With the NobleSeal membrane all cut, my goal now is to install the membrane over the plywood. But before I start that, I figure I’ll just knock some minor tweaks to the floor. First up is drilling some screws into the plywood on any section that appears to move when pressing on it. For the most part the floor seems fine, but there is some movement near where the tub sits and also at a seam between 2 pieces. This goes fine and appears to shore up the movement from the old nails coming loose.

Next up is applying a leveling compound to some of the dips in the floor. Again the dips are mostly near where the tub sits. There are some dips near the entrance of the bathroom and toilet which makes sense since there’s heavy traffic there. I could go with a pour leveler which is basically cement that levels off any dips, but since I think the floor is small enough I opt for a trowel on compound from DAP which is designed for plywood subfloors. The compound is a bit thick and it is hard to feather out to a nice edge. I’m only supposed to put on 1/4” at a time and it is supposed to take 6 hours to cure. I put the compound on during the evening expecting the next morning to be ready for membrane installation.

Next morning the compound is still wet. A couple of things contributed to the problem. First is that I forgot to turn on the heat in the house so it was about 60 degrees. That was my fault, but the other issue is the high humidity of the coastal climate along with a rainstorm that has been going on for the last day. Under the house is a bunch of standing water from normal coastal flooding. All of this moisture slows the cure of the compound so it doesn’t look likely I’ll get to putting down the NobleSeal.

In the meantime I move to more sanding of the built-in and also give it a wash down of boiled linseed oil soap. For the built-in I use the random orbital sander because I don’t want to hand sand this entire structure. Last week I had washed down the window molding with the linseed soap and now that is dried I apply the coat of 30% boiled linseed oil mixed with 70% turpentine.

Since I can’t start on the NobleSeal I go for another coat of leveling compound just to make sure all of the dips are filled enough. I think I have most filled, but since the material doesn’t feather, the floor may be lumpier than I want. I think I will try sanding the edges next visit to see if I can feather things out that way. Finally before leaving I do another scrub on the tub. I’m not seriously working on the tub but just applying some paint stripper, washing that off, and then rust remover to see if I can get to the clean iron.