Samantha L
Member
- Messages
- 5
- Location
- Gloucestershire
Hi, newbie here, hoping for some advice on flooring. Some background first - House is on a slope and internally against external wall, the floor is at least 50cm lower than ground level outside. No option to lower ground externally as this side of the house is situated in neighbours garden and I don’t think she’s appreciate us digging up her path.
Probably due to damp issues, old tanking and plaster was removed from this wall years before we purchased and left as exposed stone, except behind the radiator which we’ve now removed. Pointing is a combination of cement in places and lime mortar in others, which in the failed spots and most of the lower half of the wall, we’ve have raked out. The mortar was very soft and crumbly. Plan on bag rubbing with lime and limewashing.
Subfloor is concrete, with some kind of black glue (bitumen?) then a blue layer of plastic (vapour barrier?), then laminate and carpet on top. Obviously with the age of the house there is no DPC.
Just wondering what options we have for the floor. Don’t really want to start digging up concrete if it can be avoided. We are doing this work ourselves. Have read other posts about leaving concrete in place and using insulated underlay before any flooring. I think we’d just like to carpet made from natural fibres. So would using some kind of natural/breathable underlay first sound like an okay option? And in addition to heating and ventilating, is there anything else we can do to keep potential damp at bay?
TIA!
Probably due to damp issues, old tanking and plaster was removed from this wall years before we purchased and left as exposed stone, except behind the radiator which we’ve now removed. Pointing is a combination of cement in places and lime mortar in others, which in the failed spots and most of the lower half of the wall, we’ve have raked out. The mortar was very soft and crumbly. Plan on bag rubbing with lime and limewashing.
Subfloor is concrete, with some kind of black glue (bitumen?) then a blue layer of plastic (vapour barrier?), then laminate and carpet on top. Obviously with the age of the house there is no DPC.
Just wondering what options we have for the floor. Don’t really want to start digging up concrete if it can be avoided. We are doing this work ourselves. Have read other posts about leaving concrete in place and using insulated underlay before any flooring. I think we’d just like to carpet made from natural fibres. So would using some kind of natural/breathable underlay first sound like an okay option? And in addition to heating and ventilating, is there anything else we can do to keep potential damp at bay?
TIA!