Raising a bedroom floor

[paulontour]

Hi
To get into my bedroom, you have to step up. The step is only small and I'm not bothered about that one.

However I have a step in the bedroom which is annoying. A friend said it was due to the change in buildings regs meaning the joist is bigger underneath (extension). I have taken up the floorboards and he is right, the joist is bigger.

What I want to know is how to raise the floor so it is all level? I will make the step into the room bigger. No doors to worry about. Need to raise it by 68mm. Can I just put 50mm timber on top of old floorboards and the re board with 18mm plywood? Would it need to be perpendicular? Ok to have another void? It is a kitchen underneath if that matters.

Thanks

 

[brk1]

You shouldn't have a problem raising your floor, but you might have problems later if anything goes wrong in your kitchen, is there any pipework in the ceiling, would there ever be a problem with any electrics in your kitchen, a lot of people get to their kitchen services through there upstairs rooms, you have to think if anything goes wrong in your kitchen ,you may have to rip your kitchen ceiling down to get to them?

If that's no problem then you can go over the top of your bedroom floor, but you might want to pick the timber yourself , 50mm sawn timber is often only 44-45mm thick these days, so if your 68mm dimension is critical, check what your buying first, when we use 2"x 2" timber on site these days it's usually 44mm x 44mm. If you have any worries , screw everything down then if you do come across a problem you can always take it up again

 

[paulontour]

Thanks so much for your reply. Can I put the timber over the existing floorboards? Then new floorboards on top of the timber? Was going to fill with insulation too, if only for acoustic purposes.

Also, is it best to go perpendicular to joists or does that not matter if going over existing floorboards?

Kitchen not a problem as just waiting for a problem so can redo kitchen ceiling!

 

[brk1]

To tell you the truth that insulation won't make much difference at all, because your new timbers will be sitting directly on top of the old ones (solid contact) and that's what transfers the noise,I was going to do the whole of my kitchen ceiling but my m8 at work had just done the same to his and told me not to bother, waste of money and basically no improvement and both of us have basically done this job all our working lives, if you have electrics in the ceiling especially spot lights you must be able to get to them easily , some have little transformers for each spot light usually accessible through the spotlight ceiling hole, it won't really matter which way you lay the floor, it will be stronger if you go across the old ceiling joist at 90 degrees as will head spread the weight, but will make extra work if you do need to get to the old ceiling at a later date as you'll be spread across al the floor boards, using flooring chipboard would be better than 18 mm ply but you are supposed to stick it down really as well as screw/nail to stop any squeaks, you don't have to in your own property but it ain't half annoying to get a squeak once you've had it carpeted, a 8' x 4' is normally very awkward to get up in a bedroom if you ever need to change things unless you've got a mansion and can get rid of the beds and wardrobes etc to have a totally clear room