Where to buy proper floorboards?

[LFS19]

This is what the wall looks like with the skirting board removed.

The first thing you'll probably notice is the the state of the wall on the left hand side. It's worn away, obviously by the leak we have in the bathroom that I mentioned earlier. We think it's to do with the shower base and are currently having the situation assessed. The skirting board on the same area is damp also.

As I said, the floorboards in this area do run underneath the floor, but it's very difficult to actually see underneath any further.
Obviously the issue with the leak will need to be dealt with before any new flooring is layer down.
For the majority of the length across, whatever's underneath seems to be at the same level and the floorboards go right under and are part of he bathroom flooring; until at the right hand side the seems to be a pretty substantial drop and what looks to be some plumbing/electrical conduit.

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[MikeJhn]

Before you go any further can we establish that this is not a load bearing wall, is it timber stud or brickwork/blockwork? what is above it? what is below it?

Can you isolate the socket on the wall i.e, turn off whatever RCD or MCB is supplying it? can you establish that the cables to this socket are below the socket going into the floor void, take the screw out from the front of the socket and move it forward slightly and see where the cables come into the pattress box.

Mike

 

[LFS19]

Before you go any further can we establish that this is not a load bearing wall, is it timber stud or brickwork/blockwork? what is above it? what is below it?

Can you isolate the socket on the wall i.e, turn off whatever RCD or MCB is supplying it? can you establish that the cables to this socket are below the socket going into the floor void, takle the screw out from the front of the socket and move it forward slightly and see where the cables come into the pattress box.

Mike

I'll check when I get home.
This is a bedroom so the kitchen is below it, and then we have a loft conversion above.
Not sure whether it's a stud or brick wall. Should I remove some of the plaster at the bottom to see? I think I can see wood at the bottom but I'm not sure.
A little nervous about doing something wrong, haha.

The socket can be turned off.
I'll unscrew as suggested and have a look where the cable runs.

Thanks again.

Linden


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[skipdiver]

It may have a wooden soleplate with bricks or blocks on top of that. Remove 3 or 4 inches of plaster at the bottom and have a look see. It could be lath and plastered studding or i have seen studding bricked up between studs in one house. You need to establish what you are dealing with and most importantly, whether it is load bearing.

 

[LFS19]

It may have a wooden soleplate with bricks or blocks on top of that. Remove 3 or 4 inches of plaster at the bottom and have a look see. It could be lath and plastered studding or i have seen studding bricked up between studs in one house. You need to establish what you are dealing with and most importantly, whether it is load bearing.

Understood, I'll do that then.
What's the best way to establish whether it's a load bearing wall?

Many Thanks



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[skipdiver]

Is the wall running right through the building from downstairs all the way up to the roof? On first look seems not but that doesn't mean some silly person didn't remove the downstairs wall at some point. Unlikely but i've seen dafter things. If the original floorboards go underneath, then unlikely but still not impossible. More likely to be load bearing for something above the ceiling, usually ceiling rafters. Now it's difficult to sit here trying to establish something i could deduce in a couple of minutes if i could see it in the flesh, so it's tricky to advise. You say there is a loft conversion above, so i'm reluctant to make firm suggestions but you could probably do with fitting some sort of bracing under the wall spanning the 2 joists immediately to each side of the wall, which will be one in each room. If you were to do this, then it would need to be done a bit at a time, putting supports in as you go, tight up under the soleplate, which hopefully will still be sound.

 

[LFS19]

Is the wall running right through the building from downstairs all the way up to the roof? On first look seems not but that doesn't mean some silly person didn't remove the downstairs wall at some point. Unlikely but i've seen dafter things. If the original floorboards go underneath, then unlikely but still not impossible. More likely to be load bearing for something above the ceiling, usually ceiling rafters. Now it's difficult to sit here trying to establish something i could deduce in a couple of minutes if i could see it in the flesh, so it's tricky to advise. You say there is a loft conversion above, so i'm reluctant to make firm suggestions but you could probably do with fitting some sort of bracing under the wall spanning the 2 joists immediately to each side of the wall, which will be one in each room. If you were to do this, then it would need to be done a bit at a time, putting supports in as you go, tight up under the soleplate, which hopefully will still be sound.

Thanks for the response and suggestions.

The room below this one is the kitchen.
The room in question and part of the kitchen below were an extension to the original house.

It used to be an old people's home, and an extension was added to the kitchen that ran right the way down and there was no garden.
Looking at he plans this extension was basically an industrial sized kitchen and storage area.

Much of this was then removed and shortened by the people that bought the house next, and a garden was put in.
what we're left with is some of the extension left over onto the kitchen, and then the bedroom in question which is above that.

So, there's no wall below the one in question and there never has been; Below it is the middle of the kitchen.
The room starts above where the original kitchen was, and extends the length of the kitchen extension.

I'll have to have a look in the loft above the wall and see what the deal is there.




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[MikeJhn]

Give the wall a sharp tap with your knuckles this will tell you if its a stud wall as it will sound hollow, do this in several place's, this is not a definitive test, but can give you an indication of its construction, if you compare the sound to an external solid wall you will get the idea, don't be mislead by the hollow sound you can get where the plaster has blown off the understructure, please note that this will not work on modern building construction where the internal skin of the building is timber framed. As has been suggested taking some of the plaster off the wall give's a far better indication of the wall construction, but will still not tell you if the wall is structural, this can only be determined by an investigation into what is above the wall in question, I doubt very much that the wall is a hanging cantilever supporting the structure underneath, I just re-read that, its supposed to be a joke, not very funny I admit.

Mike

 

[Bodgers]

Good to see you are taking notice of best building practice.

Your looking for a joist/joists under the wall, or at least a wall plate spanning the joists.

Bodgers, My house is over 800 years old and its still here, I doubt yours will be in a similar time period, don't try hanging a radiator with toggle clamp fixings, not if you want it to stay on the wall. Full plaster only cracks if the walls move under them, that means you have a problem you can see, when a wall is dry linned it hides a multitude of sins and problems created by modern cheap building practice.

IMO plasterboard should only be used as it was originally intended, on ceilings.

Mike

All the radiators seem fine. I wasn't suggesting hanging radiators with toggle clamps (although the ones I have used are rated at 10kg per fixture). We have a gigantic towel rail (basically ceiling to floor) in the family bath room and it is rock solid, so it must be possible to hang them successfully.

I have lived in old houses, and to be honest (that save for the 'character') the newer house just wins hands down. Cheaper to heat, rooms are sized for modern life, every is so much straighter - which is so much easier to deal with. The fixtures and fittings are also of high quality (although some house builders cheap-out, obviously).

Yes, maybe it won't be here in 800 years, but most houses built 800 years ago are no longer here, especially without constant TLC. Building standards now are a lot more stringent than they were 800 years ago that's for sure.

 

[MikeJhn]

Unfortunately the 10kg per fixture is the shear value of the fixing/bolt, not the pull out value from a plasterboard wall.

Most house's built 20 years ago are no longer here notwithstanding building regulations or how stringently they are applied, they are not designed to last any longer.

Mike

 

[LFS19]

Update:

I've tapped the walls in the room, and the wall in question is indeed hollow, as well as the section above the door and also the section I've marked on the adjoining wall (the section I've marked sound hollow but then as you go along the wall the sound becomes dampened).
I've marked in blue where the wall sounds hollow.

I've taken the plaster off as suggested, and as you can see, horizontal wooden slats go along until screwed in hard board makes up the rest.
What's behind I'm not sure...
Even With a torch I can't see what's behind the slats.


As far as deciphering whether the wall is load bearing, I've realised the roof space above isn't accessible from the loft.
Don't know why I thought the converted loft space went over this room; obviously with this room being an extension the loft only spans the space of the original house..

Cheers!

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[skipdiver]

You have a lath and plaster wall which has been "repaired" over the years. You should be good to remove floorboards and put some supports underneath.

 

[LFS19]

You have a lath and plaster wall which has been "repaired" over the years. You should be good to remove floorboards and put some supports underneath.

Okay, thanks for the heads up.
Floor aside, I presume then those quotation marks mean the repair is sub-par will this need to be dealt with as Well?

I'm not sure what I'm going to encounter when we look further into this leak under the shower..
As you can see the wood has been worn and is brittle because of the damp.


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[skipdiver]

Lath and plaster walls can be a right pain. The plaster parts from the laths over the years and starts to come away, which is called boxing. It gets patched here and there with plasterboard and skim. The best solution is to rip it all off and board it but that is a big and very messy job, so that opens up a whole new can of worms. It's hard to advise from looking at pictures.

 

[Jacob]

Is it insured? It might be simpler to set fire to it all.

 

[skipdiver]

Is it insured? It might be simpler to set fire to it all.

:lol: You gotta laugh but i do sympathise with LFS. It's bad enough when you know how to put it right but it must be a mare if you don't know what to do next.

 

[LFS19]

Lath and plaster walls can be a right pain. The plaster parts from the laths over the years and starts to come away, which is called boxing. It gets patched here and there with plasterboard and skim. The best solution is to rip it all off and board it but that is a big and very messy job, so that opens up a whole new can of worms. It's hard to advise from looking at pictures.

Right, I thought that's what you might say haha.

I mean the only problem I see is the fact that there was the damp at the bottom in that left corner.. I presume the rest of it is okay. So if that is to be repaired it should be okay? Obviously you guys have heaps more experience than I do, so I'm not sure; though I appreciate it's hard to know what to do from a few pictures.

Thanks


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[LFS19]

Is it insured? It might be simpler to set fire to it all.

Haha, believe me...


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[LFS19]

Is it insured? It might be simpler to set fire to it all.

:lol: You gotta laugh but i do sympathise with LFS. It's bad enough when you know how to put it right but it must be a mare if you don't know what to do next.

Indeed.
I've never really tackled anything like this so it's a bit of a nightmare.

Obviously new flooring can't be laid until this is leak is sorted out with the shower tray, so re-vamping this bedroom is a lot more involved than I anticipated it being (Although, that nearly always seems to be the case).




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[skipdiver]

At some point the wall has been boarded over and skimmed, either all of it or part of it, again it's difficult to tell from the pictures. Plasterboard and water is not a good mix, so some or all of that may have to be replaced. In your position i'd probably rip the lot off and start again but it wouldn't be a big deal for me to do as i have done plenty of that sort of work. If you have stopped the source of the leak, then it may well dry out sufficiently but again it's hard to tell. Where is the shower in relation to the wall and is the shower staying put?