Earth floors

I will be getting a quote for this for my house, so will let you know. The kitchen, part of the bathroom, and the back bedroom have earth floors. I may end up having a go myself but will get a quote first to decide if it's worth me doing a bodge or making life easier and getting it done properly!

I think some of the floors in the other house have already been done. At least one room has tiles down.

I'd also be interested to know what others have paid for this.

@janemulberry yes I'd be interested to know what other people have paid, but no one else has replied. I can't believe that no one has had their earth floors concreted.

It really is quite simple to do it yourself, I did it once for a cellar. The only problem I had was carrying bucketloads of soil up the stairs. I could have used a wheelbarrow only if it was on ground level.

It really is quite simple to do it yourself?
-@SimCityAT

Please would you share more details about how you did it? How deep did you dig down and what did you use for the floor? I am willing to have a go -- maybe!

It really is quite simple to do it yourself?
-@SimCityAT
Please would you share more details about how you did it? How deep did you dig down and what did you use for the floor? I am willing to have a go -- maybe!
-@janemulberry

Was a while back, but it could be different for the ground floor. I had help from family to shift the earth.

We placed a steel metal grid in the concrete.

It really is quite simple to do it yourself?
-@SimCityAT
Please would you share more details about how you did it? How deep did you dig down and what did you use for the floor? I am willing to have a go -- maybe!
-@janemulberry

Is there no cellar?

There is. But I need to do something about the very uneven dirt-covered-with-lino floor in the kitchen!

There is. But I need to do something about the very uneven dirt-covered-with-lino floor in the kitchen!
-@janemulberry

I'm no help there as I dont want to advise anything that could cause damage. I wouldn't know how far to dig and everything to cave in.

Yes. The problem with concrete is that it needs to be reinforced and thick enough not to crack. I'm not sure it's wise to dig down that far! I'm inclining towards just using earth well tamped down to level it. It's only so uneven because the roof leaked badly for years and eroded the earth. The places it's solid, it's really solid! I'll need to burn more wood to keep the kitchen warm in winter but it's beautifully cool in this hot weather.

My new floors are just over 10cm if I recall correctly, which includes concrete with reinforcement, over thermal insulation and a waterproof membrane. I haven't done the tiling yet, but it has worked well - the rooms are noticeably warmer and dryer. But the new walls, insulation, and windows also helped. :-)

As well as going down, you could allow the floors to be raised a few cm, but this depends on how much headroom you have.

I think earth is quite traditional, I remember my parents' 16th century Suffolk farmhouse had this. But it's a long, long time ago! This had pamments on top, so you certainly don't need to stick with lino. I believe the main issue is damp, as there probably isn't a waterproof membrane. I'd imagine you could dig it up, put the waterproofing down, and then do some combination of earth/gravel/sand with appropriate terracotta tiles on top. But not sure the new floor would then be any thinner than a concrete one.

If you really want to do as little as possible, I wonder whether one could just pull up the lino (or even leave it), and put down some of those plastic/composite wood-effect terrace tiles?

Damp has been an issue here for sure! I think though, more due to the leaky roof and lack of gutters combined with eaves that are narrower than they should be, rather than moisture rising from the floor. The places the floor shows most problems is where there's been a combination of water getting where it shouldn't from long-term leaks or wet walls, and something solid on the floor that held the water in. The two worst spots are under the woodstove and the electric stove. Pamments would be wonderful, but I'm not sure there's a Bulgarian equivalent. The problem is that the floor is very lumpy and uneven.

Getting back to Elaine's original question, do you know how much it cost, or was it done as a package deal with all the other work you had done?

@janemulberry

I'd love to be able to give a number, but mine was a bunch of stuff, so it's hard to pick out a new floor from it! :-) But it was a LOT less expensive than UK and Germany.

It's also really hard to quantify, as it depends on m2, what's there now, how much has to be dug up/removed (and where you're gonna put it), and exactly what will replace it (thickness of concrete, waterproofing or not, insulation or not, reinforcement or not).

Moreover, I suspect the biggest issue can be who you choose to do the work. There are expensive firms, and cowboys, and we want to avoid both of those! I'm sure there are good local workers, but it can be tricky to track them down. The cheapest are almost certainly the so-called "gypsy" workers, and, again, I'd guess it's tricky to track down the good ones.

I got lucky as I found my guys while out walking, and being very nosy about my neighbours' houses and what they were getting up to. :-) They were building a new wall, and I figured if it's good enough for him, it's probably good enough for me. And turns out they were pretty great, all things considered. But while my neighbour called them "gypsies", they would be very offended by such a description, as they are not of Romany origin, but rather of Turkish origin (and they were a gang being organized/paid by a Bulgarian architect).

I thought it was probably part of the whole package of work you had done so it would be impossible to give a price.

My neighbour said the guys who did my roof are Turkish, too, though my guess is they probably go back generations in Bulgaria. I'm sure they'd do the floor if I asked. I haven't asked them for a quote for any of the other work yet.