Just a quickie. We’re having the living room redone, and part of that is new hard-wearing floor. We were just going to put some 6mm ply down then Karndean on top of that, but we’ve got got old, creaky floorboards. If we were to use some insulated underlay (it’s a very cold and draughty house) is simply a case of underlay over floorboards, then ply, then glue the Karndean down?

I know we could get someone it to do it but the quote for the materials only is £800, quote including fitting is £1800 😯 That is some day rate!

Not answering your question at all but I think the Karndean warranty (above statutory rights) is only available if a registered fitter fits it?

If you have old and creaky floorboards then 6 mm ply is not good enough go up to 9 mm ply and screw it down but first deal with any squeaky boards .

you could use a product from Jumpax to insulate the floor but again the old boards need to be sorted first .

Ha Ha Karndean warranty dept are the wriggliest in the world its always someone else s fault when a floor fails .

It doesn’t matter what you put on top, the squeaks won’t go. As trout says, deal with those first.

Have you considered bamboo flooring? Reasonable price and wears well..

Yes, we’re going to sort the floorboards. The house was built a long while ago and they appear to have nailed the floorboards down. We’re hoping that adding to these with screws will sort the squeaks.

Not too bothered about the warranty, as it would cost us considerably less for new materials than it would for someone registered to fit the first lot.

Ha Ha Karndean warranty dept are the wriggliest in the world its always someone else s fault when a floor fails .

This very much! Wrong, floorboards, wrong sort of ply, wrong glue, wrong colour van. You name it, they’ll use it to get out of a claim!

As the 2 professional flooring fitters say above, screw the boards down and deal with the creaks/squeaks, then ply but nailed/screwed down properly. don’t bother with underlay.

£1k fitting is strong though, does that included the ply, glue, screw, nails, door bars etc? not sure how big the area is but a day or so to prep floor, a day or so to ply the floor and a day to drop down 30-40m2 of LVT.

Most squeaks happen where pipes have been layed so be mega careful when screwing boards down

That price doesn’t include any floor prep. It’s for laying 20m2 of vinyl strips onto the floor we’ll already have prepared. It does include 1 door strip and finishing around the skirtings. I reckon they heard “insurance” and the pound signs starting flashing in their eyes. Insurers want a proper breakdown of costs from fitters but I’ve told them I’d rather such chancers didn’t get anyone’s money, insurance or not.

I think I might just replace all the floorboards while the room is in bits. It’ll be a proper job and still come in cheaper than getting fitters in.

Where are you in the world as we can give you a quote preferable if in a 100 mile radius of Skipton

What do you mean finishing around the skirtings ??

20 sq mtrs of karndean da vinci including 9 mm ply and fitting the going rate is about £60 per sq mtr plus the dreaded VAT this is a ballpark figure as different ranges are differing prices

Ah, nowhere near Skipton. We’re in St Andrews, Fife.

The finishing around skirting looks to be some kind of bevelled edge beading type thing, to cover any gaps between floor level and bottom of skirting I guess. Like this, kind of:

Personally, I think it looks really naff.

If it helps, it’s the Van Gogh Classic Oak we are after.

Fife a bit far to commute but for the money they have quoted I could be persuaded

I have Never put scotia beads around a Karndean floor they are for wood floors to hide the expansion gap

lift skirting, lay floor, put skirting back in place, does away with the edging strip. looks much better, if you can get the skirting up without destroying the plaster, which then just adds to your job list… 😳

Also if you are going to screw everything down, best check joists beneath, just worked on a cottage (surveying! not floor layer though), floor slightly flexible at one end, turned out end joist was touching banked ground and had wet rot right through, so just inspect before covering everything over.
Also if there is space and you have chance insulation between joist, just leave ventilated space below.

Hmmm. This is turning into a slightly bigger job than I anticipated. Oh well. It’ll keep me busy.

While the floor is up, is there anything I should be considering to run under the floor that’ll come in handy later on? Internet cables, speaker wires, that kind of thing?

If you’re taking the floor up you’d be better off replacing it altogether with t/g chipboard or ply. Either would give you a much better subfloor for your vinyl.

Don’t worry, we’ll soon have you replacing the joists. 😀

Ha. It’s got me thinking about excavating under the house and putting in a subterranean gym, cinema and swimming pool.

I managed to avoid the dreaded beading by carefully siliconing the joint between floor and skirting. The gaps were only a mill or two but this aesthetically tidies it up nicely.