We’re gradually renovating our 1930s doer-upper house, which was a 1980s time capsule when we bought it three years ago. All the downstairs (apart from kitchen) has plain pine wooden floorboards (revealed after removing a psychedelic carpet). It’s solid and level, but a bit meh, plus there are lots of patch repairs where the boards were cut / smashed when the central was installed and who know what else was done. So, the current idea is to get it replaced with a new engineered wood flooring.
We’ve spoken to a couple of local suppliers and fitters, and everyone is advising to fit the new floor on top of the old planks. But I’m not overly enthusiastic about the floor level going up. When I mention the idea of ripping the old floorboards and fitting the new floor directly over the joists (of course, the new boards will have to be thick enough - e.g., 20-21mm), everyone rolls their eyes and says this is not the way it’s done these days.
I appreciate there are benefits of going over the old floor (e.g., easier and faster to install, draught-proofing), but please tell me I’m not going mad thinking that laying directly over joists is still a perfectly sound method? Are the tradesmen just being too lazy and gaslighting me or am I overlooking some important technical aspects?