Two-day subfloor job. The existing boards had reached the point where springiness and joint gaps could not be ignored. The customer was planning a new decorative finish on top and asked us to handle the substrate.
The challenge
Pulling up boards is the easy part. The harder bit is reading what is underneath — joist condition, joist spacing, sagging, notches cut too deep for old cable runs that you only see when the boards come up. We accounted for noggining and minor joist sistering in the quote up front, so the customer was not surprised when we got into it.
What we did
Failed boards lifted and disposed of. Joist tops cleaned and checked, fixings replaced where needed. New softwood boards cut, fitted, screw-fixed with joints staggered. Then 6mm plywood overlay on screwed centres for a perfectly flat substrate ready for the new finish.
The result
A floor that is now properly flat, properly fixed, and ready to last the lifetime of whatever decorative finish the customer chose to lay on top.
Materials
- Replacement softwood floorboards
- 6mm plywood overlay
