bathroom floor made of pressed cardboard

9 years ago

My home was built in 1935. All of the upstairs was covered in masonite, under the wall to wall carpeting. I could tell there was a leak in the bathroom, so I pulled up the previous owner's attempt at stick down vinyl tiles, and was expecting to find more masonite. As I started digging, I found it to be very thick, dense cardboard. It is quite thick, but when I got to the very bottom, there is nothing beneath it. I can just stick my finger in a hole.

I covered it up with a rug before I did more damage, but am at a bit of a loss of what to do. There is a claw foot tub, so there has to be support. It is the only semi-functional bathroom and I need to keep the toilet working for now and can't really pull up the entire thing and get someone to fix flooring until my kids leave for a week to visit their dad.

Any experience with this type of flooring? Or a temporary fix for a few months?

Gloria

Comments (3)

worthy
9 years ago
Chances are it's Homasote. Too bad you didn't check before picking away at it.

This post was edited by worthy on Fri, Oct 17, 14 at 12:05
lazy_gardens
9 years ago
What is under the bathroom? Basement?

I would put bathroom repairs to the head of the queue ASAP and send the kids to their dad's for the duration of the repairs.

When that stuff gets wet, it's as structurally sound as oatmeal.
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GloriaHanrahan
Original Author
9 years ago
No, the bathroom is over the dining room and I can see there have been leaks with the brownish spots and previous ceiling patching. I bought the house out of foreclosure, and the bank didn't winterize the place until mid January (Missouri), so when we tried to turn on the water, there were leaks. I would agree there is not much support with this stuff and can't imagine why someone would use it in a room with water.

I couldn't tell if it was the product linked, but I've never run into it before and now dealing with leaks, I cannot imagine why someone would have put it in a bathroom.

I have a call in to a plumber to try and get water to the second bathroom where we had to cut and cap pipes as a temporary measure. I'm ready to just pull the sink and toilet and have the kids flush the other toilet with a bucket of water.

Thanks, Gloria