Best flooring for accessibility to under floor electrics and plumbing?

[dragonfly101]

My bathroom floorboards are a mess after years of different plumbing and electric jobs done, the floorboard the toilet sits on itself is now wobbly. I was thinking of getting the whole floor replaced as part of a redo of the bathroom, what I'd like though is all the plumbing joints to be easily accessible and not been needing a flooring saw or breaking tongues to get to them - I also need to think about what flooring to put over the replacement boards, something easy to pull up and put back without damaging I suppose. Other people must have this similar concern, any ideas?

 

[conny]

My ex FIL relaid his bedroom in chipboard many years ago. He routed his cables and pipe runs to run in the gaps between adjoining joist spaces and cut the boards to suit for easy removal.
For floor covering you could possibly use cushioned vinyl strips that could be removed to access the panels below.

 

[foxhole]

My bathroom floorboards are a mess after years of different plumbing and electric jobs done, the floorboard the toilet sits on itself is now wobbly. I was thinking of getting the whole floor replaced as part of a redo of the bathroom, what I'd like though is all the plumbing joints to be easily accessible and not been needing a flooring saw or breaking tongues to get to them - I also need to think about what flooring to put over the replacement boards, something easy to pull up and put back without damaging I suppose. Other people must have this similar concern, any ideas?

I doubt anyone would be concerned about leaving access to underfloor, unless you plan changing the pipe work and electric circuits every year.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

The only way to deal with this effectively would be to run all of your wiring and water/CH pipework within conduit. This is done on some commercial jobs, but is a very expensive approach

 

[oldbutnotdead]

2 possible methods, depends what boards you use.
Timber tongue and groove- cut short boards (so joints are across joists and the bit you want to lift out doesn't go under skirting boards, sink plinths etc) then remove the bottom part of the groove (easiest with a router) on the 1st lifting section (I usually make sections 2 or 3 boards wide so the job isn't keyhole surgery). Then fix a batten or noggin under the join where you've removed the bottom of the tongue.
Chipboard (not wise in a bathroom), plywood, OSB etc. Jigsaw a trap where you want it. Cut sides of the trap to land on joists, batten or noggins across top and bottom joins to support.