Help diagnosing ...Subflooring issue?

Question

Just purchased my first investment property!

Starting to do some work around the place, first order of business was to remove this built in shelf unit, then removal of the baseboard that were in poor shape. To my surprise, underneath, I see some flooring issues.

I'm not too familiar with what I see. Does this just look like sub-flooring thing? Suggested remedies/diagnosis?

Any help is appreciated to understand what is going on here. This is a second floor bedroom in townhouse. Assuming the concrete is the firewall between next house.

Jim K. · Answer

There's a lot of stuff out there of somewhat limited use. Do you have a copy of Renovation, now in it's fifth edition? That book will help you a bit. But you're really just going to have to muddle through with a little help from your friends. Post often and ask all your questions here. I wish I had had a resource like this coming up.

Lori Williams · Answer

@Cal CrockettOlder homes are better made than anything built today. I cut my  rehab teeth on older homes (1920s) and everything I'm buying now is nearly 100 years old. Those builders were craftsmen. No Home Depot, no fancy tools. Doors were often built from trees cleared to build the house. Sometimes nothing is square, sometimes, despite 80-90 years of settling it's amazingly square. Working on the old ladies is fascinating and will teach you more than you ever thought you'd learn. My world of advice - keep as much original as possible - fixtures, hardware, etc. It's quality and it's character (like that doorknob in your picture). It looks like they did a lot of trim and door painting. If the doors are in decent shape, you can probably get away with just sanding any paint imperfections smooth, rather than stripping (I did stripping in my first house, but that's because there was more natural woodwork than painted and I wanted to get rid of all the paint on wood). Then use a quality primer (bonding primer) and SW urethane enamel (it's expensive - get a contractor's acct and get a discount. It's still expensive, but it's good stuff - use the semi gloss)If you have cracks in your plaster, get someone who knows it takes more than just smearing mud on it to fix it so the cracks don't come back. Or learn how to do it yourself. It's not difficult.Don't take shortcuts. Do things properly. Btw, what is that room you took the shelves out of? A dressing room? Women love them.

Cal Crockett · Answer

Thank you both @Jim K. and @Lori Williams!

Guess I panicked as this my first "old house". It was built in the 40's, my first property in the Northeast as well from the south.

@lori, it was a dated shelving system (attached the before photo). Planning to update to something more modular such as the Alfa system. Built-in may be the wrong term, it was a shelving system they cut, fit and screwed into the walls.

Any good resources for working on and understanding "older" houses? just experience?

Thanks again!

Lori Williams · Answer

When was this built? Because it looks like you have plaster with about 70 - 90 years of paint over baseboards that have never been pulled to paint. The flooring looks fine. Old houses are a whole different beast compared to new houses and new materials.Curious why you removed the built in shelf unit.

Jim K. · Answer

@Cal Crockett

All modesty aside, I'm good at this. These are plaster-on-lathe walls. Not seeing much that's wrong with what's visible here. Not sure what you're worried about.There's no subflooring in evidence here. In the bottom middle picture, you see a gap between the wall and the flooring, the board was mistakenly cut short, but not too short to have been covered by the baseboard installed over it and the shoe molding/quarter-round that finished the floor. That was fine.If you're worried that the plaster doesn't go all the way down to the floor, that was normal in these walls, just as it's normal to leave a gap under drywall, and for the same moisture-based reasons.You're going to be fine once you install the new baseboard, but as you can see, trim carpentry is a lot more demanding on walls like these versus modern drywall. I would advise against installing stain-grade baseboard in a renovation like this. Use paint-grade pre-primed baseboard.