A Spot of Trouble - September 10, 2005

It was several months ago that I noticed a  greyish patch appearing in the flooring around the master

bedroom's ensuite  toilet.

  A little discolouration from age ?   Noooo, something more nefarious was causing the problem.

A closer inspection revealed a three inch split in the seam of the builders el cheapo cushion flooring

which has only been in the house for the past eighteen years.  Geeez, doesn't any thing last any more.

Apparently regular household cleaning and the accumulation of drips from a sweating toilet tank had

 seeped into the slowly growing split  over the years and never dried out creating a dandy case of mold.

  Mmm, not only that the dear hubby informed me that

leaning sideways while occupying the throne caused it to list to the left, which could

only mean that the sub-floor was rotted as well as the underlay.

  Don't ask me how or why he discovered the motion of the porcelain ocean. 

We finally decided to undertake  repairs before the throne became the new dining room

(situated directly below, on the first floor)

 table, centre piece. And here you're  thinking  that week old wilted flowers look like crap.

We thought we could save some time and money by just cutting out the rotted section of flooring immediately

surrounding the toilet, replace the sub-floor and underlay, then install  new cushion flooring over the old stuff.

 The brief attempt to rip back just  the vinyl flooring failed and

we're now into a full fledged reno. 

After all  the underlay was ripped out, a rough cut hole in the sub floor, followed by some prying and

chiseling thankfully revealed that structurally the main beams were intact.

More trimming was required to square the perimeter edges to ensure a smooth fit for the new underlay.

Another quick  trip to the local Home Depot to pick up a section of sub floor, 4 new sheets of underlay and

we're in business......almost.

Need to make one more trip to the local home repair store to pick up the necessity - a new one piece, insulated,

 hi-tech,  water saving unit.

I'll try to contain the excitement of it all....don't want to go and get all flushed or anything.