New floor over old

[Rob0482]

Hi all.

I have a hideous parquet floor in my front room which is about 8mm deep and appears to be fixed straight to the chipboard floor underneath it (there could be a layer of latex in there possibly too).

My question is, can I simply lay a new floor (engineered wood or similar) straight on top of the parquet with no other layers required?

 

[stef99]

Personally for what it will cost to rebaord the floor, you might as well rip the whole lot up and replacing it with new chipbaords.

Othr than that 6mm plywood can be used to board over the top of it.

It won't be much different in price though.

(dependng on the size of the room)

 

[Rob0482]

Thanks for the reply.

Forgive me - I'm just not really sure of the purpose of lining it before new flooring goes down, as it's basically a solid, sound surface - I just don't like the look of it. I also don't want to add too much extra depth either.

Would there be a reason I couldn't just lay new flooring straight on top of the old stuff? This is the kind of thing it is:

It's a bit uneven here and there but I figured I could level it with a sander easily enough.

 

[crazydaze]

You can 'float' an engineered floor over it, but be aware that if the old blocks start to lift for any reason, you'll get all sorts of noises when you walk on the floor.

As has been suggested, that type of floor is easy to lift, if laid on a wood subfloor, ply and then new floor is fine, if it's on a concretebase, you'll need to primer and screed the floor with a product suitable for the adhesive type that's been used (we usually use Wakol products)

 

[Rob0482]

Thanks for the replies. I'm looking for the minimum disruption method really, so I can do it in stages while the room is still in partial use (I know, I know...)

Sounds like covering it with 6mm then laying the floor over it is the way to go here as it's a first-floor room and chipboard over joists. Do I need to use something decent like birch ply, or can I get away with the cheap and nasty stuff?

 

[crazydaze]

If it's in rock solid condition, I'd just float over it with good underlay like Duratex, ply and then underlay and then the flooring is going to add excess height with little benefit.