Shower and flooring quandry

pruney

Hello all
We moved into our house 5 months ago and we have a separate shower cubicle in the bathroom. We found out after moving in that it has leaked quite badly over quite a while so the floorboards have become quite damp (we have silverfish in there) and there are damp patches and bubbling where water has come through the kitchen ceiling below.
I want to rip it out, replace with a walkin shower and have the floor reboarded possibly with tiles on the floor but I don't know what order I should do it in. As the floor is quite bouncy all over I'd like to get the whole lot done at once and a friend said she had aquaboards put in on top of her floorboards but her's is a ground floor bathroom. I don't want to get rid of the rest of the bathroom suite as it's in good nick and I love it.
Can anyone advise on the best order to do this work in i.e. rip out shower, reboard, put new shower in, tile floor or would it be a different order?
Also, it's a victorian terrace, would tiles be too heavy for the floor (bathroom on the first floor above kitchen lath and plaster ceiling - I think!).
My final problem with this is that although we are budgeting a certain amount each month towards doing up the house, we don't have a lump sum now so can we rip out the shower cubicle when we have the money and then do the next bit when we have the money or are we best to save up and do all at once (as the pipe to let the water out goes across the room below the floorboards don't want to do flooring and then have to rip up incase work need's doing below for walk in shower). We have never used the shower as i'm scared it will do more damage to the ceiling so I'm not bothered how long it's out of action for.
Sorry so many questions but we don't want to do wrong.

BobProperty

My initial reaction is that the floor and joists need checking for any damage and re-enforcing if necessary. Then you can worry about what you need to do for the walk in shower or new cubicle. Have a look at this:
http://www.trustedtradesmen.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11438
and you can see how much extra work was put into the floor to make it rigid enough for a wetroom.

ozskin

as ever bob is spot on if in doubt reinforce some more as its victorian and not new this is prob a huge bonus as its likely to be built properly so you should have few worries about tiles etc

pruney

Thanks guys, before reading your responses today i went to a local flooring place and he said pretty much the same thing. And also told me that even though I want to keep my current suite, it would still need removal to reboard the whole floor and be put back in (which I was hoping wouldn't be required but shows what I know!).
So we're going to get him to come and have a look at the floorboards and joists to check their condition.

My next question now is, would I be able to claim on the household insurance for the leak even though I've never used the shower and the leak damage was there when I bought it (although I didn't know about it). My buildings has accidental cover but not my contents (although it will have when I renew!).

views anyone? I've already claimed once on my contents when I was burgled in my old place just prior to moving but that was the only claim I've ever had.