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Signs your subfloor needs attention
You do not always need to lift the carpet to suspect a problem. Dips you can feel underfoot, boards that squeak in one spot, doors that catch as they open and old tiles with cracks running across them all point to movement or unevenness below.
Read more: Floor levelling service
- Hollow or bouncy areas when you walk across the room
- Squeaking boards in the same places every day
- Visible humps or dips along a straight edge
- Musty smells or dark staining at the edge of old coverings
- Cracked tiles or grout lines that keep opening up
Concrete floors: levelling compound
Uneven concrete gets a self levelling compound. It flows out to create a flat, smooth surface ready for LVT, engineered wood or tile. Thin, flexible floorings like LVT show every lump in the screed through the surface, so preparation is especially important there.
Where old adhesive or loose patches remain, they are removed first so the compound bonds properly.
Timber floors: screwing down and overboarding
Suspended timber floors move more than concrete. Loose boards are screwed down to stop squeaks, and where the boards are uneven or gappy, the floor is overboarded with sheet material to give a solid, flat base. Tiles in particular need a rigid base, as flexing boards will crack grout and tiles over time.
Flooring
- Subfloor checks, levelling and damp readings
- Engineered and solid wood, LVT, laminate and tile
- Neat beading, thresholds and scribes
Checking for damp
Damp readings are taken before anything is laid. Moisture rising through a concrete slab can swell wood flooring, lift LVT adhesive and cause mould beneath underlay. Where readings call for it, a damp membrane goes down first.
The shortcuts that cause problems later
Beyond the subfloor itself, a few details decide how a floor behaves over the years. Wood needs time to acclimatise to the room, expansion gaps must be left at the edges, and the underlay has to suit both the flooring and the subfloor. Skipping any of these is what leads to gapping and creaking later.
At the edges, beading, thresholds and scribes around door linings should be cut neatly rather than caulked over. It is a small detail, but it is the part of the floor everyone sees.
One floor through the whole ground floor
Many people want a continuous floor running through hallway, kitchen and living room. That makes consistent subfloor preparation even more important, because a join between a concrete kitchen and a timber hallway needs both surfaces brought to the same flat, stable level. We can lay a single room or a whole ground floor as part of a wider renovation.
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Common questions
- Can new flooring go straight over the old floor?
- Sometimes, but only after the old covering is assessed. We usually lift old coverings to check the subfloor properly first.
- Why does LVT show bumps underneath?
- Because it is thin and flexible. Any lump in the subfloor reads through, so concrete is levelled with compound before it is laid.
- How do you stop floorboards squeaking?
- Loose boards are screwed down, and uneven timber floors are overboarded to give a solid base.
- Do you check for damp before fitting wood floors?
- Yes. Damp readings are taken before anything is laid, and a membrane goes down where required.
The service behind this guide
Covering Hertfordshire and Essex.