Help - hole in bathroom floor

[Bearsinmotion]

Felt something slip under my foot in the bathroom earlier. Just been to the loo, stood up and my foot went straight through the lino ☹️. Looks like a floorboard had rotted away.

I don’t even know where to start in terms of fixing it. Who do I call? Builder? Handyman? Plumber? Just when I thought I was getting on top of everything too 😭

The board has probably rotted because there is a leak, so I'd start with a plumber. He will need to find the leak, or make sure that there isn't one any more, then turn off the water, remove the loo, take up the old rotted boards, check the joists aren't also rotten, and then replace damaged wood with new.

Most plumbers will be able to do the whole thing. Then reinstall the loo.

Thank you MintJulia, I will get on to a plumber now!

Oh yikes.

Ok, so if a floorboard has rotted in a bathroom that probably means you have a leak somewhere. So you’re going to need a plumber to find and sort the leak. Then you’ll need to repair the damage and anything the plumber has damaged in sorting the leak. That’ll be carpenter for new floorboards/joist repair, someone to lay new flooring over the top, possibly plasterer/tiler/decorator if the plumber had to do anything to the walls (hopefully not).

Suspect you may be best off finding a small building firm who will do the whole lot and have all these people on their books or contacts list.

Could it be a leak or water spilling over from the shower? I'd try and look to see if I could figure it out myself first rather than fork out on a plumber.

Might be a good call on the building firm, thank you. Almost certainly a leak as it’s right next to the toilet. The bathroom is pretty old (1980s I suspect) and I have been thinking about getting the whole thing replaced in a year, really don’t have the finances to do it now though.

Do you buildings insurance? That’s who I’d call

Think so but I don’t think it will be covered.

Shit. Really, really can’t do this now.

Sadly, when you can’t afford it is so often when it happens.

How did you get on @Bearsinmotion?

Hello! Got a plumber in the end. Decided it was worth getting the whole thing done. Plumber had a week free in August when I was on holiday, decided to chance it and came back to the whole thing replaced and looking really good!

Oh that’s good! Was it a big job, did the joists need replacing?

No - the leak (as it turned out) was very localised and the joists were ok. So time and cost was basically what a normal bathroom replacement would have cost, just with a bit of extra time pressure!