I did this at a friend's summer cottage. Water had been leaking under the door for some time, and had done major damage to the OSB subflooring. Being right in front of the door, it was very dangerous to have rotten/weak wood in that particular spot. Here's how I fixed it on the cheap.
Step one: I pulled the carpet back. Next I ascertained the extent of the damage with a hammer and a crowbar. Once I had done that, I marked out the damaged floor areas with a pen. Next I outlined a square with one of the markings aligned right down the center of a joist (just look for the nails to find them or a stud-finder).
Step two: I used a circular saw set to 3/4" and cut the subfloor back to viable wood in a nice square. You can see all the rotten wood in the hole. I'm lazy, I just left it there in the crawl space.
Step three: I measured and cut a new square of wood from a piece of 4'x8' OSB that I had I picked up at the local hardware store. I fitted it tight into place (wood has a tendency to shrink over time so a good tight fit is essential). Next, I placed a piece of plastic to one end to help protect the wood from water drips. After that i used staggered deck screws to hold it down tight to the floor. The plastic was kind of a crappy spur-of-the-moment fix for the water problem. But the water wasn't what they asked me to fix and was a job for a different day.
Step four: Replaced the carpet. Good as new!
2 comments:
It's really amazing how simple it is when you know what you're doing. Good job.
Wow sounds like you really knew what you were doing! Nice job!
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