31/07/2026
Well… this wasn’t quite the quick job I expected yesterday! 😅
The customer had a slightly spongy floor under their laminate, so the plan was simply to add a batten for some extra support.
Or so I thought…
Once I lifted the laminate, I found the floorboards underneath were soft too. That meant only one thing… time to investigate.
After lifting a few boards, I discovered the end of one of the floor joists had completely disintegrated. It had rotted away over many years (possibly with some help from old woodworm too), leaving the end of the floor with virtually nothing supporting it.
In this extension, the joists had originally just been laid across the breeze blocks rather than being fixed into anything, so once the end failed, the floor simply started to sag.
So the job became a little bigger!
✅ Cut the floorboards back to the next sound joist.
✅ Removed all the rotten timber.
✅ Installed a new treated timber joist.
✅ Mechanically fixed it securely to the wall as well as supporting the floor.
✅ Re-laid and screwed all the floorboards down.
✅ Re-fitted the laminate flooring.
The end result is a solid floor again, with no movement underfoot. 💪
And finally… a little bit of history!
Hidden underneath the floor was an old Kwik Save carrier bag. Kwik Save went into administration in July 2007, which means that bag has been trapped under those floorboards for at least 19 years! It’s a funny little time capsule that also gives a rough idea of how long that timber has probably been quietly deteriorating.
Hopefully the repair I’ve carried out will now see that floor good for another couple of decades. 😊
It’s amazing what you uncover when you start peeling things back… no two jobs are ever the same!
