Mitigating water damage

RatLabGuy

RatLabGuy

You look like a monkey and smell like one too
Joined
May 18, 2005
Location
Churchville, MD
This evening I discovered that somewhere along the water line into my fridge/freezer has been leaking. Haven't found the exact culprit but I suspect the inlet to the in-line filter I added beside the fridge (a year ago). Anyhow, it seems water was leaking down along the line, back behind the fridge, down through the hole in the floor, and from there spreading out under the floor. All I know for sure is I cut off the supply to that line and the dripping stopped.
Discovered this b/c I went downstairs into the basement and there was water dripping from the ceiling :eek:o_O. Luckily, I'm a slacker and still haven't finished finishing my basement and haven't put in the ceiling yet so I can see everything. I don't know but I'd guess this had been going for about a day, two days at most.
The kitchen is tile, but the fridge is in a corner right beside a door going to the living room... which has a thick 12mm laminate floor w/ cork underlayment. From up top, it looks really minimal - tile isn't wet, but the baseboards were, and the first 3ish laminate boards right there beside the fridge area are already cupping.
However, when I look up from underneath.... looks much worse. Most of the joists under the living room have water showing at the top where the joists meet the subfloor. On every row, the water in the subfloor looks like it uis originating from teh top of the joists and spreading outward, e.g. no big areas, just lines with jagged outcroppings as it spreads out along the subfloor wood. But it's enough that there are several places it was literally dripping down along the joists vertically, or along the bridging then onto the slab basement floor.
I'm guessing that it is running along the subfloor, perhaps underneath the plastic sheathing that is below the cork, or (hopefuly not) has made it above the cork and passing it along below the laminate. It then goes down the nail holes into the joist.

So I'm assuming that, ASAP I need to pull up the whole floor to dry it out from above? E.g. take out all the laminate, pull up the cork, remove the plastic, and run a dehumidifier for awhile, then put back down whatever is salvagable (or new floor). Is that right? Meanwhile I'm already running a dehumidifier downstairs to get up whats on the slab, and start drying out the joists/subfloor from underneath.

Lets say I get it all pulled out by, say, next weekend, am I OK not worrying about long-term damage to the subfloor and joists? I'm assuming it takes a good amount of time before rot/mildew etc start to set in?

The X-factor here is the cork underlayment. My understanding is it does not absorb water, and it also not prone to molding etc. So it may be protecting the flooring. However the water has to go somewhere, and I don't know if that means it will just be trapped on top of the subfloor.
 
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I love refrigerators, they are good for at least 1 paycheck a month! When you get everything cleaned up, get rid of the plastic line and saddle valve and get an actual ball valve and line ran up to the fridge, then braided line from wall to the back.

Consider calling the insurance company, get Servpro to come out and dry out the subfloor. You could have water tapped between the wood subfloor and tile.
 
This is what we call a Category 1 water loss at work. We handle these all the time. Step 1 is always to find source/eliminate the leak. The rest is exposing all effected materials so that it can dry (pull surrounding base boards, laminate, tile). With baseboards removed, poke small access holes in the Sheetrock wall that will be covered by the new baseboard so that the wood framing will dry. Sounds like you've got the right idea with the dehus. A trick we use is to "contain" an area to increase the efficiency of the dehus. Build a sealed containment around the effected area with 6-10 mil plastic to focus the drying with a dehu set up inside of the containment. Give it 24-48 hours. Being able to dry top and bottom is best.
 
Good advice above. Stop leak and dry. It may dry out with minimum damage. Depending on deductible you can do it yourself or call insurance. I understand there no backing up when insurance/contractor involved. Mold growth is dependent on moisture and oxygen so you will see it first. Mold growth between layers is difficult due to lack of air.
 
If handling this yourself, and really want to do it right, go invest in a good probe-style moisture meter. From tear out process on through drying process you'll want to check the m content of the materials. Your readings at first will be 30%+ but probe and check EVERYTHING. After the drying, your target is 15% or less in all areas. Don't stop drying until you hit in the low teens to single digits.
 
A friend of mine from church had this happen to him and when dealing with the insurance, his was covered because the water line "had burst" (semantics are very important here). Had it "leaked over time", it wouldn't have been covered. "Had burst" indicated a single event or point in time, where "leaked over time" indicated something he should have been watching for. Either way, the damage is the same, just how the insurance company tags it.
 
Catching up.
See attached pics.
This happened Sun night. I started a dehumidifier downstairs immediately. Unfortunately had lots of other thinsg to worry about, didn't get the floor taken up in the living room until Tues evening. Man what a PITA, due to the way the laminate was put in, I had to take out 90% of it to get to that corner.
Anyway, when I first pulled up teh laminate, it didn't look too bad - could see it soaked up through thr cork only in a small spot about 2x2 (1st pic). Once I pulled up the cork though it was a lot wetter underneath. clearly goe up against the kitchen floor which is tile... not much I can do about that... but we already plan to replace it in a year or two anyway, so now I know I can look forward to replacing some subfloor.
Anyway, I got a dehumifier running on it Tues night. By thurs, it had dried up a lot, and since then hasn't shown any notable change. Mostly just an outline of where it was.

Here's my questions for the gurus though. It still has some dark spots, around the nails and the wrinkles near the doorway (last 2 pics). I am assuming these are just stains from the moisture - however the wood is slightly softer here if I jab it w/ a screwdriver. I feel like re-covering it would probably be OK. But what worries me is there are some sections that have lot of little tiny dots, hopefully you can see these in the last pic. I'm guessing this is where the wood absorbed a little moisture and the tiny beginning of rot - but is it all possible that is mold-related? I can't wipe them off or anything, it's in the wood.

XJSavage, I looked for those probes and couldn't find one for < $200. hard to justify that for something I hope to use very rarely again. I've had a dehu running above and below none-stop for 4 days now.
IMG_20150512_235015.jpg IMG_20150513_002144.jpg IMG_20150513_002448.jpg IMG_20150515_203852.jpg IMG_20150515_204008.jpg
 
Clean it up, install 3/4 solid hardwood over it and be done. Any small soft spots will never be noticed and no foul of its not rotted
 
In mold remediation, that's what we consider a stain and pretty much negligable. If its dry (less than 20%) the mold will be dormant or unable to grow all together. If in doubt, use bleach and mist in on there or if you really want to get rid of it visually, go to a cleaning supply place and ask for stuff called MMR. You may need some sort of licence to buy, I don't know for sure. Spray it on and run. It smells terrible, will ruin fabric, and kill anything in its path. It'll also eat any mold right before your eyes and get rid of any kind of stain within seconds.
I suggest pulling the baseboard left of the door as well. The water stains butting up to it look a little suspect. Baseboard are notorious for harboring mold behind them.
 
HF has a moisture meter for $14...probably a piece of warm chinese crap, but might work and last long enough to do your job.
 
Just saw this. Wouldn't have done shit. Stop the leak, treat any visible mold with borax, dehumidifier into a sealed area as described above. Done and done.
 
OK... I'll cover it up tomorrow. May pick up one of those HF meters just for shits and giggles, at least then I can say I tried. Plus may be useful for the woodpile drying out back.

Oh and GotWood, sorry to disappoint you, I'm just going back w/ the original laminate. Saved all the pieces, this 12mm stuff is good and solid. I had a few boxes leftover I saved that I can use to replace the damaged one. In about 10 years once the kids aren't constantly making messes on the floor, dragging shit everywhere, etc we'll consider putting in the good wood stuff.
 
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