The Problem in the Privy

As you can see in this photo we are back in Brock and working hard as ever this last week.  Nearing the point of sanding floors, we needed to get to the bottom of why the bathroom floor had so much movement in it.  So out came the tools.

 And up came the wooden planks.  And before we knew it, it was very obvious why our floor was having problems. 

There were several obvious toilet repairs that don't appear to have been properly completed, hence all of the water damage.



The toilet was also mounted on a flange rigged from wood.  No waterproof seal going into the black hole, just a seal on top of this clever rigging.

Here is why our floor wiggles so much.  The floor joist was cut to install the cast iron pipe that the upstairs and downstairs toilet drains into.  A tie was made to the neighboring joists, however it hasn't been enough to keep this 2x8 from succumbing to the forces of gravity and the heavy load of a house it bears! 

Tim was able to build up the floor to about level, and he also put an extension on the shortened floor joist and ran it to where it is supposed to be.

Ewwww!  But I adore the joys of modern plumbing at the same time!!



Hole closed up and plan B is put into play.  We opted out salvaging the wood floor and are preparing to put down a substrate over the newly repaired sub floor.  We are looking at flooring options to put down, maybe some linoleum since I don't trust tiles on this not-quite-level-old-house floor.

The time has also come to get creative with this exterior wall through which the "black hole" reaches to the upstairs bathroom.  The pipe sticks out too far and I hate the thought of having to change the trim out on the old window to accommodate a thicker wall...