Hi everyone, New to this forum, thanks for having me on board. I have just bought a house built in the 1960's and we are about to lay some LVT. The house was initially carpeted with parquet wood under. Under that is a slab of concrete. The parquet wood looks to be in fine condition with some black glue on the underside. No signs of any rot or issues with damp. However, I plan to put down glue LVT herringbone and the plan was to self level the floor over the parquet and glue down the LVT. My neighbour has said that he ripped his concrete slab and found no DPM however no one on the road has ever had any issues with rising damp in the houses, some are carpeted and some have wood/LVT. The house is a quite high above any streams or water sources. I don't think I can afford to rip everything out and add a dpm etc..it would also raise my floor quite a bit and affect all my doors. As there is no history of damp within the house or on the road, am I being hopeful in thinking this will be ok?
For me I wouldn’t risk it. I wouldn’t do it for any customer as well. The main thing if you want to go for it is what’s the water table like ? Is your ground floor higher then the ground outside. Are you the top of a hill. If that’s the case it’s a positive water table and you meant have a chance of it being ok with not a lot of hydrostatic pressure.
Many thanks for your swift reply. So I would say the ground floor is definitiely 4-5 inches above the ground outside and according to my neighbour, we have a positive water table as we are relatively high above the ground- not a hill persay but definitely on a slope above any water source. I do have a dpm along the brick on the outside of the house if that helps at all
You have to remove the parquet. You should be able to sell it on ebay. You can then use a ardex na, dpm1c, ardex na sandwich. This will bring you back to the 10mm height you lose when the parquet is removed
Thanks- so just for my understanding, I would remove hte parquet, add the ardex na dpm liquid and then add the self level compound directly on top of the dpm and then the lvt?
Dan is spot on. That’s the system we always do. A “NA butty” is the trade name Uplift wood Scrape off loose adhesive Na DPM1c Na or p4 prime & CL LVT
Thanks Dan and Daz- apologies for the silly questions as I am a complete amateur when it comes to thsi stuff so just for clarity: remove wood and scrape off anything loose add the ardex Na self leveller add ardex dpm1c then add more ardex na then add the lvt? Cheers
Yes if your doing this system, but there’s a few out there. F.Ball Kelmore Uzin I would double check the builders screed because you cant go over old wood block adhesive with some levelling compounds
Well not that instant....15 minutes I'd be telling the builder you want the NA sandwich or similar, don't let them loose on this without going through you first else this will create a nightmare for you
Welcome aboard! Given the house's history and no signs of damp, you're probably fine—especially if neighboring homes have had no issues. To be safe, apply a liquid DPM (like Ardex DPM 1C) over the parquet before self-leveling. It’s a cost-effective moisture barrier and adds peace of mind without major height build-up.
