Anyone know about ripping up subflooring?

[greysangel]

So the place we are looking at has major rot issues going on with the ground floor. We want to rip up the subflooring and do a concrete pour and then top that with stone tiles.(kitchen) Any idea about expense? Time involved?

j

[Chefzhat]

Wow, JeAnne. Project time! Are you going to do the work yourself??

Pulling up the subfloor should be no big deal, just hard work. Make sure that your foundation will handle a concrete pour. Why are you doing that rather than reinstalling new subflooring. Or using a durock?

I have no idea how much the project will cost - on projects like that I call a contractor, close my eyes, and write the check. My dh is NOT a handy guy :)

[Chefzhat]

Oh, another question - have your purchased this place yet? If not, is there rot issues in other areas of the home? Do you really want to deal with this???

Sorry, I'm not helping, am I? We're just coming off a project where rot and water damage was a problem, and the expenses continue to climb.

Debie

[greysangel]

well we haven't bought it yet. It's a pretty low price because of I imagine, some of the work that needs to go into it. We would DEFINITELY be hiring a contractor to do it and the inspector recommended a concrete pour because there is technically no foundation. The wood flooring that is there has water damage.

j

[Chefzhat]

Is there a builder you know and trust that you can bring through the house and give you an idea of problems/solutions/costs? Or even if you have to pay $100 for one to spend an hour with you? Given our recent experience, it would be well worth it.

See, you can tell I'm still smarting from the spanking we took on this new house. Sigh.

[greysangel]

I think it would help to hear your experience. We're certainly on the fence with the place right now. It would have to be a renegotiation of mortgage price for sure. We got some great ideas from the inspector, but we'll get contract bids in there as well. I want to try to avoid the money pit.

j

[Chefzhat]

Well, here's the thing. The house we purchased passed all inspections. We go through the closing, choose carpet and tile to replace the ugly stuff there, and pull up the carpet. Wet sub-flooring. Begin to do some sleuthing and pull off a few mop boards. Wet walls. Call in a roofer to figure out where the water is coming from and find out that the roof is inadequately vented and ice and snow are building up, while ice is melting underneath the pile and trickling down inside the walls. So more wall boards come down and we find that the walls and studs are wet on two of the walls. Further research finds that the cabinets are screwed directly to the back of the fireplace. So that needs to be removed. Dig up more flooring and find that whole sunroom has soaked subfloor and must be replaced. More venting has to be installed in the roof. The house has not been adequately flashed at the base so siding must come off and flashing installed. Meanwhile we're finding that the idiot original builder used plastic/plyboard cabinets and screwed them to the drywall - meaning that nothing of any substance can be stored in the kitchen cabinets. So those come off. From there an entire remodeling took place - we basically gutted the main floor of the house. Removed interior walls, relocated the fireplace, replaced all flooring, cabinets, and window casings, widened doorways, and replaced all the cheesy plastic interior doors.

Now, some of that stuff was purely cosmetic in nature. But I wanted to say that once you start tearing stuff out, more issues come to light. It takes a pretty hard-hearted woman to stick to the original plan! You need to know up front just how much you want to spend in repairs/updates.

Still with me?? :)

[greysangel]

I am totally with you. Sounds like a freaking nightmare! Our inspector is pretty darn amazing...not the friendliest guy, but he knows his stuff inside and out. He managed to see flooring that was tucked under the stairs in a "stowaway" closet. The flooring is like cheap particle board on dirt! :eek: So he's thinking that underneath layers of linoleum on the ground floor, we're going to find the same thing..all with various states of water damage just from the board getting wet over the years through the ground. There is nothing in the kitchen that I care about keeping...they have a small set of cheap arse cabinets around a sink unit and the stove which is backed against brick (I'm guessing where a fireplace used to be). I'm not concerned about the flooring job (we knew that was going to be a big area to fix), but I'm concerned that some of that deterioration may extend past the floors to the walls which kinda scares me.

hmmm...food for thought for sure.

j

[Chefzhat]

This may be a silly question, but - do you mean to say that there is NO FOUNDATION on the house? Nothing but flooring, subfloor, then ground? Is that a New Jersey thing??:confused:

No offense? In Michigan houses have basements, etc - so I've never heard of your kind of foundation before. I would think that would be a whole new ball game.

Re: kitchen. Does this mean you get new cabinets?? Yipee!

[greysangel]

well I dont know about a jersey city thing...but a lot of the old houses are row or brick houses. There is no basement. The main entrance is actually the "second" floor. The ground level entrance is like the servants' entrance that a lot of times that space is made into a small apartment. Or for people that want the whole house, they usually make the ground level the kitchen/dining area as you have access to the backyard and it's an open space. No basement. However there should be some kind of foundation? I just know what chaz told me (he was at the inspection, not me) and the wood base is rotted and that's why inspector recommended a concrete pour and then a stone lay. We need a big sigh icon :rolleyes: :D

[Chefzhat]

Then it sounds like there is no concrete foundation, which is why your inspector recommends a concrete pour. It might be worth a call to your local municipality's building department to see what is "code" for new construction with regard to foundation. And ask what they would recommend for a house that has no foundation. They are a wealth of information.

Are there other houses that you are still looking at?? I don't know, but the whole dirt under the linoleum kind of creeps me out :D Bugs, dontchaknow?

[greysangel]

Originally posted by Chefzhat
Are there other houses that you are still looking at?? I don't know, but the whole dirt under the linoleum kind of creeps me out :D Bugs, dontchaknow?

that's why we would be doing that first...even before we moved in :D

j