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?

You can’t seal magnesite effectively. Or any poor quality screed. The compound you use needs to fix to a sound base. Been there done that.

Regardless of the damp issues (which you will need to fix) don’t waste good money on laying parquet on a poor floor. It will drive you mad.

The homebuyers survey stated it's a concrete floor. Might we have a claim for its removal?

@Bloomsburyreader

The homebuyers survey stated it's a concrete floor. Might we have a claim for its removal?

If it's a homebuyer's report, then I very much doubt it. These generally state "we do not lift floor coverings" or something along those lines. Plus it IS a concrete floor... regardless of any screed. Which they probably weren't aware of.

Darn. Floor covering in that room had been lifted previously as there was nothing holding it down (I have pics from our first viewing) but I guess he'll hide behind that.

@Bloomsburyreader

Darn. Floor covering in that room had been lifted previously as there was nothing holding it down (I have pics from our first viewing) but I guess he'll hide behind that.

Honestly those reports aren't worth the paper they're written on, and are often more trouble than they're worth as generally make things sound far more scary than they actually are, to cover their arses.

I think if I were to move again I'd either have a full structural survey (on anything 40/50 years+) or just wouldn't bother. The money would be better spent paying a reliable builder to have a look round.

Hope you get something sorted soon and it's not too involved 🤞

You can get things tested for asbestos by taking a very small sample and sending it off to an asbestos testing company. It is pretty cheap. Just Google one. I would do that first and see what you get back. We had asbestos lino, glues down with asbestos glue to our stone kitchen floor and we paid a few hundred quid to get it removed (Yorkshire) by a proper removal company so it might not be as bad as you think to get rid of. Asbestos is not dangerous to be around unless it is getting damages and releasing powder.

Just thought, it is often reasonable to send several samples off so if you think other stuff might have asbestos in, might be worth checking that too. It is often in artex, stuff which looks a bit like boards, which are used instead of plasterboards and 70/60s style lino.

I had no idea about lino! I ripped it up a couple of weeks ago and took it to the dump. Ah well, I used to smoke in my 20s so probably already exposed myself to plenty of asbestos. Thanks for the recommendation about testing though, I have ordered some kits

The lino is very low risk stuff so unless there was a lot of dust, you will hopefully be fine.

Results back- No asbestos in the floor!!

That's great news!
Please don't be despondent. It will all happen eventually.

@PigletJohn @17to35 @NeilBuchananisBanksy @Geneticsbunny and everyone else who was advising me on this. We had the magnesite tested and it was negative for asbestos. We discovered it is probably one of the main reasons for damp in our 1850s house so knew it had to be removed. We took it up at the weekend and discovered some amazing flagstones underneath which we never would have discovered without all your input, so huge, huge thanks to all!!

That's great news! Good luck with the restoration and show us how it's all going on the floor/damp threads. Maybe they will be amalgamated!

I'm so happy to read that you removed it! Much better to let the house breathe, and you got some handsome flagstones as a reward. Hope the rest of the renovations go well.