- 1). Inspect the area beneath the rotted floor, if possible. This involves going into a basement or crawl space beneath that section of floor to find out if ducting, wires or plumbing run between the joists.
- 2). Remove floor covering, including carpet, tile, hardwood and linoleum, from the rotted section of flooring.
- 3). Mark out a rectangular shape that extends approximately 2 inches beyond the rotted section. Draw a chalk line on the floor along this rectangle for cutting reference.
- 4). Adjust a circular saw to cut 1/8-inch deeper than the depth of your subfloor. For example, standard subflooring is ¾-inch thick, so you would set your saw to cut 7/8-inch deep. Any deeper and you could cut through structural joists.
- 5). Cut along the chalk line with the circular saw, starting in the middle of a chalk line and cutting to within 2 inches of the corner. Finish cutting the line by cutting from the center to the other side, again, stopping 2 inches before the corner. Repeat with all the lines.
- 6). Cut out the corners with a reciprocating saw, taking care not to cut through any pipes or wires that might run beneath the flooring.
- 7). Pry the rotted section of flooring away, using a flat bar; wear gloves. When the floor is up, use a nail bar to remove all nails that remain in the joists.
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