Plywood Over Damaged Floor
Installing plywood over an existing plywood or 1
x 6 wood floor that has a little damage or even a lot of damage seems to
be a real problem with homeowners or even some contractors trying to
cover up this damage.
Be aware of cosmetic repairs that are done quite inexpensively in order
to sell a home or to create an illusion that there is no damage done to
the house.
It's hard to tell if some floors have been repaired this way, most of
the time you will need some forensic construction demolition. There are
of course other ways to figure out if a new layer of plywood has been
installed over the existing wood floor sheathing but this might not give
you clues as a home inspector to the lurking damage underneath.
You can look at your flooring to see you there are different levels from
room to room. And this would probably be noticeable most at the
doorways. Some people re plywood their entire home and you hope they
repaired any damage underneath the new plywood floor sheathing that has
been installed.
As you can see in the picture above this water damage in the bathroom
has been going on for quite a while and caused extensive wood damage.
None of the floor joist needed to be replaced but all the plywood
flooring had to be replaced.
Installing new plywood throughout your entire house is a great way to
strengthen your floor up, just make sure you repair all of the rotted
wood first.