Laminate Flooring & Ventilation

[36TEAK36]

I am thinking of laying Laminate flooring throughout the downstairs of my property, but I am a little concerned about ventilation.

My house is a standard 1930's Semi with original floorboards. There are gaps of a few millimetres between each floorboard, and I assume these gaps were deliberate for ventilation puposes.There is around a 2ft space underneath the floorboards, and at the rear and front of the building walls there is a vent brick.

If I lay laminate flooring, there will be no gaps for ventilation. I was thinking of cutting a rectangle hole in each room and fitting a vent over the top. Can anyone advise if this would be sufficient, or if I even need to do this at all?

Any advice would be most appreciated.

[The Builder]

Hi Teak ............... that's a pity, because boards from around that time look great when sanded. The gaps weren't intentional. It's just a result of shrinkage. They were possibly laid in the "rainy season", or the timber wasn't dried properly.
What is sometimes done ............ thin strips of timber are glued into the gaps, left proud of the surface, then sanded.
If you "must" have laminate (lol)............... no problem ......... but, one airbrick each end is not really enough to vent the floor void properly. Try and fit a couple more each end to get a decent crossflow.

[SlackAlice]

I'm with the Builder here. I have a similar age house and there are floorboard gaps due to shrinkage, they would have been laid 'tight' when originally fitted.
I've laid laminate flooring because my existing flooring was untidy due to alterations. I've had no problems as regards ventilation. I have 3 airbricks/vents at front and rear.

I would go for additional airbricks, rather than cut through your laminate and floorboards to vent each room.

[36TEAK36]

Thank you both for your answers.

I completely agree that the floorboards would look lovely sanded, and I have already done this twice in the past 8 years. Unfortunately the floorboards are looking very worn and lots of them have cracks in them and are bowed. I did use the thin strips of timber in my kitchen only a few months ago and it was looking great, but the high usage of the kitchen has caused some of the strips to come loose rise a few millimetres above the level of the boards. My original plan was to fit these strips to all of the boards in the house, but I am not confident they will stay in place for too long.I then contemplated actually replacing eveything with new floorboards, but this is just out of my price range. The laminate I have picked looks just like new floorboards, only a lot cheaper than the real thing.

[Clanad]

Let's think about this for a minute... while usually agreeng ith The Builder, I think that your description of the condition of the existing floor to be revealing. If the floor, as The Builder suggests, has shrunk over the years due to contraction the base cause of which was the boards drying out (also as Builder states)... then there's plenty of ventilation below your floor, else they wouldn't have dried so over the years.
Look, your going to lay a material on the floor that's probably mostly a foamy plastic that will additionally reduce the ingress of moisture, over which you will lay the floor. So, in my opinion, unless it's pretty easy to do, I wouldn't expect that you'd need additional ventilation. The ventilation also introduces cold air in the winter, making the floor even more difficult to keep warm.
One thing I would check is to see if there's plastic layed on the area under your floor, if it's just bare earth... again, to keep he humidity down. If it's finished, no worry...
Be sure to leave 1/4 to 3/8 inches around the entire perimeter of your new floor to account for expansion and contraction and don't nail the base board over the gap tightly! Best of luck!

[AlBags]

Clanad is right.
That is what is called a "suspended floor"
It is already ventilated. Just lay new backing material on top, then the laminate, in the usual way.
Correct about expansion. Fix a cover bead around the perimeter.
If a kitchen floor (which laminate is not really recommended for) for heavens sake do not let it get flooded for too long. It will swell and spring up.