Edwardian terrace: chance of original floorboards under concrete?

[nombrilisme]

I'm renovating an Edwardian terrace with rather grim, 70s, hole-ridden carpet across the ground floor. Unfortunately, it's resting on concrete, not lovely original floorboards. Now, does anyone have any experience of this, specifically whether the floorboards could still be in existence beneath the concrete? I have presumed that the only reason anyone would bother putting down concrete before carpeting is because the floorboards had to be removed, but could I be wrong?

Additionally, I've tried to research online and seen nothing but horror stories of damp stemming from concrete replacements of what would have been a suspended timber floor with airbricks. This house is currently completely damp free and I'm keen to keep it that way, so I'm wondering if I should be looking to take up the concrete, regardless of any chance of finding original floorboards. I'm also scared even to make an exploratory hole and search for my mythical floorboards in case I puncture a damp proof membrane and bring problems down on myself.

Anyone with any experience of this?

I think there is a very good chance you’ll just find bare earth beneath the concrete? Had this in Victorian houses, no foundations as you would do today

I agree. Nobody would concrete over floorboards anyway - if they’d existed they’d have ripped them out. But most likely the concrete is just on earth.

Look outside, are there air bricks? If not it is likely that the concrete is the original solid floor. It was common in Edwardian houses to have floorboards put over the concrete floors in the best ‘front’ room.
Other rooms such as the kitchen and hall had tiles laid over the concrete.
A useful book is The Victorian ( Edwardian) House Manual by Ian Rock it’s published by Haynes, the car manual people. It explains the building techniques used in Victorian and Edwardian houses and how to renovate.

We had a guy who restores castle out looking at our 120year old house.

He said the houses foundations are essentially the biggest stones they didn’t want to carry up to the higher floors. I think he’s right we’ve stripped a bit of the black mortar and they’re far bigger on ground than flood 1 so god knows what they’re like where I can’t see.

I doubt the floor boards are under there. Concrete is heavy, usually put on earth/solid bases.

If the concrete is floor level, any old floorboards would be too low wouldn’t they? I would check your air bricks and consider if the floor is compromising them. If not, put any new flooring on top of the concrete. With appropriate insulation etc. If it’s too high, dig it out and start again.,

I don't have an Edwardian house but I do have a late 1920s house. The floor is concrete. In the living room and dining room there are original floorboards over the top of the concrete but the kitchen and hallway are just concrete. I'm assuming at some point they would've had tiles over the top

Thanks everyone, this has been really helpful.

Even if there are floorboards under the concrete (agree with others that it's unlikely), I don't think it would be worth the time, effort and expense of getting rid of it (unless a specialist advises that you need to, due to damp issues for e.g.).

I think you'd probably be better off sourcing some reclaimed floorboards and installing them if you're after that look.

You can have concrete floors dug out then replaced with insulation and suspended timber, houses blighted by red ash have to have it done in order to sell. Costs around £12k.

Concrete floors are the original floors in edwardian houses. It’s one of the reasons why they are a bit more likely to suffer from damp.