Toilet flooring and sub flooring rotten

becky3501

The hardwood flooring, sub flooring and joists are rotten under my toilet. Bath is on the 1st floor by an outside wall. The damaged area is approx. 9" out from top of basement foundation (where foundation joins with house) Due to limited income the work has to be done by my teenage son and myself . Any help, including possible materials needed, would be greatly appreciated.

Big Dave

WOW, This is not going to be easy.The place to start is to take up the toilet then the hardwood flooring then the subfloor. After that you will need to measure the floor joist and get some #2 lumber that is long enough to go from the outside sill plate to the first beam under the house that you come to. It is always better to go bigger then notch the ends to the appropriate size to slip into place. After putting them in place you will want to glue and nail to the existing floor joist. Make sure that this is a tight fit. You will have to bring the lumber in through the crawl space access. After fixing the floor joist you will need to replace the subfloor with lumber of the appropriate size and then replace flooring and toilet.

It's hard to really tell you what to do without seeing it in person or at least a picture to tell how bad the rot is and what the damage really is.

Hope this helps, by the way where at in Mo. are you?

Dave.

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Donedat

Please take pictures and post them. Oh, for bathrooms, expect the unexpected.

Donedat

Hey Dave, what part of SW Missouri are you. I grew up there near Branson in a little place called Lampe.

Double A

One other thing. Find and correct your water problem. This repair will be useless if you don't get that fixed.

Big Dave

Donedat, I am in a little town about 35 miles east of Springfield called Seymour. I know where Lampe is but have never been there. Why did you move so far away?

Dave.

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Double A

Dave, you're 230 drving miles from me and almost due north.

Donedat

Dave, it's a long story. My dad used to have a backhoe business down there. We moved to Marshfield and stayed for 4 months and then went to Kansas.

I moved from the midwest because I met my wife who lived in the Seattle area. Needless to say we were married and settled in the Northern Pudget Sound area.

Mike Swearingen

Becky,
You will have to remove the toilet to determine what you'll need to do to repair the floor. The hardwood flooring is probably going to make it a little more difficult.
The tools that you will likely need will be a measuring tape, a framing square, an adjustable wrench, a flathead screwdriver, a circular saw with old blade (you WILL hit nails), a drill motor with Phillips head driver for screws, crowbar, flatbar, hammer, chisel, safety glasses, and gloves.
The materials that you will probably need will be a new wax ring seal and set of (2) brass toilet bolts, a 2' X 2' piece of 3/4" pressure-treated plywood (subflooring), a 2' X 2' piece of 30 lb roofing felt, a pressure-treated 2" X 8" X 8' board (floor joist), Liquid Nails, 1.5" sheetrock screws, and whatever hardwood and hardwood nails that will be required.
Removing a toilet:
Turn the water off (hopefully the toilet has its own shut-off, or now is a great time to install one).
Flush the toilet and sponge out the leftover water in the tank and bowl. Disconnect the fill tube.
Loosen the two toilet base bolts and tip the toilet over onto a pile of old carpet or towels out of the way. Stuff a rag in the toilet drain to prevent sewer gas.
Cutting out the floor:
Adjust the circular saw blade depth so that it only cuts the flooring depth and NOT into the floor joists. Cut out the damaged wood back to the center of the next undamaged floor joists.
If the top of the floor joists are damaged, sister a piece of the pressure-treated 2X8 onto them level with the top of the joists. Install crosspieces of 2X8 half under the old flooring between the joists.
Measure your subfloor plywood, cut it to fit the opening, then cut it in half to fit around the drain pipe hole, put Liquid Nails on the top of the joists and crosspieces, and screw the subflooring down. Staple the roofing felt on top of the subflooring (for a vapor barrier if the bathroom is over an unheated basement or crawlspace).
Proceed with fitting the hardwood. Without being able to see anything, this should get you started.
We'll be glad to help you from here.
Good Luck!
Mike

atomicboy

I was just browsing but Mike those instructions rock. Thanks for taking the time to post and help out.

Joshua

My wax seal is gone on my toilet and caused the flooring to rot. My question is how to remove the drainage pipe around the osb flooring to get the rotten stuff out. I want to replace the chunk of floor, but am having difficulty getting around the drainage pipe.

Mike Swearingen

The toilet flange should be bolted or screwed to the floor.
Unscrew the bolts and it may move enough to saw out around it.
Good Luck!
Mike