I have posted about this before...
We would like to replace the manky carpet in the dining room / playroom and had a quote from a local shop which comes in at about the same as hard flooring would cost. We were only going with carpet again as we thought we'd need to wait and save up for the hard flloring we'd actually much prefer - bamboo to match the other downstairs room. Anyway after getting the quote and realising we have been looking at floor levelling.
The dining room has tiles under the carpet which are a bit wobbly and not what we want - cold, in bad condition and not suitable for family life - though someone in the future may love them so I don't really want to do anything which would ruin them. We really don't have the time, money, patience to take them all up. We took up the carpet in two corners this evening and are now totally confused as to where to start. One corner (a doorway) has wobbly tiles which are on powdery stuff - looks like plaster before it's mixed and packed in - on top of a fairly solid base - Victorian version of concrete?! The other corner has tiles stuck to the floor beneath with plaster over some of them presumably levelling that area a little.
If we pour a levelling compound over the floor as it is (cleaned first of course) will it work? There is a very narrow gap between the tiles and I'm worried that the compound will leak down and onto whatever's underneath and as it's not exactly a solid base what will that do? Especially in that wobbly corner... Also, although we have no need of the tiles and no wish to take them all up, someone in the future may wish to do so, so I don't want to ruin them - will levelling compound ruin them completely? Should we maybe put in a layer of boards first to protect them? But then with the boards, leveller, underlay and flooring will the floor just be raised ridiculously high?
I just want flooring that will work with two small children and it's proving to be a massive headache :(
Any advice would be very welcome - thanks.