Kitchen floor fix

ghost

ghost

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 25, 2006
Location
Hartsville/Camden,SC
So the wife and I have been working on a hose that her mom bought here in Camden. I have spent some time this week prepping for our carpenter guy this week cutting out rotten wood. The sub floor in the kitchen had some rotten boards. The sub floor was two layers. 1x10 with 1x3? tongue and groove. Cut out a 4x8 section to the 1x10's which was mostly rotten. AS you can see some of the 1x10's were rotten too. The others seem fine. We walk on them and they don's flex. Plan was to put a 4x8 sheet of pressure treated 3x4 ply there. My question is the joist them selves. They are solid except for a section you see them. When I pulled the nails some wood came up so the top is rotten. Probably only about 1" or so of the top of the joist. Our carpenter has his GF from Florida visiting and has disappeared. Would it be good to go ahead and lay the plywood and start reskinning the floor to get it back to the level it was or would the joist need to get addressed? Removing and replacing is not in the cards.
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shelby27604 said:
You don't have to remove them, but if you could sister up a second joist (nail/screw a similar sized board to the damaged joist).

Ideally it would span from end to end, but you can span from good section to good section and put jacks at both ends.
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That is what I was thinking actually. There is a support set of pillars about 8 foot in. The joist are rough cut and not the same dimensions of current lumber. I believe they are 2 x 8.
 
I'll be honest with you, as long as you're that far in, you might as well do it right and replace the whole subfloor, 1x10s included. Expose the joists. Chances are there are other places where there's rot you don't see. At thsi point is only minimally more work to rip it all out.
Then you'll be able to see all of the joists, the whole length. For any that have rot on te htops, if its just one small part of it and not all the way through, sister another joist to it for strength. If it's truly rotten you'll have to cut it out and replace it.

If you do the whole room, then it will be easy to replace the whole subfloor w/ T&G OSB sheeting. That will give you a nice flat substrate to work eith later to build up. In comparison if you peicemeal it together, getting the layers an equal height can be challenging.

Also - I'm not sure of any reason why you'd use PT plywood. It's not going to be straight and flat, and unless it's sat and dried a long time, that board is going to be releasing moisture under your flooring. Just use regular stuff.
 
I would sister up some more joists and roll on.

If there is some integrity left in the joist, I leave it and put wood rot 2 part epoxy in it. I drill holes and inject it. It cures and helps strengthen the joist. I also sister up another joist if appropriate size. You could short span the sister joist and add some jacks, if you had to. I don’t like to do that as I typically view that as a very last resort if a full span sister joist isn’t feasible. But I’d at least put the epoxy in there and a sister joist. I typically don’t worry with removing the old one.
 
I like what thes guys said....and fire the carpenter. Your in it this deep. Do it all and save the cash or favor for later.
 
Why treated ply wood? Do you know you can't use regular nails in it? You will have moisture issues because of the treated.
 
Well we’ve been at it every weekend for a few months. Only really have weekends the wife and I can work on it. The treated ply is what is here. Trying to avoid removing all the kitchen cabinets.
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This house has been a nightmare.
 
If you really dont want to get remive the cabinets then cut up against them. But compared to the work behind and ahead of you, and the headache of cutting around them, removing them to fo it all the same is small.
Later, do you want your new floor to be ubder them or just in front?

But re: the PT wood - for the small cost of the right materials youre saving yourself pounds of trouble later.
Remember the golden rule: cost if materials pales in comparison to cost of time and headaches.
You might ask yourself, why isnt that the industry standard?
Please dont mske this a John Fuller moment lol.
 
Are the cabinets square? Is the rest of the floor square?

You could always cut the subfloor off at the face of the cabinets and pull the rest of the subfloor up. But if I'm going that far, I'm going to true up the floor at the same time.

Don't use PT plywood. Go buy a sheet of OSB.
 
I see 3 layers of flooring there; the 1x10, 1x3, and a layer of ply or underlayment under the cabinets. That's going to be a whole lotta patchup work to get everything back to where it needs to be.

Is that moisture damage from the dishwasher in the first picture?

If you're putting down new flooring, I'd want to be pretty sure of the condition of the rest of the old subfloor and joists underneath, especially if you're not sure of the source of that moisture or how widespread it is.
 
Fabrik8 said:
I see 3 layers of flooring there; the 1x10, 1x3, and a layer of ply or underlayment under the cabinets. That's going to be a whole lotta patchup work to get everything back to where it needs to be.
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. Yes. I’ve cut back to the joist in front of the cabinet. There was cement board and tile there too.
 
RatLabGuy said:
If you really dont want to get remive the cabinets then cut up against them. But compared to the work behind and ahead of you, and the headache of cutting around them, removing them to fo it all the same is small.
Later, do you want your new floor to be ubder them or just in front?

But re: the PT wood - for the small cost of the right materials youre saving yourself pounds of trouble later.
Remember the golden rule: cost if materials pales in comparison to cost of time and headaches.
You might ask yourself, why isnt that the industry standard?
Please dont mske this a John Fuller moment lol.
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. Ugh. My name is Fulmer. Not Fuller. I’m very frustrated. I’m way out of my death here.
 
Also the floor is level. We’ve done some jacking under it to level it up. Also this house is old. Non dimensional lumber throughout. Remodel in 69 or so. Was sold to MIL as year built. Nothing is square in it. As for treated wood. I’m learning there are two types. Ground contact and regular?
 
ghost said:
. I’m very frustrated. I’m way out of my death here.
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Not sure what was intended but this is a hilarious typo.


In all seriousness, Take a moment to get a beer, relax and think it through. Many of us have been in this exact position and are trying to help ypu avoid our mistakes so it minimizes your pain.
There no way to make this a fun job. But you can make it suck less later. IME its almost always easier to scrap everything and start from scratch, then you can make sure its done right.
 
ghost said:
As for treated wood. I’m learning there are two types. Ground contact and regular?
Click to expand...
Yes.
You want neither.
Tongue and groove OSB. It may even be cheaper.
 
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Yep. Rogue Dead Guy on tap. Come to Camden and beers and wings on me here. I do appreciate the advice. This house will be sold or rented after her mom passes. The trailer they are currently in is much worse than this.
 
RatLabGuy said:
Yes.
You want neither.
Tongue and groove OSB. It may even be cheaper.
Click to expand...


For patch work, T&G isn’t going to do the OP any good. You need adjacent panels to tie into.

get a good quality OSB of a comparable thickness to work with adjacent floors, screw and glue it down, and roll on with your moisture barrier and whatever floor you want.
 
I'm just trying to move forward. We went and got some new wood from lowes after I drake a couple..... Set some of it down before we had to go home. @awheelterd I think you get it.
 
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