My mate has a fairly new flat and his washing machine has been dripping water for a couple of years killing the chipboard floor.  The kitchen will have to come out, all flooring replaced and then kitchen back in again.  Any tips on removing the old flooring and fitting the new would be appreciated!

He`s not insured, didn`t think he nedded to be as top floor flat!! I`m ok with taking the kitchen out and refitting it for him and he`s pretty handy too so we think we should be able to attack it ourselves.

I did one of these last year and the nails had all rusted into the joists. I just tore up the boards then cut off the nails that I couldn't pull out with an angle grinder. You need to be careful not to set the house on fire though.

The main problem comes at the walls, if they are stud partitions they are often fitted on top of the flooring and so it is easier to cut the flooring back to the last joist before the wall.

Places where the boards end up with little support can be strengthened by screwing and gluing plywood underneath.

That said you may be better off just patch repairing where the floor has gone soft, that is what I would look to do.

Plus screw rather than nail the new flooring.

Would you recommend 18mm or 22mm??
And i suppose we should leave the boards in the flat for a few days before screwing em down??? To acclimatise??
Cheers

another thing to remember is you boards will be swollen so if you hack a hole to measure the size make shure its on a dry bit or you will get a false reading

Yet again thanks chaps, very useful knowledge!!!!!!!!!!!