Fix weak boards in a hardwood floor
June 20, 2023 9:00 AM Subscribe
I rent a house with hardwood floors, and the landlord was thinking of replacing the downstairs floor. She had a floor guy to look at them while she was not there. He pointed out a spot to me where maybe five boards have some give, and said don't step there. Can that be fixed without replacing the whole floor somehow?
I am not stepping in the spot now, but it is annoying. The landlord decided it was too hard to replace the whole downstairs floor while we are living here, even if we were on vacation and just our stuff was here. She said the floor guy didn't mention the weak spot. Would it be a waste of money for her to replace maybe five boards, or get the spot fixed in another way, when she is going to replace the whole floor when we move out? Since the floor is in bad shape now, it wouldn't matter if the fix looked good at all, it would just need to be functional.
I am not stepping in the spot now, but it is annoying. The landlord decided it was too hard to replace the whole downstairs floor while we are living here, even if we were on vacation and just our stuff was here. She said the floor guy didn't mention the weak spot. Would it be a waste of money for her to replace maybe five boards, or get the spot fixed in another way, when she is going to replace the whole floor when we move out? Since the floor is in bad shape now, it wouldn't matter if the fix looked good at all, it would just need to be functional.
Yes, you can replace them. I have an old house with no subfloor and we have had to replace (badly, gotta admit, but we are not professionals) a couple of boards. Either the whole board will come up and be replaced/finished or they will take out the weak part and then instead of one floorboard there will be the remaining half of the old one and a new replacement for the weak part. Depending on how nice your old wood is and how nice the new wood is, this may look varying degrees of visible or awkward, but there is no reason for you to have a five-floorboard no-step area. Honestly, I think this is a habitability issue and if she won't repair them I'd contact a tenants' rights line - you can't just be walking around five boards lest you plunge to the basement.
posted by Frowner at 9:30 AM on June 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Frowner at 9:30 AM on June 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
Is there a basement? A crawl space? Generally if a part of the floor is soft and the floor guy cautions you not to step on it, it’s less an issue with the specific flooring boards and more with the floor support structure (the joists that hold up the floor) being dangerously degraded, leading to a risk of falling through to whatever is below. That would definitely covered by building codes and whatever tenant protections apply in your jurisdiction, and should be fixed sooner rather than later. But, being a structural issue, would require much more extensive renovations (as in, at the very least you’d need to move all of your possessions out of that room, possibly out of the whole house if the situation is severe enough, though given there’s only one affected area that seems perhaps less likely).
If the joists are sound and it’s really just an issue of thick old boards laid over the joists having some rot or something, you’d still have a harder time finding the right size and strength replacement boards, since floors aren’t constructed like that anymore. You’d probably be looking at super expensive specialty sources. I can definitely see why the landlord would be looking at replacing the whole floor instead, since then it would be updated to a modern version with a plywood subfloor. This situation would still be considered a serious safety issue by your local building inspector, just one that wouldn’t potential affect the structural integrity of the whole house.
But I’d be pretty worried about it being a structural issue with a joist, myself, and would want to investigate that sooner rather than later.
posted by eviemath at 10:13 AM on June 20, 2023
If the joists are sound and it’s really just an issue of thick old boards laid over the joists having some rot or something, you’d still have a harder time finding the right size and strength replacement boards, since floors aren’t constructed like that anymore. You’d probably be looking at super expensive specialty sources. I can definitely see why the landlord would be looking at replacing the whole floor instead, since then it would be updated to a modern version with a plywood subfloor. This situation would still be considered a serious safety issue by your local building inspector, just one that wouldn’t potential affect the structural integrity of the whole house.
But I’d be pretty worried about it being a structural issue with a joist, myself, and would want to investigate that sooner rather than later.
posted by eviemath at 10:13 AM on June 20, 2023
It is absolutely possible. In fact I have had a wall between to rooms removed and had the resulting gap seamlessly patched by pulling up and replacing most of the adjacent boards.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 10:32 AM on June 20, 2023
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 10:32 AM on June 20, 2023
You may be able to see the problem - in our case, the boards we replaced were visibly bad due to a combination of age and having a heavy thing placed carelessly on them by previous owners. Also, if there is a basement, why not go downstairs and take a look?
Our house doesn't have huge old plank flooring - it has fairly cheap proto 2x4s in the kitchen, which were easy to replace, and nice but not impossibly nice wood in the rest of the house. With old houses, a lot of stuff is really individual.
posted by Frowner at 10:44 AM on June 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
Our house doesn't have huge old plank flooring - it has fairly cheap proto 2x4s in the kitchen, which were easy to replace, and nice but not impossibly nice wood in the rest of the house. With old houses, a lot of stuff is really individual.
posted by Frowner at 10:44 AM on June 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Yeah there is a basement, so if we fell through the floor we would fall into the basement.
posted by catquas at 11:51 AM on June 20, 2023
posted by catquas at 11:51 AM on June 20, 2023
(I mean, the normal way, not through an unplanned hole in the floor :P )
posted by eviemath at 3:09 PM on June 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by eviemath at 3:09 PM on June 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
If this is a problem with the joists, replacing all or part of the floor is not going to solve anything. I would assume the person that inspected the floor looked into that, given there is access under the floor, so finding out what the actual problem is needs to be the first step. If this is a joist issue, you can 'sister' the joists (affix a second joist beside the existing one) as a maybe temporary repair without removing the floorboards at all. If there is a patch of the floorboards that are rotten or compromised in some other way, it's definitely possible to just replace selected boards.
If the house is old, it may be difficult to find floorboards the correct thickness, but slight differences can be resolved by either planing down the parts of the joists where boards are being replaced, or packing them up to the correct height. This is a job that does require some skills, so not really for an inexperienced person, but a competent handyman could work through it. I wonder if there are more widespread issues with the floor than just that one spot, though? It seems odd that a landlord would opt for replacing the whole floor for the sake of a few boards.
posted by dg at 6:46 PM on June 20, 2023
If the house is old, it may be difficult to find floorboards the correct thickness, but slight differences can be resolved by either planing down the parts of the joists where boards are being replaced, or packing them up to the correct height. This is a job that does require some skills, so not really for an inexperienced person, but a competent handyman could work through it. I wonder if there are more widespread issues with the floor than just that one spot, though? It seems odd that a landlord would opt for replacing the whole floor for the sake of a few boards.
posted by dg at 6:46 PM on June 20, 2023
Response by poster: Thanks for the answers so far! Yes I could get to the basement, I just need to ask the basement tenant. The rest of the floor seems stable but it is old and the surface is in bad condition, nails keep coming up, etc.
posted by catquas at 8:32 AM on June 21, 2023
posted by catquas at 8:32 AM on June 21, 2023
if you can get to the basement, you could add some 2X4s or plywood or something under the weakspot to strengthen the floor.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:40 PM on June 21, 2023
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:40 PM on June 21, 2023
Ah, but if there are basement tenants, that might mean that the joists are not exposed/visible due to being covered by the ceiling of the basement apartment? I suppose you could push up on their ceiling in that case, and if is also soft from that direction, reasonably conclude that it’s more likely the joists; but if not soft, that it’s just your floorboards?
posted by eviemath at 12:54 PM on June 21, 2023
posted by eviemath at 12:54 PM on June 21, 2023
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by catquas at 9:05 AM on June 20, 2023