Removal Of A Rotten Floor

Unfortunately last week we had an unexpected surprise that we had not bargained for. The timber treatment specialist came to the cottage to carry out some woodworm treatment which had been noticed by the surveyor and the first bedroom and the landing went without hitch. The problem became apparent when a couple of the floorboards were lifted in the second bedroom and the timber man found that they had been laid over the original floorboards. These boards were generally riddled with woodworm, completely rotten through in places and there was no option but to remove the whole lot.

Watch the slideshow to each stage of the process.

 

The timber treatment company would have charged far more than I have available in my renovation budget so there was no other choice but to take on the job myself. Not a complicated process but hard work and time consuming. The first task was to lift the top boards, raising them one by one and sawing through them before pulling them up. This took a couple of hours and then it was time to move to the original boards below. Care had to be taken and sawing through and removing them had to be done two at a time checking after each pair that there were no water pipes or electric cables running across the room. This part of the job took somewhat longer and quite a few of the boards ran under walls due to the changes in layout over the years.

Once all of the old boards together with the plaster board and artex which would have been the old ceilings from the room below had been removed it was time to give everything a clean up. The spaces between the joists were swept to remove any debris and then the whole area was vacuumed taking great care not to lose balance and put a foot through the ceiling below.

The following day with the area clean and dust free it was time to spray treat all of the joists and other exposed timber with woodworm treatment. For good measure later in the day a second treatment was applied to use up what was left in the pump spray.

We did think about laying new floorboards which would be varnished to a beautiful finish but as it is likely the room will be carpeted it was decided that boarding it would be a better option as this would strengthen the whole floor. Boarding has been laid and another layer of plywood will be screwed on top to give further strength and ensure that the floor is level.

To see a selection of photos taken during the process click on the image above and view all of the images. Additional photos will be added once the plywood is down.

The new floor is being laid by Clydebuilt Joiners Glasgow.