cannot decide restore timber floor or not - too cold

[pawre]

Hi, I been going nuts and can't decide. Can't decide what to do about flooring in 1930s semi!! Have lifted carpets and pretty sure it would possible to restore timber floorboards. Every trade I talk to say 'up to you to decide'! Don't want to spend unnecessary money of course when (cry cry) too much is going into other works and repairs for the property! Other option I'm thinking is engineered wood.

I'm concerned with draught and coldness. To insulate they say they need crawl space below which we don't have and it sounds too expensive and too much of an undertaking. Also the wood looks a bit thin. I don't know is it sturdy?!

Thanks for reading and grateful for any advice!!

I think wooden floors are really beautiful but we decided not to restore ours and opt for a good quality laminate instead for reasons like sound, heat and upkeep.

I’m still torn on the decision tbh. The laminate wood we chose looks lovely and requires minimal effort on my part. I’d like to be the person who would look after wooden floors properly and have dc who would pad softly across them instead of the herd of elephants I’ve actually raised! A cat with a secret fetish for peeing on rugs doesn’t help either!

We did have our 1930s floorboards exposed for a couple of years and I hated it. We didn’t have them professionally fixed, which no doubt would have made them less drafty, but we used off the shelf gap sealants. I found them really unpleasant to walk on in bare feet, and they were cold. We do have a crawl space so could have done some sort of insulation, but it would have been very disruptive and expensive, so we opted for engineered wood instead. I think floorboards looks great, but for me, living with them wasn’t nice.

I’d add - I love the engineered wood and so far it’s holding up really well to the abuse meted out by animals and kids!

Maybe invest in real wood laminate instead, these days it looks great ana it will be less cold x

You say you don't have crawl space. Why not?

Bare wooden floors are cold due to draughts coming up the gaps. There is no convection loss and very little conduction. A lot of the draught comes from the gap under the skirting.

Is your floor "boards" like planks? Or parquet? Or engineered? Or chipboard?

@PigletJohn
I was told there's not enough space for a person to crawl under the floor.

Yes the floor boards are like planks.

It's possible to lift the boards and replace them. Preferably by a carpenter who won't use a chainsaw and an axe. They can also move any damaged boards to inconspicuous corners, or replace with new that can be planed and stained to match, and rectify any work by plumbers or electricians that has left squeaky boards. I've had very good results with mineral wool packed between the joists, leaving airbrick ventilation clear. Some people use rigid foam slabs, but they are not so good at draughts, and terrible in a fire.

I prefer boards to be screwed down as they can be easily lifted by electricians without damage, especially round the edges of a room where cables and pipes are mostly found.