ProspectiveBum
Full time employment: Posting here.
I'm looking for some input on how you folks would deal with this issue. We had a plumber out today to install a new toilet. He pulled the old one and noted that the wood floor around the flange showed water damage. It seems that the wax ring may not have sealed perfectly, leading to some water damage to the boards right around the toilet. This is a ~7-year-old engineered wood floor glued down to a concrete slab (DW and I have previously debated the wisdom of installing wood floors in a bathroom; I lost). The plumber recommended a remediation company, whose workers showed up a few hours later. They pulled up some of the boards around the flange, noting that they're holding water. They went around with a moisture meter and were getting mildly elevated readings in a few spots, but nothing major. They set up a dehumidifier in the bathroom and sealed up the room. Their next step is continuing to rip up the floor, and "follow the water", wherever that might lead them throughout the ground floor of the house. They'll also tear out the bottom 2 feet of drywall in that bathroom, although there are zero signs of water damage to the baseboards or drywall.
This all feels like massive overkill to me. We had a legitimate plumbing flood decades ago, and they followed all these steps, and it made perfect sense then.
In comparison, this seems like shooting a fly with a bazooka. My inclination is to have a flooring repair company come in to repair the water damaged boards around the flange and be done with it.
DW has raised the possibility of mold, which I agree would be bad. However, there was no evidence of any mold under the flooring that I watched them pull up. FWIW, we live in an area with low humidity, so mold is probably less of an issue here than in other parts of the country.
I need to decide whether to have them come out tomorrow and continue the demolition or opt for a much less invasive fix. How would you proceed?
This all feels like massive overkill to me. We had a legitimate plumbing flood decades ago, and they followed all these steps, and it made perfect sense then.
In comparison, this seems like shooting a fly with a bazooka. My inclination is to have a flooring repair company come in to repair the water damaged boards around the flange and be done with it.
DW has raised the possibility of mold, which I agree would be bad. However, there was no evidence of any mold under the flooring that I watched them pull up. FWIW, we live in an area with low humidity, so mold is probably less of an issue here than in other parts of the country.
I need to decide whether to have them come out tomorrow and continue the demolition or opt for a much less invasive fix. How would you proceed?