Any disadvantages to Suspended timber flooring?

Hi,

I'm looking at buying a house. The one that I'm currently looking at has suspended timber flooring (house was built in the 70's/80's). Are there any disadvantage to this type of flooring? In particular I'd be concerned about a higher risk of mice due to the low down external vents (required for this type of flooring).

With that said I've had mice issue's in my current place which has concrete floors but I'd had to move to someplace that has a higher risk of mice!!

I'm not sure if there are issues with tiling large areas of suspended timber floor but I'd be less concerned about that aspect.

Deirdre

Draughts! My house has a suspended wooden floor and we get bad draughts mainly from the floor, which is also cold. They can be insulated and sealed which would solve the problem, but that's more $$$ and disruptive. We don't have any of ours tiled but there is small bit of give/movement in a few spots, which would likely cause problems with tiles.

Only advantage is that it is easier to take up and put down underfloor heating

As Coldwarrior and you said, the underside of the floor has to be ventilated, normally using a breezeblock type blocks leading externally. This can cause cold draughts between the boards.

If I was buying a house with suspended timber floors, I'd factor in the cost of replacing them with poured concrete/underfloor heating as part of the purchase price.

Coldwarrior said:

We don't have any of ours tiled but there is small bit of give/movement in a few spots, which would likely cause problems with tiles.

Click to expand...

IIUC when tiling, they will put down sheet ply or similar, and screw it down, and then lay the tiles on that. the large sheets eliminate the give.

I bought a 1950s semi d three years ago, with similar floors to OP. Got full rewire and replacement of heating pipes, then put down Engineered Wood (formally known as semi-solid). This came with a roll of underlay.
We don't feel any noticeable draught from the floors now.