Engineered or real wood over my floorboards?

Old Victorian house, so old floorboards. We have to choose between real wood or engineered.

I’m a barber not a joiner so please excuse the possibly daft questions..

Do we need a layer of insulation/acoustic stuff?

Should the floor float or be nailed down? I presume that laminate floats but real wood & engineered needs nailing?

It’s a lounge with a log burner and a tanked out cellar beneath.

I’m confused. If the current floorboards are good enough not to need ripping out, why not give them a sanding? Failing that replace them with new properly seasoned floorboards.

Can you not lift your existing floorboards and lay insulation between the joists then relay your floorboards and sand/seal/varnish or stain as required?, that’s if your existing floorboards are of a suitable quality.

Otherwise it’s a matter of cost regarding engineered with a 3mm or 4mm veneer vs real wood and how much you wish to spend, fwiw i’ve seen some stunning engineered/veneered floors but they ain’t cheap (still cheaper than real wood though) and yeah, they do need nailed through the tongue.

Engineered floats so it needs underlay to dampen movement between the two surfaces; solid is nailed straight down.
I really don’t believe that engineered boards are that much more stable than solid; I’ve seen engineered floors expand badly. I do however think that solid looks much better and if you lay solid in the humid months of high summer (heating off!) it will only ever shrink slightly, not expand so expansion gaps can be minimal. decent solid oak can cost as little as £22/msq.
I am not convinced about insulation underneath floors; cold air cannot rise and heat can’t sink. There is a reason you have loads of ventilation around your floor joists; block the air supply to your joists and you will have a wet rot/woodworm problem pretty smartish!

engineered is certainly more stable than solid
there are some engineered that can be invisible fixed down

you have a little one and a woofy thing so I would go for an oiled rather than varnished for ease of long term maintainance

I agree with headfirst. I would only consider going over the existing floor with a layer of wood or engineered as a last resort.

I agree with headfirst. I would only consider going over the existing floor with a layer of wood or engineered as a last resort.

Not sure I see why this last resort stuff
old sanded floorboards are just that
Jason may want nice oak flooring with the minimum of hassle

I’ve sanded old floorboards before, this time I’d like a floor laid. As my man Trout says, I fancy an oak floor which I can oil.

So, real wood, layed in Summer, nailed through the tongue. No insulation.

Also, at some point, somebody has hacked a really bad hatch in the original floor.

Thanks for the advice, one & all 🙂

Not sure I see why this last resort stuff
old sanded floorboards are just that
Jason may want nice oak flooring with the minimum of hassle.

Well I would personally rather have the floor boards with area rugs. Putting a floor covering down with the durability of a dinner table is the opposite of minimum hassle for me. Also the original floorboards are now the subfloor which I doubt is level.

If you’re going to do it at least go engineered. It’s more dimensionally stable, contours better, and the veneer wear layer will be just a durable as solid wood.

Jason may want nice oak flooring with the minimum of hassle

That was me. We had engineered floor laid by stws very own expert last September. It looks stunning, we did have one small creak a few weeks after install that’s now gone away but that was all.

Victorian house also – probably not the best pic this was immediately after it was finished before the skirting was painted and plug sockets changed to black chrome…

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Looks good Kyrton57.

mcmoonter to the forum…