How to Replace a Bathroom Subfloor

Think of all of the possibilities for water to leak in the bathroom. The sink leaks, the bathtub overflowed or the toliet overflowed. To prevent the onset of mold, mildew and fungus it is necessary to replace your bathroom subfloor before replacing your bathroom floor. The new subfloor maintains stability for your new bathroom floor.

Items needed:

• Heavy leather gloves


• Dust mask and safety goggles


• Flat pry bar


• Cat's paw pry bar


• 4-foot crowbar


• Self leveling mortar mix


• Saw horses


• 20-ounce straight claw framing hammer


• Circular saw


• Reciprocal saw


• Chalk line


• Tape measure


• Level nails


• Old wood chisel


• Trowel


• Exterior grade plywood
  
  

Instructions:

1. Turn off the water supply to the entire bathroom. Disconnect the water pipes from the sink and the toliet. Remove the bathroom sink, cabinet and toliet from the bathroom. Leave the bathtub alone unless there is water damage and you need to replace that section of the bathroom's subfloor.


2. Take out the existing subfloor using the pry bars and remove the old nails out of the old subfloor with a hammer.  Fill in all of the noticeable small holes and nail holes with the self-leveling mortar mixture.


3. Cut and fit the new plywood subfloor into place and nail the subfloor with nails.


4. Sweep the floor free of all dirt and dust. Spread the leveling compound to the entire subfloor with a trowel a little section at a time. Wait overnight for the mixture to dry completely.


5. Smooth out any rough or uneven sections of the new subfloor with sandpaper after it has completely dried. This ensures that you have an level subfloor for your new floor installation.