Few things are as important in any homebuilding project as ensuring the ground under your feet is stable, level and generally fit for purpose. Unless floor structures are carefully designed and built you could end up with uneven, sloping or springy floors in need of expensive remedial work. So before finalising your design it’s worth taking a look at the main options for floor construction and how the choices you make can have an important impact on the rest of the build.
1 Relate floor construction to design early on
The positioning of the upper floors will dictate how much residual headroom you have in the rooms below. Therefore it’s essential at the design stage to factor in the full depth of the floor structures — including boardings and coverings, ceilings and plasterwork. It’s equally important to calculate the finished surface height of ground floors once fully insulated and screeded with floor coverings in place. There can be additional challenges with extensions where floor levels need to be aligned so you don’t end up with