A few weeks ago I moved the refrigerator away from the wall. It had been making a godawful racket and I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to fix it. I was shocked to find that the floor below it was spongy and soft. I grabbed a few of the tiles, which came up easily revealing the soft, waterlogged subfloor. Ack. As it turned out, the refrigerator had no drip pan, probably hadn't had one for years, and the floor was rotted through. I put some boards below the fridge, rolled it back and tried to forget about it started thinking about how I was going to fix it.
 The biggest concern with a job like this is always "What am I going to find when I start pulling this apart?" After finding another spot for the fridge (and not knowing how long it would have to stay there), and tearing up some tiles I started tearing up the wet, rotted floor.
 I likened this step to debridement, the removing of dead tissue from a wound. I removed all of the damaged wood and gave a hard, workable edge to the hole. I was happy to find that the damage to the beams beneath was only slight. The hole is 2' x 3', and the new floor will rest on the existing beam a few inches from the wall, and a sistered 2x4 on the near beam (not visible in the photo).
 For a few reasons I chose to use simple 2x6 lumber for my subfloor. First of all, the existing combination of old wood floor and tile subfloor was exactly 1-1/2" thick, matching the 2x lumber perfectly. The second reason was that, without a truck, buying plywood is somewhat of a pain in the ass. The patch went in very smoothly and came out great. Took me less than a day and only cost me a single 2x4 and a pair of 2x6's.
 For now, this is how it sits (but with the refrigerator back in place). We need to decide what to do about the floor. While we do have some spare grey tiles in the basment, we may go with something else. |
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