cableing under floor

[Guest jamie]

What is the best/easeiest way to lift chipboard flooring?

Just fitting my alarm this week and I'm realy struggling to get them boards up without completely destroying them.

They are laid as quite big sheets of 18mm toung and groove chipboard and run continues under the walls of the rooms adding to the difficullty.

Any Tips!!!!

[Service Engineer]

Yeah you dont normally get those up..?

Way too much hastle.

We try to use sections of those boards that have already been lifted and route any cabling as best we can keeping away from mains cabling and pipework.

I use the "up n over" way but that couldnt easilly be explained in writing, alternatively you could run small cable channels in the chipboard or surface mount and cut out the underlay where cables are running.

[Woosh]

Now Dave thats not nice -- next thing will be a callout when the carpet fitters cut the cables just lift the boards with a circular depthed to EXACTLY 18MM that way the pipes and wires wont be cut. Lots of bridging required.

[Service Engineer]

just lift the boards with a circular depthed to EXACTLY 18MM that way the pipes and wires wont be cut. Lots of bridging required.

The floors never the same after its been cut and then bridged. The "up n over" method is best, but takes a little skill.

[Woosh]

You could well be correct however I do not like the price of the "Bungs" that fill the holes and just fixing the cutting back on top of the joist isnt that good a job in my humble opinion.

[Service Engineer]

Yeah, holes drilled in a " V" formation and keeping the sawdust to add to some filler to bung the holes with later.

[Guest]

I spy a wet ceiling moment coming on here.....

[Service Engineer]

I spy a wet ceiling moment coming on here

Now thats where the skill part comes into effect

[Guest jamie]

I like the sound of the up and over job but i've got a bunch of cables to run CCTV, Alarm, TV Coax and security lighting.

I'd set the blade depth on the circular as close as i could to 18mm but I'm really afraid of catching a pipe or something, as I have a gas pipe somewhere under the upstairs floor (Modern Houses Eh!)

I think I'm gonna try the circular to 15mm and finish the job with a floorboard saw so I can get some feedback when I'm about to slice the pipes.

Bridging? does this mean you attach a piece of timber under the next board to help support the newley placed board? They squeek like mad at the moment anyway.

[Guest]

Bridging? does this mean you attach a piece of timber under the next board to help support the newley placed board? They squeek like mad at the moment anyway.

30085[/snapback]

Yep, only way to take up a chipboard floor and relay it properly is to use miles of 2x2 and a couple of boxes of screws. You want all cuts to be securely supported as chipboard is extremely weak once it's been cut.

The squeaking is probably where it hasn't been properly fixed down. All the T&G's should be glued as well.

If you know which way the joists run you will hopefully only need to cut up a few traps in convenient places and fish the cables between them.

If you can get one central run up it's better to take up full sheets across all the joists front to back (or side to side depending which way they run) and then fish across to everything from there. Note, sounds like this is a 2 man job!