DIY & Home Improvement

You and my dad have mentioned joists. That would be the vertical 2xwhatevers that are the basic framing of the flooring, if I understand correctly. Sitting on that would be the subfloor. And on top of that, whatever flooring you actually see. Correct me if I am wrong or missing something.

Cant see the joists and have no way to get to them, unfortunately. Condo, with no access to the crawlspace barring a notice and time. And a person small enough to crawl down there, which I am not. The subfloor appears to be particleboard of some sort. The same kinda stuff they use for cheap furniture that you get from walmart, as best as I can tell, though I am sure there is some technical difference.

Our first thought was to replace the tile with a section of rubber backed all weather carpet. Unfortunately this place was poorly designed in the 60's, poorly constructed in the 70's, Poorly converted in the 90's, and poorly remodeled in the 00's. Its just not worth doing a complete remodel to make the floor stable enough to put ceramic tile back in properly. The realistic alternative if we want to keep a tile like surface would be one of the heavy duty vinyl faux tile, perhaps something like the Trafficmaster Ceramica product.

But the first priority is to get the decayed section dealt with. Whether its replace or repair. I am torn. I know I can manage the latter, if it works. The former may be a bit beyond my current capability's.