Subfloors - Opinions...?
We are doing a gut renovation of a small 100+ year old brownstone. Currently we have removed all linoleum and carpeting off floors. Some of the floors are just subflooring and others have some oak flooring on top of subfloor. We are thinking about removing all wood/parquet and maintaining the subfloors but want to get…
We are doing a gut renovation of a small 100+ year old brownstone. Currently we have removed all linoleum and carpeting off floors. Some of the floors are just subflooring and others have some oak flooring on top of subfloor. We are thinking about removing all wood/parquet and maintaining the subfloors but want to get opinions. Is it noisy or creaky when you walk? It is not wide plank, they are about 4 inches wide and need sanding and treatment, etc.
We also had our GC lift the pine sub-floor (we needed some floor joist repairs) and then re-lay it. But he put down plywood before re-installing the pine. This added stability, mass for sound-dampening, and no squeaks.
My house growing up was all old subfloors, and we never bothered to lift them up, put plywood down or anything. Yeah, they squeak sometimes, but it’s part of the charm!
BTW if you are getting rid of the oak, I need some old flooring–provided it could be refinished and isn’t totally junked. Let me know.
We are living below a rental unit in which we exposed and refinished the subfloor. I would recommend highly against anyone else doing this. The noise and footfall vibration is a serious problem. Also we found that even after sanding the wood, the stain and poly didn’t adhere well all over.
I’m interested in covering the refinished subfloor with a floating cork floor and acoustic-dampening padding when the tenants eventually vacate. Alternately a new solid hardwood/plywood subfloor solution like PutnamDenizen describes seems good too.
BTW – If anyone else has a positive or negative experience with a cork flooring setup like I described, please share your comments.
The prior owners of our place took up the badly abused parquet and refinished the pine subfloors throughout the house. On the garden and parlor floors, they had the flooring company re-lay the pine, interspersed with filler pieces, and those two floors don’t squeak at all. On the bedroom level where they did not re-lay, it squeaks everywhere. It’s also quite thin, so when you’re walking in one bedroom, even in stockinged feet, the chandelier in the parlor floor below trembles. We’re redoing that level as part of an upcoming renovation and plan to lay a new floor and subfloor to eliminate both the squeaks and the noise/vibration transfer between floors.
Yes. It is noisy. I ended up taking up my wide-planeked subfloor, putting down plywaood, then reflooring with the subfloor. It looks very country, but is very solid. Of course opening up a floor might reveal a host of problems which you might prefer to not know about!