A dishwasher line lets go, a toilet supply cracks, a water heater gives up in the closet. However it happens, the question that follows is the same: is the floor ruined, or will it dry out?
Sometimes it dries. Often it does not, and the floor that looks fine the day after can be cupping, swelling or smelling a month later. This is what to do in the first couple of days, how each kind of floor takes water, and how to think about replacing it.
The first few hours
- Stop the water. Close the valve at the fixture, or the main shut-off if you cannot find it. Know where your main is before you need it.
- Mind the electrics. If water has reached outlets, cords or anything plugged in, switch off the power to that area at the panel before you walk through it.
- Photograph everything before you move or remove anything: the source, the water on the floor, the edges of the wet area, and anything damaged. Insurers want to see the damage as it was.
- Get standing water up. Towels and a wet vac. Move furniture off wet carpet, and put foil or plastic under the legs of anything that cannot move, so stains and rust do not transfer.
- Call your insurer early. Many homeowner policies treat a sudden, accidental leak differently from slow damage that built up over time. Your adjuster will tell you what is covered and whether they want their own people to see it first.
Why speed matters
The EPA's guidance is to dry wet building materials within 24 to 48 hours to prevent mold growth. That window is the reason not to wait and see. A fan pointed at the carpet is not drying, it is moving air over the top of a wet subfloor.
For anything more than a small spill, a water damage restoration company is worth calling. They bring commercial dehumidifiers and air movers, and moisture meters that show where the water actually went, which is often further than the visible stain. On a floating floor or under carpet, it can travel well beyond where you saw it.
Norman's is a flooring company, not a restoration company. The drying comes first, and then we come in to replace what did not survive.
How each floor takes water
Carpet and pad. It depends heavily on what the water was. The restoration industry standard, IICRC S500, sorts water into three categories. Clean water from a supply line is Category 1, and carpet soaked with it can sometimes be dried in place if it is dealt with quickly. The pad underneath usually holds water like a sponge and is commonly replaced even when the carpet is saved. Water from a dishwasher or washing machine discharge is Category 2. Sewage, toilet overflow with waste, or flood water is Category 3, and carpet and pad soaked with it should be removed and thrown away, not cleaned. Water also degrades over time, so clean water left for several days is no longer treated as clean.
Laminate. This is the floor that takes water worst. Laminate has a fiberboard core, and once water gets into the joints the edges swell and peak. It does not shrink back when it dries. Swollen laminate has to be replaced. Laminate vs luxury vinyl plank explains why we keep it out of kitchens and bathrooms.
Luxury vinyl plank. The plank itself is waterproof. A wet LVP floor survives far better than laminate, but it is not the end of the story. On a floating floor, water runs through the joints and sits underneath, where it cannot evaporate. It has to be got out, which usually means lifting at least part of the floor so the subfloor can dry. Planks that come up cleanly can sometimes go back down. Ones that are damaged in the lifting, or that have sat on a subfloor that swelled, cannot.
Tile. Tile and grout are not hurt by water. What is underneath can be. If water got in through cracked grout or along an edge, the subfloor below may be wet, and a hollow sound or a cracked tile that was not there before is the sign to look further.
The subfloor is the real question
Whatever floor you have, the material underneath decides how big the job is.
Plywood can often be dried and kept, though it can delaminate if it was wet for long. OSB swells at the edges and stays swollen. Particleboard underlayment, which is common under older vinyl and in manufactured homes, swells and crumbles and has to come out. Swollen subfloor cannot be covered over. A new floor laid on it follows every bump, and a floating floor will rock on the high spots.
The other rule is that nothing new goes down until the subfloor is dry. Flooring manufacturers set moisture limits, and installing over a damp subfloor voids the warranty and traps the moisture under the new floor. After a leak, the subfloor should be checked with a moisture meter before anything is laid. If it is not dry yet, the right answer is to wait. What we find under your old floor covers subfloor repair in more detail.
Patch or replace
This is where most of the decisions are, and they are not purely about damage.
- Matching is the hard part. If the floor is a few years old, the exact product may be discontinued, and even the same product from a new production run can differ slightly in color. Kept boxes from the original install are worth their weight here.
- A doorway is the natural break. If only the kitchen got wet, replacing the kitchen and finishing at a doorway with a transition can look intentional. Patching a few planks in the middle of a room that runs into three others rarely does.
- Connected rooms are the problem. Floating floors often run continuously through the kitchen, hallway and living room. Damage at one end can mean the whole run is affected, or that matching a section is not possible without replacing the lot.
- Ask how your policy treats matching. Policies and adjusters handle the question of uniform appearance in different ways. It is a question for them, and it is worth asking before the scope of work is agreed.
Replacing with the next leak in mind
If a floor has to be replaced, it is worth thinking about what happens next time. A waterproof plank in the kitchen, bathroom and laundry turns a leak from a floor replacement into a cleanup. Plywood replacing particleboard in the affected area holds up better too. The best flooring for every room goes through the choices room by room.
Small things help as well: a drip pan under the washer, braided stainless supply lines on toilets and sinks, and a cheap water alarm under the dishwasher and beside the water heater.
Getting a quote
Once the area is dry, we can come out, measure, check the subfloor, and give you a written, itemized quote that shows the removal, any subfloor repair and the new floor separately, which is the kind of quote an adjuster wants to see. Removal and disposal of the old floor is part of the quote, and every install carries our ten year labor warranty.
Norman's has been installing floors from Newberg since 1978, across the valley and the southwest Portland metro. Call (503) 538-8242, or book a free estimate online.
Related services: floor removal, luxury vinyl plank flooring, carpet installation and tile installation.
