Dodgy Floorboards?

daveatkins · 16 Feb 2009

Hello,

I want to change the flooring in our bathroom from vinyl floortiles to laminate. Unfortunately, many of the floorboards are seriously warped. I removed some of the vinyl tiles to see if it would be easier to replace some of the offending boards.

I'm quite concerned about how the boards have been laid and would appreciate any advice. In the picture there is a joist beneath and slightly recessed behind the skirting.

Untitled

daveatkins
16 Feb 2009
1

Question 1: The boards don't appear to be attached (nailed/screwed) to this recessed joist, and there is no baton supporting them. Is this right?

Question 2: The exposed board in the middle has been cut to make space for the three pipes, this means that less than a third of the board sits on the recessed joist - to me this seems like a weak solution.

Question 3: The exposed board on the right hand side doesn't quite reach the recessed joint. The solution seems to be to glue an extension on the board that does reach the joist (you can see this near the skirting on the picture). This seems really dodgy to me.

Could somebody please confirm/deny my concerns so I know what I have to do when replacing the boards. Thanks in advance!

DAZB · 17 Feb 2009

What you have there is absolutely typical of any area of flooring with pipework below it. Namely that whoever lifted the boards (usually Plumbers) never give a toss or maybe don't know how to refit them safely and tidily. What you need to do is get a shortish length of timber around 2" X 1" (roofing lat is ideal) and cut it longer than the width of the boards you wish to support. Then manoevere it into place below the boards but at a right angle to them close to the pipes. Now you can screw it into position through the surface of the neighbouring boards which do have support. This then acts as a bearer. Just be careful to check there are no pipes or cables that you could hit below when you screw it all together.

big-all · 17 Feb 2009

looks to me like the pipes holding the floor up by around 12mm to at least the first joist
you need to lift the board and let us know exactly how much room there is between floor level and the top of the pipes
you also need to tell us the board thicknesses and how far along the floor you have to travel before the gap excedes the board thickness!!!

daveatkins · 17 Feb 2009

Hello big-all and DAZB, thanks for the feedback and suggestions. I'll lift the offending boards tomorrow evening and take some pictures + measurements and report back.

daveatkins · 18 Feb 2009

Hello,

I've pulled the board up, see picture.

Untitled

daveatkins
18 Feb 2009
1

The boards are roughly 108mm x 15mm. The board that met the three pipes was sheared upto a few inches away from the pipes (creating a wege shape) and then it returns to the normal 15mm. There don't appear to any pipes to the left of the board I lifted. Some of the nails were in at comedy angles to avoid the pipes.

There's hardly any space between the pipes and the boards above them. In fact, the board on the right hand side is sitting on the pipe at the end, which isn't good. Because of this, I don't think the bearer suggestion is going to work. Any ideas other than raising the floor or lowering the pipes?

All I can think of is wider and more strategically placed floor boards.

Thanks in advance.

JohnD · 18 Feb 2009

if you replace them with 18mm WBP ply, you can cut a piece wide enough to have a good bearing on the joists.

big-all · 18 Feb 2009

15mm is ultra thin it should be nearer 20mm what spacings are the joists!!

are you shure that boards not thinned out accomidate the pipes

daveatkins · 18 Feb 2009

Hello,

Joists are around 32cm apart. All boards over the pipes are square edge and measure at around 15mm, where as the rest of the room appears to have T&G, which I couldn't measure without lifting. I can lift the T&G tomorrow if you think it's worth it.

Oddly there didn't appear to be any packing on the joists beneath the 15mm square edge boards, so I'm not sure what use thinning them out would be (if that makes sense?). I'm willing to believe that all the boards over the pipes (the square edge ones) have been thinned out though, because it all feels un-level at that end of the room!

Given the less than reasonable thickness of the square edge boards, I'm thinking that JohnD's suggestion of replacing them with 18mm WBP is the way ahead. Hopefully the T&G boards are around a similar thickness to the WBP so I don't have to replace the lot.

big-all · 19 Feb 2009

ok your floor boards are fine at those spacings

the problems you have is you need to lower the pipes below the joist level by at least 2mm is that possible!!!
or raise [pack out]the joist in at least the area surrounding the pipes with perhaps a 1-2mm reduction per joist
or if its not possible to accomplish by other methods remove no more 6mm from a 18mm board in the required area' its not realy advisable to reduce board thickness but in this instace you may have little choice

daveatkins · 19 Feb 2009

Hi big-all,

Thanks for the advice it's greatly appreciated. I think lowering the pipes is out so I'll be raising the joists and reducing board thickness as suggested.

Again, thanks for the advice everyone, it's made me 100% more confident about sorting the floor out.

Cheers,

Dave

big-all · 19 Feb 2009

great good luck we like to help

diynot

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.

Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

Dodgy Floorboards?

Similar threads