Hello everyone,
For several years now, I have been the (proud) owner of a house built in 1958. This house comes from family ownership and was built by my grandfather. About three years ago, for personal reasons, only the basement was largely renovated and refurbished by ourselves, while the upper floor was just gutted.
This year, the renovation of the upper floor is planned. My experienced father-in-law will assist me with this. He is a retired builder and has built and renovated several houses, so he has relevant experience. However, most of his projects involved houses with concrete ceilings.
In the next few days, we have an on-site meeting with an architect. He is responsible for the layout, building permits/planning permission, and so on. I want to prepare myself a bit beforehand.
The upper floor has an area of about 7x11m (23x36 feet). There is a wooden beam ceiling (still the original) with a plank floor on top, onto which various floor coverings have been laid over the past decades (which have since been removed). The ceiling between floors was insulated from below with mineral wool during the basement renovation and sealed again with a vapor barrier and drywall.
There are no load-bearing walls on the upper floor, only two vertical support beams that must remain. Basically, I currently have a “ballroom” with a stairwell hole in the middle.
Now to my “problem” or rather my questions/concerns:
My father-in-law believes that the plank floor can be evened out with leveling compound and then the floor covering can be installed.
I don’t fully agree with that. An old plank floor always carries the risk of squeaking because it is only nailed down. My father-in-law wants to avoid this by additionally screwing the planks.
I would be very disappointed if I invested a lot of work and money into the renovation, only for the new floor to start squeaking after some time.
Do you perhaps have some tips on what would make the most sense here?
I understand this is just a remote diagnosis, so I’m not expecting anything set in stone.
Thanks in advance.
For several years now, I have been the (proud) owner of a house built in 1958. This house comes from family ownership and was built by my grandfather. About three years ago, for personal reasons, only the basement was largely renovated and refurbished by ourselves, while the upper floor was just gutted.
This year, the renovation of the upper floor is planned. My experienced father-in-law will assist me with this. He is a retired builder and has built and renovated several houses, so he has relevant experience. However, most of his projects involved houses with concrete ceilings.
In the next few days, we have an on-site meeting with an architect. He is responsible for the layout, building permits/planning permission, and so on. I want to prepare myself a bit beforehand.
The upper floor has an area of about 7x11m (23x36 feet). There is a wooden beam ceiling (still the original) with a plank floor on top, onto which various floor coverings have been laid over the past decades (which have since been removed). The ceiling between floors was insulated from below with mineral wool during the basement renovation and sealed again with a vapor barrier and drywall.
There are no load-bearing walls on the upper floor, only two vertical support beams that must remain. Basically, I currently have a “ballroom” with a stairwell hole in the middle.
Now to my “problem” or rather my questions/concerns:
My father-in-law believes that the plank floor can be evened out with leveling compound and then the floor covering can be installed.
I don’t fully agree with that. An old plank floor always carries the risk of squeaking because it is only nailed down. My father-in-law wants to avoid this by additionally screwing the planks.
- Would that be sufficient?
- Is it really enough to apply leveling compound on the plank floor and then install laminate/parquet/vinyl etc.?
- Or should a floating OSB subfloor be installed on top of the leveling compound, for example?
- Would it perhaps be better to remove the planks entirely and lay a new OSB subfloor directly on the joists?
I would be very disappointed if I invested a lot of work and money into the renovation, only for the new floor to start squeaking after some time.
Do you perhaps have some tips on what would make the most sense here?
I understand this is just a remote diagnosis, so I’m not expecting anything set in stone.
Thanks in advance.
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