Replacing partical board floor in bathroom for plank flooring

[GrahamHowie]

I've a bathroom thats just over 4 square meters, lovely and petit. Now, some munkee in the past has removed the plank flooring and installed partical board, how wonderful! I would like to replace that boarding with planks. Since there is a shower and toilet installed has anyone experience and might share a story on how they approached do this task with a toilet and shower installed and how they avoided any leaks or uninstalling the toilet and shower?is that at all possible?

I look forward to hearing from you PP forum.

 

[Cubist]

Presumably the particle board installers ran that material below the shower tray and toilet bowl? Regardless, the underside of that material is a potential nightmare of blown and seriously weakened particle board that may be harbouring nasty stuff such as black mould - are there any signs of black marks/stains around the bottom edges of the bowl or tray?

Assuming they did run it under the tray and bowl you would be wise to get those articles out of the bathroom while you remove the current floor as there may also be a need to examine and perhaps repair/replace the joists its sitting on. A further complication may arise, if trying to remove the extant boards if these were of the Tongue and Grooved types sometimes used as loft flooring or sub-flooring beneath another final floor type, was they may have run the joints beneath the bathroom furniture.

Frankly, in my opinion, you would be wise to strip the room, get rid of the particle board and, if the joists are in good order, lay your new floorboards, after also removing any skirting boards and adjusting the height of the door if it opens into the room - this would also allow you to examine the state of any pipework and wiring that may run under the floor. The other approach, and by far the worst to my mind, would be to use the particle board as a sub-floor and lay your new wooden planks directly over this but that would then perhaps challenge either/and/or your tool kit and skills - particularly as it would mean scribing and cutting the new boards to get a close and clean fit around the shower tray, toilet bowl and any pipework that comes up through the floor. This approach would also require the removal and re-siting of skirting board, architrave and adjustment of the door height.

Also, what kind of new floorboards might you be considering? The surface, and undersides may need particular preparations and treatments during the installation process?