Horizontal Toilet Waste - Changing Height of toilet

[Richard C]

I can't get the frigin boards up. They are toungue and grove and the b*****r won't budge individually. There was one board where the toungue wasn't in the grove one one side but as soon as I tried lifting this board it started to break the addjacent board.

Pick a board where two ends meet, use a sharp bolster chisel & club hammer to break through the tongue all along the length of one board; at the joist nearest the end of the board, bang in the end of a sharp pry bar until it’s underneath the edge of the board, lever the edge of the board up but not too far. Move along to the next joist & do the same & so on until you have a gap under the edge all along the board; go back the 1st joist & lever up some more until you clear the nails; I walk along the board using 2 pry bars on adjacent joists; you should then be able to remove the board. Don’t expect no to cause a little damage & the tongue on the adjacent board may also split but, with practice, it shouldn’t be such it renders the board scrap. It sound long winded but in reality will take just a few minutes to lift a complete board.

Can I not find where the pipes / cables run using a metal/electricity detector and overboard with the Hardiebacker 500 or aquapanel? Surely I wont need anything more substantial than that will I?

If you want to chance it fine, I prefer to eyeball under the floorboards to be safe; & you still don’t know what size they actually are!

I don't want to cut corners but I can't see anyway of getting the boards up in one piece and because they run into the main bedroom and under the stud walls I am not confident in pull them up completley.

Yi only need to lift enough to sus out what’s below & although they will generally be reusable but sometimes they aren’t, you can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs; the floor is being over boarded anyway.

 

[iwaters]

Richard - Me again. Thanks for the tip I have managed to get a couple of boards up without damaging them too much.

The joists are 2" x 7". 16" on centres. The unsupported span between load bearing walls is about 7 feet.

I can see how the pipes run. Thankfully they are paralell to the joists on one side of the room. The cables have all been run through holes drilled in the centre of the joists not over the top. I have marked with chalk the pipes and cables on the floor and on the walls so I can see when screwing down the overboarding.

With those joists figures what would the best overboarding? B and Q offer a bulk discount on Aquapanel if you buy 5 sheets or more. I need 6 sheets for the walls anyway so if that is what you recommend I will go for that. With the offer it is about £5 a sheet cheaper than the Hardibacker.