
Plus, its never a good idea in Residential to run buried wastes etc under a finished floor.

The floor & wall appears to be dry so why not do as i advised above.

You could use SLC under the tile, and a thick underlay under any wood flooring?

IMO, last resort thing is that that kind of floor needs to breathe

 

[bobasd]

I've encountered, or heard of, all kinds of composition floors, what materials were used depended on the local resources or in a case of no money and heavy damp then whatever they could lay their hands on.

For example: power station ash, coal slag from pit heaps, mud and cement in the SW - and even some terraced houses where I noticed Tarmac had been stomped down.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

For example: power station ash, coal slag from pit heaps, mud and cement in the SW - and even some terraced houses where I noticed Tarmac had been stomped down.

I had wondered about ash or slag. We certainly have a few houses around here where the floors are compacted colliery slag mixed with some clay (also a by product) as a binder, presumably. After 100 years they are rock hard, albeit a bit brittle, and there was a tendency round here the1950s to cover them with asphalt. All the ones I've seen were pre-War though

 

[bobasd]

J&K,
yes, i agree that, back in the day, local sources must have provided most of the materials for floors and so much else.
I know of a thatched 16thC cottage where there's a pond in the garden that was the original pit for materials for floors and walls.

 

[Nige F]

Walls were often made from mud and straw and the s*** from the bulls living on it.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I don't know of many 1930s buildings that used wattle and daub wall infill, or even cob walls for that matter (both of those techniques involve the use of straw and manure as a binder). I certainly don't know of any type of beaten earth floor that uses animal faeces........

 

[Jonny Vee]

I have changed the layout and now there is no need of any trance for the drainage. Made it work movi g bathroom next to side wall.

What about tiling the slab now. Is there anything to put first like thin reinforced screed or tiles direct on top of it?