Flooring

[Hotrodder]

It has been a few years since I did the kitchen floor. The floors downstairs are all concrete. I started off by painting the floor with thick bitumen goop as a damp barrier. Then a layer of extruded polystyrene insulation panels 19mm thick. Then damp resistant chipboard panels with T & G edges. Eventually got some wood effect click floor down as a finish. Over the last couple of years I am getting noticeably weaker and unable to lift many building materials so I've decided to accelerate the renovation as much as I can while I still have some chance. The lounge is only partly dry lined and that was to be my next project as soon as a friend comes over next month to help me lift the placo on and off my trailer. I was thinking that since all the furniture has to be moved aside and/or stacked little by little as I work my way around the room it seems to be a good idea to do the floor at the same time. So only having to lift the furniture twice instead of four times. I just had a look at prices on Brico Depot and Leroy Merlin. Shocked to see the materials I used in the kitchen are now two to three times the price. If I skip the bitumen coat altogether, the insulation and chipboard panels (even if I don't use 19mm T & G edged panels and go down to 10mm thick) are adding up to nearly €30 a square metre.
I simply can't run to that sort of outlay all in one go. Am I overlooking any other options? I'm prepared to give up on the insulation but would still like something underfoot better than the rough concrete. Currently have a few secondhand rugs dotted about where we sit or walk.

[L Austin France]

If the concrete floor is 'dry' , could you lay battens with timber flooring fixed to them? This would give you an air gap providing a bit of insulation.

[Blaze]

@Hotrodder We used a lot of Leroy Merlin's declassé pine in the past. If you were selective, it was good stuff. However, recently the price of wood has apparently rocketed in price which is going to have a big knock on effect to any building work.
There are the cheaper imitation wood floors which last well, easy to clean, feel and look warmer than concrete, and if you have the odd rug on them, look fine.
We got some from LM 2 or 3 years ago for our office and it was miles cheaper than wood. We laid them onto horrible old tiles with a thin liner underneath. They look as good as the day we laid them and it gets plenty of wear.

[Hotrodder]

Thankyou both for your suggestions. I will look into that. The floor doesn't appear to be damp but I have no idea if there is any damp proof membrane in place. I was just assuming best practice would be to lay something down as preventative just in case. Even a minimal air gap might be useful as a bit of insulation so something laid on thin battens could work. I'll have another think.

[RobertArthur]

@ Hotrodder, adding insulation. moisture resistant, very rigid foam with a thin layer of woven glass fiber, several thicknesses available: EDI plates. To give an example, for a bathroom enlargement: plates just arrived, glue, concrete floor/glue/plate, one plate in horizontal position and finally a layer of thin tiles. For a living room or kitchen in France the red tomettes would have been more appropriate. I didn't so far do something similar for a larger surface with laminated flooring, rather thin but pretty tough with good durability.

Battens and timber: I sometimes have seen moisture problems and mold, especially in basements. No problem for the EDI plates. Con: not cheap and not easy to find here in France.

[Bayleaf]

We recently put down flooring to cover a newly concreted room that had damp issues. All that has hopefully been sorted by having a false wall, and drainage down the offending side etc.

The flooring that we managed to agree on in the end was the clikclak from BricoDepot. As there was still a worry about damp, we used a thin plastic liner (although there was already all this underneath the concrete - belts and braces!), then that green/blue dampproof thin sous-couche (we were limited on how thick we could have it), which was a pain to use as it's so thin and came in folds, but we got there .... Then, the clik-clak boards, Sol stratifié. Real wood or fitted carpet was well out of the budget!

I think it worked out to about 15€/sq m - about 300€ for the room. Very pleased with it so far - and we chucked a couple of rugs down for under feet where you sit, just for a bit of cosiness.

[Mangetout]

Have you thought of stick on tiles. We used them in our downstairs bedrooms direct on to concrete and they are fine with rugs on top. As for rugs, if there is an Emmaus near you keep an eye out for rugs. I've found some real bargains. Best of luck.

[Hotrodder]

I think we will be going with click floor on top of a lattice work made from roof battens. They are treated for rot and the air space in between will offer a little insulation. I'll have to space them very closely where anything heavy is to be located so as to avoid punching holes in it or the "springy" effect. Solid timber flooring is way too expensive and when I have used it years ago I found there was a lot of waste due to defects, splits, warpage, twisting, etc. My only concern with using battens as a substrate is that nowhere around here stores their timber indoors. Always outside in racks open to the rain. Meaning as soon as you bring it in to use it the twisting starts. And I don't relish bringing damp wood indoors anyway.

[L Austin France]

I think we will be going with click floor on top of a lattice work made from roof battens. They are treated for rot and the air space in between will offer a little insulation. I'll have to space them very closely where anything heavy is to be located so as to avoid punching holes in it or the "springy" effect. Solid timber flooring is way too expensive and when I have used it years ago I found there was a lot of waste due to defects, splits, warpage, twisting, etc. My only concern with using battens as a substrate is that nowhere around here stores their timber indoors. Always outside in racks open to the rain. Meaning as soon as you bring it in to use it the twisting starts. And I don't relish bringing damp wood indoors anyway.

I think we will be going with click floor on top of a lattice work made from roof battens.

What's the floor area?

[Hotrodder]

35 square metres. Comes to about €360 for the cheapest 8mm click floor and another €220 if I want to insulate, plus whatever the roof batten sticks add up to. Gonna be slim pickins for a while, we're almost out of firewood as well.