Flagstone floor

[PeachPlumPears]

Keen to hear from anyone with a flagstone floor...

Under the Lino in our kitchen is the original flagstone floor (Victorian house), which I'd like to uncover and clean up. However, the flagstones are laid directly on the clay below, so will I need to lift the floor to put a waterproof membrane and insulation in? Or will this lead to damp issues in the walls?

Is it damp under the lino?

Yes - there are quite a few layers of Lino down, just piled on top of each other, so no air circulation under there whatsoever!

It might be worth stripping off the lino and seeing if/how it dries out.

If the floor isn't drying out though the lino, putting a damp course underneath shouldn't make a lot of difference to where the damp is or isn't going.

We have flagstones, which while handsome, are uneven and an absolute sod to keep clean. However often you scrub them and I never bother anymore , some more Victorian dirt seems to come off them. and they always feel cold underfoot, and I think they would even with insulation.

What would I do - honestly? You have the makings of a fabulous patio. You'll have to take them up for a warm, dry floor, anyway so take them up - and don't out them back! Instead put down a dampcourse , some insulation, and a good dry concrete slab (if you tuck the insulation up round the edges the floor will be even warmer) then some lovely new tiles or some nice warm wooden flooring.

You'll have to dig the floor up to do this but of course you'd have had to to insulate under the flags anyway. And concrete is nice and flat, flags are the absolute opposite, they'll be bumpier underneath, chances are.

We had flagstones in our last house. I agree with Gladys - they are very cold. Ours looked lovely but the top surface flaked dreadfully. Whatever we did, we always had 'sand' on the surface of the flags.

We thought about sealing them to stop them flaking, but were warned that any moisture that would otherwise evaporate would be pushed back to the walls. Don't know how true that is, but it put us off trying.

Are your flagstones sealed Gladys? I was hoping if we got them professionally cleaned and sealed, they'd be ok to keep clean? I know it's not the most practical of floors but I do love how they look.

Yes I thought that too about the moisture getting trapped, Sally, but apparently you can get a breathable sealant

No, the flagstones we still have are in the utility room, and we haven't 'done' that bit of the floor yet - but when we do, they will get lifted, a dpc, and insulation laid. There are two schools of thought in this house as to whether they go back, or whether some nice practical tiles go down instead (can you guess what I think? I'm being studiedly neutral here aren't I? )

Like yours they are on clay. We removed the lino when we first moved in (it was smelly!!) but the floor is damp: you can't put anything down on it that minds getting damp underneath (luckily it's mainly shoes and buckets so not a problem, but it would be no good in a living space)

The others were under a (rotting) wooden floor anyway, and are now piled up outside, nice new (warm, dry) floor inside.

Re the damp from underneath: if it coming up from the floor it's getting into your living space air which is not really a good thing. As its from the ground, there's no end to it (especially if you are close to the water table in a wet area like we are).

Do you have a damp issue at the base of your house walls anyway? Much better to have the damp drying outwards than inwards where possible: if you do have damp walls, a French drain might help.

In my last place (built circa 1750) I lifted the carpet in the front room to find limestone flags, but some clever dick had put a concrete screed over it in places to even out the dips. It took me ages to chip it all out and clean them up. It was laid on soil and the house had solid walls and no dpc. They came up a treat - I just used to wash them with Flash or similar. The room was not damp, and the soil underneath was dry.
In the dining room the flags had been lifted, and a membrane, then concrete had been laid. the walls were damp. It was not possible to put in a dpc as the walls were 3 feet thick in solid stone. I just lived with it.
The whole idea was that the floors breathe, although rising damp was probably not a great concern in the 18th century. Sealing the floor definitely pushed damp up the walls.
I just loved the undulations in the floor in areas of heavy use, where centuries of footfall had worn them down.
So, lift all the crap off your floor and let the air get to it, and see what happens.

We have them
There was carpet on top
We had them sandblasted, sealed and they look great and i am glad we did it.
We Hoover the uneven bits.
Then mop
It's easy.

Agree with posters above that the only way to find out is to lift off the Lino. Whether the floor is dry enough and warm enough for you, you will only find out after you've done that, and of course the cold/damp depends a great on where your house is built. (constantly evaporating damp will make the stone feel colder . As a conductive material even insulated stone will feel cold-ish to a warm foot than say wood or carpet, even when its at a nice warm 20 degrees - still colder than your foot.)

You still can't drop anything on a stone floor though. Things which bounce on floorboards shatter on stone!

@Lucisky that's exactly what I was concerned about as I read they needed to breathe and a membrane would prevent the air circulation, so thank you for confirming that! Ours have the concrete in parts too so I'll need to get that off.

@Rollerbird who did you use to get them sandblasted and sealed? Was it a company specialising in this?

@Gladys I am a bit worried about it being cold, but we are getting a fan heater thing that blows warm air from the cupboard kickboards, that our builder recommended, so hoping that will help.

Local company to sandblast
We sealed ourselves
(googled and found products - will search to see if I've any left to advise what it was)
It was a multi stage process and not cheap to buy the products iirc
But i expect cheaper than paying someone!

Is this the kitchen? Fan heating will certainly help with the ventilation/drying issue, but you might want to check the wattage and work out the running costs?