Small floorboard repair

[jhiker]

How does a professional remove a short section of damaged floorboard for replacement - and is it possible to do it with 'ordinary' tools?

[Chris Bacon]

With a big hammer, chisel, circular saw, cold chisel, jigsaw, drills (various), Stanley knife, hacksaw, atomic bomb, etc.

Yes, easily. What's the situation? Is it a T&G floorboard?

[jhiker]

Yes - it's a T&G floorboard in a bathroom. There's been water dripping on a section of it and it's rotted part through. I've scraped out the manky wood and dried it thoroughly - it just looks a bit 'thin'. i could od with replacing about 300mm tho' i realise I'll probably have to span two joists. Thanks.

[Stuart Noble]

What I normally do is drill a few holes close to the joists so you can chop out the old board easily. Take a padsaw/ plasterboard saw/ jigsaw, and cut the edges straight flush with the joists. Screw a couple of 2" x

1"s to the joists to support the new board. IME trying to get a straight edge in the middle of the joist is more trouble than it's worth.

[Chris Bacon]

Add: "take care there's nothing underneath that you don't want to cut into". Ideally look under the floor, else cut a good sized hole in the middle of the bit you want to remove with a drill (drill out a circle carefully, not following through with the drill!), and look through with torch and mirror. As it's T&G you will need cut through the tongue to lift the section, remove the lower side of the "groove" on the new piece to replace).

[Rob Morley]

Use a wood chisel and a floorboard saw:

the tongue off (use the back of the saw to start the cut), cut across most of the board with the back of the saw and finish off with the chisel. Lever out. If you can, only cut above the middle of a joist, otherwise you'll need to fit a batten to the side of the joist or under the two adjacent boards for the end of the new board to rest on. Remove the bottom half of the groove from the new piece to fit it, fix with nails if it's resting on joists, otherwise screws. I'd probably use a circular saw (cuts through nails with ease, and anything else that happens to get in the way) instead of a floorboard saw, but I like brute force :-)

[Matt]

than it's worth.

It's dead easy to do with a Fein Multimaster. At over 100 quid for the basic tool and 15 quid for the blades it might not be for everyone.

[Stuart Noble]

than it's worth.

Probably dead easy with a Lidl router too but my nerves wouldn't be up to it

[Stuart Noble]

Like pipework running over the joist because the plumber didn't have an angle drill.

[Mark]

for replacement -

trouble than it's worth.

I still use an ancient B&D two speed drill with circular saw attachment for this. Still available at most boot sales for under £5.

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[Chris Bacon]

All the copper I see is run like this. It's difficult to run it through the joists. The majority of wiring is notched in likewise.