any advise on replacing a section of the plywood subflooring on an exterior wall.
we have a pet urine odor which we cannot seem to neutralize. we are in the process of installing hardwood floors(factoy finished bellawood red oak) ,so now would be the time to do this. We bought this condo 3 yrs ago after it had been toally redone by a builder and was told that the areas of the stains /odor had been treated with a enzyme agent before the new crapet was laid. On warm and humid days you can smell the odor. Is this a major job ? And if we do not replace the subfloor will the odor come through the hardwood floor?
Replies
It's hard to predict. Generally, stripping carpet and sealing the subfloor with shelac or some such should be sufficient, but replacing the subfloor may be required. Or the smell may actually be in the walls or somewhere else that you haven't thought of.
Many times the "subfloor" will be two layers, commonly referred to as "underlayment", sitting on top of the actual subfloor "sheathing" that sits on the joists. It's possible that urine soaked through joints in the underlayment and got between it and the sheathing, and just replacing the underlayment and treating the sheathing will suffice. Or it may be that replacing both layers is needed.
Replacing underlayment and/or sheathing is not impractical, but it's hard to predict how difficult it will be. If the stuff is just nailed, and you don't feel the need to replace the part that runs under the wall plate, it would be relatively straight-forward (especially with a MultiMaster ;) ). If the stuff is glued, or you want to replace parts that are difficult to access, it can get a lot more complicated.
There are also structural issues, if you want to replace sections of the sheathing that don't start/end on a joist.
Edited 5/6/2007 9:26 pm by DanH
just for the fun of it get a black light ,put some steppinwolf [you may be to young for ingada divida!]on and turn on the black light and run it around all your baseboards.if it was a cat they will spray the base and it stinks forever.
if you don't see any stainsi would pull up the carpet and see what the subfloor looks like,if it just has a spot or 2 i would put about 3 coats of kiltz oil base primer on it and go on.
i have a floor in a rental that was so bad it had to have the subfloor cut out.that was after 22 years of cat pzzzzz! larry
hand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.
and turn on the black light and run it around all your baseboards
Cat urine isn't the only thing that light will expose. We gave my grandson a lesson in hitting the toliet bowl, by showing him his spray pattern, with a black light.
Dave
Yeah, but you probably didn't have the Steppenwolf playing.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
Nope!
DW is an aging hippie.
Black light+ Steppenwolf= this old man gonna have some fun :-)
Grandson is not old enough for that shock!
Dave
second thought read the thread 'just bought a new old house" they have some stuff they are using on rat urine.might be worth a try. larry
hand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.