Browse Forums Owner Builder Forum 1 May 27, 2010 1:11 am We're Owner building an extension and preparing for our knock through to the existing house. Our 1950's Adelaide home has a bathroom/toilet/laundry section that runs across the back of the house (approx 6m x 2m) and our plan from the start has been to get the terrazzo floors broken up and removed so we can extend our timber floors through this area as we have rebuilt these wet areas in the extension and are converting the space to walkways. It was originally suggested to us that the original footings from the house would run through this section and when the terrazzo is removed we can use these footings for our floorboards. We had someone out to quote tonight on the job and he has said that he has never seen footings under terrazzo and we should expect to just find a whole load of dirt and rubble. We hadn't budgeted to totally redo these footings and are now wondering if we should remove it at all. It'd be great to hear from anyone who has come across this before and if anyone has a suggestion of the most budget friendly way to get around this. We could consider leaving the base as is and tiling over the top but it really won't look right particularly in the laundry that will now become extra space for our timber floored kitchen I'm not sure how thick terrazzo usually is - would there be any chance of grinding the level down a little to lay overlay timber flooring? Re: What do you think will be under our 60 yo terrazzo floor 2May 27, 2010 9:59 am It's usually just dirt and rubble. In older houses they often used to throw waste materials in places like this (roof tiles, bricks etc). We had a similar dilema at our house. We had old terrazzo tiles (about 20mm thick) in all the living areas and weren't sure if we should remove them. I had a friend out who lays timber floors and he said that we should just leave them in place and direct stick straight over the top. I hired a diamond grinder and scuffed up the whole floor (this was a very messy job). Then waterproofed the floor (my friend said this was important as even though the floor had been in for 50 years they often didn't use waterproof membranes back in the day and damp could cause issues with the boards). I then installed direct stick 12mm boards straight on top. Accessible Carpentry & Cabinets accessiblecarpentry@gmail.com accessiblecarpentry.com.au https://www.facebook.com/pages/Accessible-Carpentry-Cabinets/583314911709039 Re: What do you think will be under our 60 yo terrazzo floor 3May 27, 2010 10:53 am Thanks Chippy, That's great advice. I think it's certainly worth us looking at doing it this way. We're looking at close to $2000 to have the original broken up and removed but the unknown of not knowing what we'll be left to deal with is even more concerning. We may even be able to keep living in the house whilst this is being done Re: What do you think will be under our 60 yo terrazzo floor 4May 27, 2010 4:15 pm Forgot to mention but if the floor slopes (as they often do in wet areas) it may be neccessary to level the floor. This is a fairly easy task. You just use self levelling floor topping. That is just a mix, pour in and feather edges job so isn't to hard. If you are having someone lay your floors they will do it for you. Do this before you waterproof though. Accessible Carpentry & Cabinets accessiblecarpentry@gmail.com accessiblecarpentry.com.au https://www.facebook.com/pages/Accessible-Carpentry-Cabinets/583314911709039 Re: What do you think will be under our 60 yo terrazzo floor 5Sep 19, 2010 3:13 am Just an update in case anyone is considering doing something similar in the future. We looked at different ways that we could go over the top without removing this floor but in the end we took the plunge and had it pulled up. It wasn't as serious as we'd feared ... we had to hire a jackhammer and paid labour for two guys for around half a day to break it up. We still need to pay dumping fees on top. We were lucky as underneath we found tightly compacted sand - no rubble. As we were laying new pine flooring hubby and the brickies then had the fun task of bucketing the sand level down low enough to give us sub floor ventilation. The original footings followed the line of the old walls so we had to lay new bearers and joists for the floor boards to sit on. We also added a small stud wall and were having some other doorways bricked up so had to get the brickies to build a low perimeter wall for the stud to sit on. All up it was certainly worth the extra effort and cost to get a cohesive look rather than a 'patch job'. We're still waiting for the new flooring to be sanded and polished but we're hoping they'll be able to blend the old and new successfully. Fingers crossed No. It's not original. Circa early to mid 90s would be my guess and maybe even as late as early 2000s 1 6631 |