Subfloor in Condo's., Gypcrete ? (Dallas: hardwood floors, contractor, tile)

[rutiaga08]

I am in the process of remodeling my condo in Oaklawn. I am hoping someone can help me with a Dallas City Building Code question. I pulled up the carpets in hopes of putting in hardwood floors. I found a sub floor made of gypcrete poured on top of a plywood sub floor. The building was built back in 1984. The gypcrete is cracked and crumbling in places. I understand this was used to provide sound insulation and fire retardation between the floors. My question is, can i tear out the gypcrete and just place additional plywood and place my new hardwood floors? Or, do I need to pour new gypcrete per city code? I am hoping someone has a good answer.

thanks,

Ramiro

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

Call the City Building Dept and ask them.

[keribeth818]

As you stated, it's fire code to have the gypcrete in a multi-family. As you found out it starts to crumble and is very expensive to replace. You can't do it yourself, has to be a licensed contractor. But, this is really only a problem if you are trying to put down tile or stone on top. Since you are just putting down hardwood, Im not sure you would have to do much of anything. Get some self-leveling concrete patch to cover the parts that are crumbling, then lay the padding for the hardwood over that (if it's a floating system). If it's a glue-down type hardwood installation, you will need to evaluate how level the gypcrete is. You might have to level the whole thing. An easier DIY fix to level it might be 1/4 inch cement board on top of the gypcrete, hardwood on top of that.

[JoeSiczpak]

Don't know why you'd want to use a glue-down wood... it can't expand and contract with humidity changes. You won't be able to nail a wood floor down either. Maybe consider a laminate floating floor over a plastic pad. This will cover a multitude of sins, and if you grow tired of it, you can easily replace it.