Hi Leanne There are quite a number of options here. Firstly, the type of floor it is going on will dictate the method of installation. You can either 1. have solid timber glued direct to the floor then sanded and sealed 2. apply a moisture proof membrane, have a plywood layer glued and nailed to the floor to account for expansion and contraction of the floor then solid wood laid over that and sanded and sealed. 3. lay out a underlay then install an engineered floor over it so that it is not attached to the floor. This is known as a floating floor. The materials vary but essentially the flooring consists of planks that are made up a (usually) 4mm layer of the wood you see, then other layers of ply at right angles. This crossing of the grain steadies the movement (expansion/contraction) of the planks. This type comes in both a raw and prefinished style. 4. lay out an underlay and install a laminate floating floor. This has a laminex style surface with a printed timber look over an mdf backing ( this is my least recommended option) Re the heating, in all honesty I wouldn't bother. I am in Perth at the moment where it is quite cold and we are walking bare foot over our timber floors whilst it is VERY cold outside. Heating can certainly be done, but the timber itself is a partial insulation on the floor already. Re species, it depends on what state you are in. I have used a lot of blackbutt, spotted gum and occasionally ironbark. I ALWAYS choose what is usually called the 'standard grade'. The 'select grade' has less knots and veins, but to us the whole point of having timber is to see the variety and character of the grain. The standard grade is also cheaper... Here are a couple of floors we have done in some of our homes... Spotted Gum Blackbutt Good luck!

the original ensuite configuration is excellent but this alternative provides 50cm extra storage wall in the wiw and a view of the vanity as you walk into the ensuite...i've also swopped the study and family bathroom to create the extra width for the entry and to keep all the plumbing (including downstairs) closer together and included an idea for the family bathroom that creates a multi person facility that is more private from the hallway btw moving the laundry downstairs removed the storage area for the garage so that lost space has been added back to the garage

We could all offer lots of suggestions , but some of your comments have confused me . You want to buy a 5 bedroom house and turn it into 4 bedrooms ? If you do only want 4 bedrooms , do you want the Master with ensuite upstairs , and 1 other bedroom , and 2 downstairs ? Would you sooner turn the 'study' ( which is really only of use to Bed 1 ) into an en-suite and make that downstairs bed the Master ? If you did that , do you want 2 bedrooms upstairs , or 1 and a rumpus/study , or some other combo . As Dr Retro says , the kitchen/rumpus wall would the original back wall , and therefore load bearing , but ( hint hint ) the other side ( kitchen/middle dining area ) probably isn't , or if it is , leaving that L shaped Fridge etc wall there will make it easier to engineer . And then you presently have some funny features , like solid walls between kitchen and dining ; the pantry weirdly placed ( yes , the house has been changed and altered over the years , I understand , but still weird ) ; even the 2 bathrooms are slightly weirdly placed now , and speaking of bathrooms , bed 4 upstairs essentially doesn't have one . We can all guess and make suggestions about changing rooms around , ripping walls out , changing or adding bathrooms , etc , but some won't be possible for engineering reasons , some you won't want , some won't suit your lifestyle . And then there's the self-evident observation -- why buy a house then spend $200k ? More info would be good .

I watched your videos and that sound is awful! I think that the clue is in that it doesn't happen in the tiled areas. Tiled floors in first floor construction is usually laid over a fibre cement sheet (called tile underlay) that is nailed to the particleboard sheet with lots of nails. This provides extra rigidity and to minimise any movement to avoid the grout between tiles opening up, or tiles cracking. Each dot on the tile underlay sheets in this photo shows where a nail should be - so your bathroom floor is rigid and strong, and won't creak. It sounds to me like there is inadequate fixing of your particleboard sheets in your carpeted areas to the floor structure. Perhaps the easiest fix would be to lift the carpet, apply wood screws through to the floor structure, and re-lay the carpet. Wood screws provide a better fix than nails, but your builder probably just used nails. Just be sure that the new screws align with the floor joists below, and you are not going through electrical wires or plumbing! It is possible that when the particleboard sheets were nailed down that the person missed getting the nails aligned with the joists. It shouldn't be this bad, but you may never get any satisfaction from the builder or VBA, so I would just spend the money to do it right. This isn't fair, but that noise is so bad, and I know I couldn't live with it. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls and Dr Retro Virtual Visits.