Hi,

my husband and I are still in the process of fixing up our "new" old house (a small 1952 ranch), and our current project is the upstairs bathroom. We can't afford the full-blown remodel we'd like, but we need to do something about the floor.

When we moved in, there was nasty carpet on the floor. We discovered it was constantly damp along the edge of the tub and around the base of the pedestal sink. When we ripped out the carpet, there was vinyl sheet flooring underneath, which was soaking wet and moldy. I started to peel it up, beginning in the corner at the tub's edge and around the sink. It was so wet, it came up pretty easily. But once I got that off and down to the wood subfloor (underlayment? I can't keep them straight) I could see that it was completely rotted in the corner next to the tub, around the base of the sink, and around the base of the toilet. There are small holes where I can actually see through to the basement below! It seems there had been a persistent slow leak from the sink that had been left for a long time. It's fixed now. Once all the old flooring was pulled up and it had time to dry, all the squares of wood subfloor became warped and cracked. Actually, some of them are so badly warped that they pulled up the nails (which are all rusty).

The floor is so bad in so many places, we'd like to tear it all out down to the floor joists. The joists appear to be in good shape (we have access to them from the basement).

Once we expose the floor joists, how do we replace all of this? I have never done floors before, what are the materials we need and in what order do things get laid down? We eventually want tile on the floor, but we can't afford the tile we want right now, so for the moment we plan to put down vinyl. Does this make a difference? Are there different types of subfloor/underlayment for vinyl and ceramic tile? If we put one kind down now for vinyl, will we have to change it when we are ready to tile? And how do we remove the vinyl when it's time to tile?

As you can see, I'm a novice and can use all the help you can give! Thanks so much!

April

PS... i've attached a photo of the bathroom before we ripped up the carpet, just to give you an idea of layout.

Here is a link that might be useful: