Hi I am having engineered wooden flooring installed in my property. I have traditional timber floorboards. The property had woodworm, so this was treated and a number of the rotten boards were removed. In some of the smaller rooms, we will remove the timber floorboards and replace them with tongue and groove chipboard. Our carpenter has suggested that it may make sense to do this throughout the property. Wondered what people thought of tongue and groove chipboard? Some of the articles I have read, seem to suggest timber floorboards are superior. With creeking chipboard highlighted as an issue. Therefore I wouldn't want to lose all my timber floorboards, for an inferior replacement. Any advice would be appreciated.
Most of the noise problems with chipboard arise from movement of board against nail or board against board. If they are fitted well using proper flooring screws and are properly butted together and glued at the joints noise should not be a problem ..... BUT ..... sounds as though you might be trying to solve something that is not a problem. If you are really set on replacing the boards you might consider putting good insulation under the new floor (assuming this is ground floor). In an older property this can make a big difference to the feel of the room and the cost of heating. Talk to your local authority; you might be able to get a grant towards the costs.
Mike, you have a chippie doing all the work so take notice of what he says. He's Johnny on the spot, so to speak. One tip though, if you go do go down the chipboard route get him to draw the approximate route of any pipes and cables on a sheet of paper or plywood and keep it. Then in 10yrs time, when a pipe needs replacing, you'll have an idea of where it is. Creaking t&g chipboard is sometimes caused by over tightened screws or incorrect nail fixings.
Thanks for the advice guys. I will discuss with my carpenter. I am reluctant to take up perfectly good timber floorboards. This would be done through the entire property and it is a 3 bed house. So it is a fair bit of work.
I can't see the point of replacing the floorboards TBH. If they are sound and free from wood worm. Seems like a lot of unnecessary work.
Chipboard flooring should be left to the shoddily built,new build wendy houses so that they can throw them up cheaper and quicker. Although it will work out dearer, do the job properly and use floorboards to match the existing ones. Maybe even use reclaimed ones if you can get a hold them.
Cheers for the advice lads. The labour cost for piecing in the timber floorboards was not far off ripping out and starting again with T&G chipboard. He is on site and thought he knew best route to go down. Will have to take up fair few boards this weekend.