What is this floor and how do I remove it?

[Bloomsburyreader]

Just bought a do-er upper and have ripped out all the carpets. Downstairs we have what seems to be a dark brown resin under the carpets. In the reception rooms this seems to be pretty hard and there are no obvious indentations. However in the kitchen the floor seems to have more give, these are the indentations made by the fridge and I placed a heavy plastic box full of stuff down for a few days and you could make out a mark where it was (i think it's gone now).

We are going to put parquet down in the reception rooms so I think the floor there will be ok (looks similar to this, just more hardwearing) but I'm assuming we'll need to remove this from the kitchen before we do any of our own flooring (not decided over engineered wood parquet or tiles yet). Anyone know what it is and how we'd go about removing it?

Bitumen flooring ? Pretty sure it's what I had in my house.

how old is the house?

is the upstairs floor different from the downstairs floor?

Can you see any joints or nails?

stand back and take a wider pic please

It's quite common for this to be on top of the concrete down stairs. I wouldn't try and remove it as it'll be stuck down very well x

I think it's a 'self-levelling compound' poured over the concrete floor to even it up and cover old concrete that probably was starting to crumble.

It's the slight gloss finish that's the clue.

I wouldn't remove it, that would involve major digging. It's actually a good surface to install a wood floor on top of. (They often do that to even up the sub-floor before laying a new floor anyway.)

Yup looks like a self levelling latex compound that’s been used to level the floor,

Thanks for the advice all.

Yes it does seem to have been some kind of resin poured over the floor. I have pulled up the skirtings today (needs to be done as we have damp proofers coming in next week to sort the rising damp) and you can see how it has pooled at the sides.

I had wondered if it was some kind of damp proofing floor as they were clearly aware of the damp as there have been a few unsuccessful attempts to replaster over some of the damp patches previously.

More pics here of kitchen and reception room.

We are happy if this is suitable to tile or parquet over but worried about the fact that it does seem to have some give in it

@PigletJohn

how old is the house?

is the upstairs floor different from the downstairs floor?

Can you see any joints or nails?

stand back and take a wider pic please

Built in 1858. Upstairs is floorboards (which we are having to have replaced with new joists as they are bowed).

You say it has some give in it and shows indentations from pressure.

This does not sound like a concrete floor or a cement-based levelling screed.

Are there any air bricks in the outside walls?

Ard the "damp proofers" going to inject silicone into the walls?

A house of that age might have a stone floor in the kitchen but usually wooden floors elsewhere.

It looks like some sort of screed. Poorly laid or old floors can have “give” as they start to deteriorate.

If you’re having a specialist lay your wooden floor they’ll almost certainly want to remove what you have and lay their own base in order to guarantee their work, regardless of how sound the existing flooring appears to be.

I know what this is but can't for the life of me think of the name....neither can my Dad who is the one who told me!
Pretty common in the scullery of Victorian properties. I think it is used to waterproof the floor where water was used, common in tenement flats to avoid water ingress to downstairs flats.

Might be wood pulp compound.

Just thought- the kitchen itself is an extension and was put in in the 1960s so this is when this floor was probably laid throughout. I imagine they put it down to replace the original floorboards in the two reception rooms (which would have originally been the kitchen/diner and the living room- it's an old 2 up 2 down that was extended in the 60s)

We plan on laying our own parquet so will probably do it straight onto here. In the two reception rooms I feel confident it would be ok as seems more hardwearing, just the kitchen is a potential issue, I fear we may have to remove it there

Pics show a close up of where the fridge was pressing through the parquet onto the flooring plus 4 little marks I made easily with my thumbnail, and then the marks made by my IKEA plastic box (which are definitely still there)

I'd be very strongly inclined to dig it out, and look for the source of water too, starting at the end with the sink, water pipes and drain.

I also think it’s screed. It will be an absolute pain to remove

Magnesite screed!
I remembered. It is a rubberised screed compound.

it doesn't look like other pictures of Magnesite screed on T'Internet.

It can be coloured. Look up removal. It deteriorates and is spongey and marks as you have demonstrated.
I may be wrong but your description is pretty much spot on. It needs to be removed.

I think you need to dig out the floor.

By damp proofing next week what do you mean? Do not inject into walls, it won't work and you are throwing your money away. It can wreck and old property.

You need to find out the source of the damp.

If you google pistonheads.com Any flooring experts? Apparently my floor needs digging up.
There is a full discussion with pictures of his floor looking very like the ops pics.

Thanks all. I'll do a bit more reading about it. I'll also start a new thread about the damp as I'd really like to get to the bottom of that too.

How would we go about digging it out? Would we need a jackhammer? What's likely to be underneath?

It seems magnesite flooring is commonly mixed with asbestos. Seems DH will have to take the kids to his mums and I will have to sort out getting it tested

An 1858 house may well originally have had a wooden floor. There may have been stone flags or bricks laid on the earth, especially in a kitchen.

When these are replaced by solid it is often because of rot caused by long-term damp. Very annoyingly, the cause of the damp is not usually addressed, so it continues and is much more effort and expense for the later person who has to dig up the solid floor to get to it.

A house of this age is pretty sure to have plumbing leaks from pipes and drains.

Photos of the bottoms of the walls, inside and out, including the gullies, downpipes and soilpipes, and indicating how much the ground level or paving has been raised against the house wall since it was built, are very useful.

But don't add them to you "floor" thread, please start a new "damp" thread.

BTW silicone injections do not repair leaking pipes or broken drains, neither do they lower ground levels.

@Bloomsburyreader why don’t you just have surface sealed and levelled rather than removing it? It’s going to be a massive job.

Just because the floor has asbestos in doesn’t mean that it is inherently dangerous. Asbestos like this is generally flake as it is sealed into the screed.

theflooringforum.com/threads/magnesite-screed-nightmare.18629/