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Hi all,
We have recently purchased a unit that was built in 1980. The floors are vinyl/lino (not sure) in the kitchen, tiles in the bathroom, and carpet to the lounge and bedrooms.
I'm looking to replace the carpet with hybrid flooring and redo the vinyl in the kitchen. We've pulled off the carpet and underlay in one of the bedrooms and found this:
From what I can see, this floor looks to be particle board. My initial thought was that the black area was mould (we found black mould underneath the skirting boards on the gyprock walls that backed into the shower and our building/pest inspection noted mildew on the floor of the crawl space), but it doesn't wipe off easily. So the second thought was that it was glue for the carpet underlay, however, 1) it's not across the entire board as the joins aren't discoloured, 2) the underlay came up without a fight, and 3) there are no tears or glue on the underlay either.
I'm also not confident that we've reached the subfloor itself as the above looks different from what the inspector photographed from the crawl space itself (below). I don't really want to rip these out in the event that there isn't another level beneath them.
If the particle board is the subfloor, then we need to clean and level it before we can install our hybrid flooring. My question is how to clean them off? I'm aware that some adhesive glues from the 80s had asbestos in it, so I'm reluctant to just get in and sand it back. I'm also reluctant to just put the black plastic over the top of it without cleaning as if it is mould/mildew, I don't want to just neglect that and end up with air quality/health issues.
Would welcome any thoughts/advice.
Cheers!
Hello @Ieda7
Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's sensational to have you join us, and thanks for sharing your question about preparing your subfloor.
I suggest your first order of business should be to make sure that your floor does not contain asbestos. I propose having it tested professionally to make sure that it is safe to dismantle. If the results come back negative, you'll need to decide if you should rip out the flooring and replace it with yellow tounge or take your chances with sanding it down. I'm aware that you're not keen on ripping the floor apart. But from a safety perspective, I suggest replacing your floor as the mould in your current flooring is unpredictable.
It could be deeply seated, or it could be just surface mould, either way should you happen to miss a small hidden section of mould the entire exercise of sanding it down would be wasted as the mould will spread through the flooring again. I propose engaging the services of a mould specialist and getting their opinion on the severity of the infestation. Should an alternative be offered, then the general steps for floor layout preparation will be the same.
Let me call on our experienced members @Dave-1 and @Nailbag for their recommendations.
If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.
Eric
