MDF hides a thousand sins

[rhysjc]

Well, I’ve discovered the first of what I imagine will be many pretty ugly jobs in our new house.

The under stairs cupboard in the kitchen was (and soon will be again) used to house the washing machine with the dryer stacked on top. It had a false floor which wasn’t in great shape and had actually collapsed in the front left corner.

I decided to rip it up this evening and see what I was dealing with and the attached is what I found! The battens were loosely stuck down with some foam, with some 12mm MDF also foamed down with a few screws chucked in. There’s also a few wires coming out of the fuse box which is also in the cupboard which seem to be wrapped in duct tape? These are also held in place with some screws poking out of the battens!

Any thoughts on what’s best to do here? I was thinking of at the very least putting some trunking over the wires. I’ll put new battens in with some construction adhesive and use some structural ply rather than MDF. I’d rather not screw the battens down as I suspect those tiles may be asbestos (will order a test kit)

 

[blup]

Worth checking the cables are in good condition (does the duct tape hide rodent damage for example?), then just tidy them under the new floor, you know where they are now and presumably which circuits they serve. Screwing through the tiles might compromise a damp proof membrane, I’ve known cling film type plastic to be used quite near the surface under a thin screed.