Hall floor in period property thoughts

[Hardtobelieve123]

We have an old house - it’s 200 years old and listed. The downstairs floor is grey wall to wall carpet and we obviously want to take that up. Underneath is floorboards - generally in good condition, some new replacement ones and some sawed and screwed very crudely by plumbers etc.

one part of the house has a cellar underneath and the draft is bad coming through the floorboards.

another part of the hallway has had unfortunately the boards removed by the previous owner and has plywood (currently hidden under carpet).

So, my DH wants to put Lino (Marmoleum) across the whole hall floor - it covers the draft, it covers the bad patches, it covers the plywood.

will it feel weird? Will it seal up the floor in a way that is in advisable with an old building (need to breathe etc).

Carpet or sisal is definitely not an option. Nor is engineered wood or anything else that is kind of fake like LVT or laminate, as the house is old and I just think it would look bad. But maybe Lino is going to be wrong in the same way?

id really be grateful for any thoughts here! Thank you!!

I would use carpet, as a runner with stair rods. I would also paint the edges of the floor with dark paint, which I would curse because it would get dusty! That would deal with the worst of the droughts and would be reasonably accurate historically.

I'd suggest looking at some LVT samples (if you haven't already, of course!).
We're having Karndean (probably Van Gogh range, in a dark wood plank) as its too draughty and our actual boards are in poor condition. The current floor is a laminate which isn't too bad but the Karndean has a wood grain texture and is more convincing.
Our house is Edwardian.

Could you lift the boards, draft-proof/insulate and then re-lay the boards (reclaimed to replace missing/ruined ones)?

You need to make sure there's appropriate ventilation whatever flooring you use.

A good quality engineered wood could also look great.

Lino needs a good quality surface underneath, it'll be ruined quickly if laid over uneven boards.

Tiles? For an uneven subfloor or boards there’s normally a plywood (?) layer put down before the tiles which would stop the draughts.

I think you might be able to insulate under tiles too.

Sorry drafts. I always get that wrong.

Proper Lino (linoleum) was very popular in Victorian houses so your vinyl should look ok, if you choose the right kind of pattern.
Very easy to keep clean!

Sorry, I see you're looking at linoleum!

Sorry drafts. I always get that wrong.

You were right the first time, it's draughts. I'd suggest tiles like PP.

Thank you. Yes draughty floorboards

So probably the question I need to look into is: will Lino (natural one) be too unbreathable?

I don’t really want to go down the insulating the floor route as I think it’s east to mess up and the joists won’t get enough ventilation and the whole thing will rot.

i put down traditional black and white encuastic tiles about 30 years ago in the hall. Meant to be regularly resealed as natural stone. I have done nothing in that time and they still look as new despite 4 kids and numerous pets and no one ever removing shoes indoors and very little mopping. Incredible value in hindsight although expensive at the time.

I’d love that, I think beyond our price bracket for the time being but we will consider for the future. Thank you

Won't there be enough ventilation within the sub-floor void via the ventilation bricks? It's normal to have draught-excluding floor surfacing, including tiles, on top of floors with voids beneath. That's the point of air bricks into the sub-floor voids.

I would definitely go down the marmoleum/Karndean route. Stopping draughts coming through your floors won't affect floor timbers. If you're worried about the structural integrity of the timber apply some wood preservative to them. It'll be fine. The only thing I would want to check is if the floorboards were removed and replaced with plywood because the floorboards had decayed because of damp/flooding (by a leaky radiator for example).

You could replace the damaged boards and plywood with tongue and groove floor boards to deal with draughts, and then polish and add rugs.

Do you have pets?

Hi @Hardtobelieve123 if you're going to do this I'd suggest you consider pulling all the floorboards and insulating between the joists the replacing and making good as best you can. Marmoleum is a great choice as it's almost 100% bio derived from wood flour and linseed oil. Karndene is plastic.

Thanks v much. @TheNoodlesIncident this is something I had better check. The surveyor was concerned that air bricks had become covered up over time or were insufficient. But the hallway/ corridor is literally in the middle of the house with floors either side, so perhaps it doesn’t matter too much anyway?

@MintJulia yes we do have pets. Or dogs. We could replace the plywood with reclaimed floor boards, I was wondering about that. But it doesn’t stop the drought issue above the cellar.

Not drought but draught

Plus dogs tend to 'toboggan' on rugs over floorboards. Might not be very peaceful 🙂

I got a pallet of the tiles direct from Fired Earths supplier in France at a third of the Fired Earth retail price at the time.

What shape is the hall. If long and thin I'd probably go for tiles. If square then I'd maybe do a square carpet with a bound edge (proper carpet, not a rug, so it shouldn't slip) and paint the boards around the edge. I'd seal the gaps in the floorboards with sawdust mixed with woodglue.

Yes it’s long and thin and L shaped. Corridor that opens out into a square at one end.

im not sure Marmoleum click tiles will look quite right. People really tend to use in bathrooms or kitchen?

thank you everyone for your help