Rotten Joist Under a Kirkstall Bathroom: Full Floor Repair and Refit

This one came to us in Kirkstall because the homeowner had stopped using the bath. Their own words were that they were worried the bath might go through into the room below. Once you are that nervous about standing in your own bathroom, something has already gone wrong under the floor, and they were right to leave it alone.

The leak had been throttled off before we got there, but the damage was done. From the doorway the room looked lived in, pink and terracotta tiles in a grid, towels on the radiator, the suite all in place. None of that tells you what is underneath. The trouble was below the surface, where water had been getting in for a long time and sitting against the timbers.

Before we touched the floor upstairs we propped the ceiling below. The bath sits over the joists that had rotted, so we supported it from underneath first. That gives you a safety mechanism in case any of the joists have gone right through. You do not want to lift a floor and find the only thing holding the bath up was the floor you have just taken out. Safety measures first, every time.

First day was a full rip out. We stripped the floor to inspect the water damage properly and picked up the materials for the next day so we were ready to repair straight off. When the tiles came off the wall we found rotted, mould blackened timber behind them. Stripping an interior wall back showed bare brick, old wiring, pipes and more rotted framing. That is the thing with water damage. It does not stay where the leak was. It tracks along and rots whatever it touches.

With the floor open we could see the joists. We removed the rotten joist and made the structure sound again before anything went back down. Then we fitted the chipboard floor with ply on top, so the deck was repaired and solid. New timber noggins went in where the framing had gone. Only then is it safe to start building the room back up.

After the floor we replaced the hot and cold pipes to the toilet, sink, bath and shower. If the floor has been that wet, the pipework coming up through it has usually seen better days too, and the old braided hose under the cistern was corroded. We built the stud wall and fitted the bath back in place. The suite went back in as agreed, with the thermostatic bar shower and the wall tiles following on.

If you have the same problem, the signs are the ones this homeowner spotted. A floor that gives a little underfoot, grout cracking near the bath, or that worry in the back of your mind about standing in the bath at all. The fix is never just a new floor laid over the top. You have to find the rotten timber, cut it out and make the structure sound, or you will be back doing it again in a couple of years. Prop first, strip back, repair the joists, then deck it. That order matters.

On how we work, we supply the labour and all the building materials. You buy your own finishing items, the tiles, the suite, the taps, to your own preference. We take a 40% deposit before we start to cover ordering the materials, and on a one week job the balance is paid on the last day. Longer jobs we split into weekly payments to make it smoother.

If your bathroom floor feels soft or you have had a leak you are not sure about, get in touch and we will come and have a look.