Subfloor Replacement – How to Replace Subfloor Extending Under Walls

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I'm trying to replace some rotted subfloor in my guest bathroom. For some reason, I was expecting there to be an extra wide rim joist on the outside wall and that the floor would end right next to the bottom plate for the exterior wall. Instead, it appears to go UNDER the bottom plate for the wall. Here are a couple pictures (sorry that they're not more clear).

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So my questions are:

1) Is this a standard practice in home architecture?

2) How can I attach a replacement subfloor without an edge?

The only thing I can think of is to "make" a new edge by adding a cross-member between the floor joists at the edge.

Best Answer

  1. Utterly standard - the subfloor goes on, then the walls go up. Doing it any other way is rather fraught with difficulties to no benefit.
  2. You've got the general idea, though it is not really critical on the cross-joist direction (as pictured) and often the parallel to the joist direction is solved by putting blocking between the exposed joist and the hidden under the wall joist. The floor can span between joists (which is the argument in favor of not bothering) but can be more prone to move at an unsupported edge (see another recent question, which you asked, Why is plywood with tongue and groove preferred for flooring?) But there is an approach that's valid (if more of a pain to do) where you make continuous support all around the edges.
  3. If the couple of inches of flooring you have not removed at the wall is solid, you can screw through it and into a piece of wood below it that the new floor can also be screwed to in order to make the edge supported, in a somewhat easier fashion. It's crudely equivalent to having a T&G joint in that the floor acts as a single piece.
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