Is this common?

[tmm101]

Hi Everybody,

I just wanted to ask about this as it seems very weird to me.

A year ago i bought a 70's house which and old guy had from new. We have bought some engineered wood flooring to fit in the hallway to replace the lovely pub-style carpet.

I pulled up the carpet and started to remove the skirting to find that the skirting board is in many places below the level of the floor screed. I managed to get them out and there is now a gap the width of the skirting all the way around, and i can see all the way down to the floor slab. My only explanation is that when the house was built they fitted the skirting boards before pouring the floor screed. Seems a strange way to do it no?

Also strange is that the floor screed seems to have sunk about 10mm down one side so the floor is now out of kilter. I know it wasn't like this when it was built as you can see the crack in the floor at a doorway, and many of the asbestos marley tiles have cracked. Is it normal for conrete floor slabs to sink like this? My guess is that it has settled over the 40+ years it has been down.

Any thoughts?

 

[dazlight]

Just wondering is the floor black? Could it be a Ashpalt sub floor? Very popular in the 70s.
Could you post some pictures mate?

 

[tmm101]

This is a photo of the crack at the cupboard door. It just looks like sand cement screed to me.

View media item 70137
This one shows one of the corners where there is a large hole under the skirting boards. You can just see the buried gas pipe through it.

View media item 70138

 

[seasickstevie]

The good news is ... your tiles aren't asbestos.



**Please note**, as newboy points out further down this thread, these tiles possibly DO contain asbestos.

Thanks to newboy for pointing this out.

 

[tmm101]

Aren't they? That's not what the test lab I sent a sample to said.

 

[xr4x4]

so your thinking that the house has never been touched since the bloke brought it in the 70s?

 

[dazlight]

What I would do mate is get up as much adhesive as you can.
Then screed the floor with Ardex NA
Is cost a issue?

 

[dazlight]

They will be settlement cracks I'd say. Any bad bits take up the loose an fill with rapid repair mortar. Maybe Ardex A45 or f.ball 460

 

[tmm101]

We're pretty sure the house hasn't been touched apart from a rubbish boiler installation (British gas) and some maintenance. The old guy kept everything and we have the original brochure for the house including the carpets (Axminster!) and kitchen he specified. We even have receipts for fence panels he had replaced.

My plan was to fill the large holes with mortar and put self leveller over the whole lot to get it level.

One thing I have also noticed is the wall plaster goes below the floor level, where in my previous houses it has stopped about an inch above the floor level to stop damp rising. I think I'll knock the plaster off to make this gap as it seems like a good idea to me.

 

[dazlight]

Yeah it should never touch the floor

 

[Newboy]

SNM wrote

The good news is ... your tiles aren't asbestos

Those look like the early 'Marley' type - brittle and do contain asbestos

Link might be useful

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/guidance/a23.pdf

I's also be a little concerned about what looks like un-protected copper gas pipework running in the screed

 

[tmm101]

That's what I thought, and its why I had them tested. I have only removed the ones that were loose. The rest will be buried in SLC. Thanks to the link to the HSE guidance but I had already seen it. I had them in my previous house too.

The place where I bought the flooring from said not to worry about it and just take them up but I think I'll play on the safe side. He sais their floor fitters take them up all the time.

The gas pipes that are buried in the floor are iron and covered in what feels like bitumen, which I guess is ok unless anybody else knows better.