Changing carpet to stripped boards - how cold will it get?

[vannah]

Very reluctant to do this!
We've moved into 30s house with a large double reception room thats carpeted with a very dull but functional carpet, and the house is not double glazed. Its not particularly warm, because of the original windows - but I think the carpet helps.

DH really wants to remove the carpet, and strip the original flooring underneath -boards seem fine. A friend who buys and renovates properties was here a few days ago and said that we would really feel the cold if we just did that as apparently the floor is built directly above the ground with not much insulation in between etc... and that we really ought to lay down new boards.

Any experience?
thankyou

It'll be freezing. We used to live in a ground floor victorian flat with single glazed sash windows and bare floor boards in the sitting room and we were never warm.

Our heating bill was horrendous too, but that was down to the windows mostly.

If the boards are good then you could take them up and lay more insulation?

We have oak floor throughout and old sash windows and it's never especially cold. Rugs help too.

It will be cold even if you use the clear filler to plug the gaps, as the carpet adds insulation on tp of the boards and by taking that away you will have less insulation.

buy two hugh rugs to go over the boards or get real oak fitted - but that will be an arm and a leg job (well for me it would) I had boards as I couldn't afford carpets and I stripped them myslef - it cost me £10 for each room I did.

I know have carpet and it is lovely but I have more money now I only did it cos I was poor

We did this in our last house and it was FREEZING! There is a great big gap beneath the boards over the house foundations, so you would need to take the boards up and fill that space in with insulation first. We didn't and you could hear the wind whistling sometimes.

Also, if you have small children they love to 'post' things down the cracks in the floorboards, which I found very irritating.

We now have carpet. And double glazing. Lovely

I'm sitting here with a force 10 gale draught whistling round my legs. I'm in a Victorian house and I got the boards stripped five years ago against DH's advice.

I have suffered in silence for all these years so he wouldn't put on his smug I-told-you-so face, but I'm going to order a carpet next week. I can't bear it any longer.

I painted the floorboards here (ancient falling to bits Victorian farmhouse) and bitterly regret it, especially this time of year.
Honestly, put down underlay and a thick woolly carpet if you can and thick thermal curtains at the window. Trust me, it will stay cold even at Midsummer.
Also, mice get through the cracks in the floor despite having sealed them up.

lift one of your boards and have a look underneath to see what, if any, insulation you have

our stripped boards were v draughty and cold
we have had an engineered wood floor laid on top and it is definitely warmer now

oh dear. Worries have been confirmed by you all...thankyou for the depressing but thoroughly useful replies. Will show to DH tonight.

Don't do it!

We had carpet put in our previously boarded front room on monday. It is amazing how much toastier it is in there!

We did this in our Victorian terrace and regretted it.The wind whistled through the gaps,it was always freezing and every time I dropped any money/jewellery on the floor,it vanished down a gap.After 6 chilly years we gave in and had carpet laid and it was so much warmer in there.

we've just put an engineered wood flooring on top of stripped boards in our Victorian house. It doesn't look as good as the boards but it was far too chilly previously (no double glazing either).

I'm a lone voice , but we have stripped wood throughout our creaky Edwardian house and I like it.
It is chillier, but not the arctic conditions some people are describing.

I suppose you have to weigh up what's important to you. For me, it is such an unbelievably huge plus not to ever again have to worry about hoovering and trying to keep carpets clean that I'll live with a bit of a draught.

Yes it will look fab.
Yes it will be freezing.
I would love carpet in our living room but DH won't hear of covering up our lovely boards. Last year I insisted on putting gapseal strips between our floorboards after reading about them on MN - we no longer have icy draughts whistling through the gaps - but I have to say carpet would definitely still be warmer. Still, I thoroughly recommend gapseal as a compromise.

I think it looks nicer but it will be chilly and, as I noticed with bare floors, fucking dusty. At one point (though with children and dogs) in our last house I was vacuuming twice a day to keep on top of it.

Hijack alert!

Good grief, get rid of the nasty bug ridden carpet, knit or buy some jumpers and have nice floors. There's more than one way to kill a cat than skinning it: more jumpers = less heating = less bugs. What's not to like.

NB - if we have friends for dinner they do tend to keep their coats on. Wimps.

Mrs M we had hardboard first, then underlay then carpet. Toasty!

can i hijack the thread to ask whether it will still be as cold if we do the stripped floorboards thing in our bedroom? the room below it is quite cold and i am nervous about not having carpet but dh is keen to do i. we need to get something sorted before christmas!

Looks better but is freezing.I have done all kinds over the years in renovations like the strips and insulating under the floor and it is still not as warm as underlay and decent carpet.Ok with open fires and lots of jumpers

You will need some of these .

Thanks, Docket. I've ordered my carpet today, and I can't wait to be warm again.

We had boards in our living room, hallway and kitchen/diner, and yes I can feel the draught. However having installed double glazing recently it made a huge difference. It is not cold except the draught next to the floor. For that reason I don?t allow my 2 years old DS run without slippers.

The solution is gapseal strips as LadyGP says above. www.gapseal.co.uk

It is a fantastic product, and can be fitted without any special tools and a couple of hours to do a whole room.

Cant recommend it highly enough for all of you suffering with drafts and kids posting things down the gaps. We also stuffed newspaper under the skirting boards as that is where a lot of the drafts come from.

Now toasty warm and no manky carpet.

in a word FREEZING

if you have little DCs who play at floor level they will get the worst of it