Hi guys, I'm going to try laying either an engineered wood or laminate floor in my downstairs hallway and living room. the problem is that under the existing carpet is some very thin, unusable parquet flooring which has been stuck down with what I assume is bitumen. I've done a bit of research and from what I gather I should pull up the parquet, seal the bitumen with some sort of primer and then use a self levelling compound over the whole floor. This all sounds very expensive and way beyond my capabilities... is it absolutely necessary? assuming the floor is level once i remove the parquet, can i not just put a DPM on top of the bitumen and then install the underlay and flooring?
Lay it straight on top of the existing parquet, re glue any loose bits, make sure there are no protruding bits, don't use laminate.......
Thanks Wiggy, I'm a little worried that doing that might make too much of a height difference between the new flooring and the flooring in the other rooms. Do you think it'll be noticeable (parquet is 5mm thick)? Am I right in saying that a shouldn't use an underlay with built in DPM if I go down this route?
I don't think the height difference will be noticeable by the time you have some thresholds in place, your shout really... Self leveller would be 2/3mm As for underlay, dpm won't hurt. Take the skirting off and undercut your door frames for a pro result
I would leave the original parquet down, particularily as it sounds like they might actually be floor tiles that can contain some asbestos.