A solid floor dilemma

My little house is currently all on ground floor only, around 40m2.
It consists of 3 rooms, and the floor is different in each room and I’m in a quandary.
The living room is terracotta tiled and probably on earth, although I havent dared to confirm that yet.
The bedroom for some reason, is raised and covered in laminate. It’s raised to about the height of a course of brick and may have been done so that the water pipes to the bathroom could run around it rather than through the bedroom. Seems extreme, but I can’t think of any other reason other than it might be solid rock underneath it.
The bathroom floor is concreted, but only to the level of the tiled earth floor, which means if I tile it, its gonna have a step, unless I dig up the earth floor.
The dilemma is this, I’m on a limited budget and I’m also concerned that digging up the earth floor will lead to other problems ie damp, of which I already have enough.
The plan is to convert upstairs so the whole downstairs will be a kichen and living room, but I do have to support a cross beam so it can’t be completely open plan.
I’ve been told about limecrete, but a little concerned about the cost.
Does anyone have any similar experiences or any idea of cost?

Hard to put a terra-cotta floor on on earth

No, it was done quite often here. You can’t do it with ceramic tiles, only breathable stone or terracotta.

It is more than a concrete ‘chappe’ (around 30% I think we worked out). However as it is so porous / breathable (which is great for old buildings) it means you can only lay floorboards, terracotta or travertin and nothing ‘sealed’ like ceramic tiles so this adds to the cost as well as those options are more expensive.

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Have you thought about using a thin covering, such as linoleum, across the whole area and just shaving the base of the door to fit?

Or polishing the concrete floor, which can look lovely.

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It would only be a third of the room though. It’s gonna look very piecemeal and I wanted a uniform look across all parts of the room. I have yet to discover what’s under the bedroom laminate though :astonished:

The first real question is what is the final finish that you would prefer for the downstairs floors ?
Laminate, ceramic tile, parquet, carpet, tommettes ?
Once that is decided, then it is possible to move on to the question of the best way of achieving it.

Hi, we moved a wardrobe from a large downstairs room , the coldest room in the house, & discovered a bare concrete floor. We’re using a local charpentier/builder who is excellent. So far the wall next to the barn has been insulated & room feels a lot warmer. Next step is to buy some click-lock floor boards suitable for kitchens or bathrooms. Apparently both floor & concrete will warm up & stay warm for a period. If the OP wants to back-channel me I am happy to provide more details. Best Wishes, Roger