...because home doesn't happen overnight.

I thought of about a dozen other titles for this post:

Water and Wood Don’t Mix

Why Don’t the House Gods Like Us?

$#!*

My Nightmare Come True

Further Proof That We Live in a Real House

No, HH, You’re Not Lazy or Stupid

Rolling With the Punches

Two-Year Warranty, My Ass

To make a long story short, the pump that pumps condensation from our furnace to a drain pump failed two weekends ago. It was 100+ degrees that weekend and the heat pump was running non-stop. We were home but we didn’t catch the problem right away because we were busy tackling other home projects.

The faulty pump ended up filling with water then overflowing. As you can imagine, water seeped under the floor in the hallway. If you’ll remember, we have engineered hardwoods. Wood + water don’t mix. As soon as we noticed the leak, we started cleaning it up and HH made a mad dash for Home Depot to pick up another pump. The Flotec pump was only a few months old and came with a two-year warranty. {HH has already contacted the manufacturer to put in a damage claim and complaint.}

For now, we’re still using the same Flotec model pump until HH installs another brand of pump that is more highly recommended. To give ourselves more time before water hits the wood should another leak occur, the new pump is sitting in a plastic container with an alarm that detects moisture. When he first detected the leak, HH kept saying he was stupid and lazy for not catching it sooner and for not putting some sort of secondary barrier/alarm around the pump should it fail. Of course, I told him he wasn’t stupid or lazy.

With the mess cleaned up {which included us mopping up excess water with old beach towels and sponges}, we assessed the damage. To the naked eye, everything looked fine. But we know that’s how water works. It can take weeks, sometimes months, for the real damage to pop up. From what we could tell, the water had affected the back half of the hall, the entrance to the boys’ room and about a 4’x4′ area just inside the master bedroom. We were more worried about the water that was between the vapor barrier and the actual flooring as that was what could cause the floor to warp and buckle down the road. The water under the pad had mostly been soaked up by the walls which are easier to dry out. From what we had read, any remaining water under the pad would eventually be absorbed back into the concrete slab.

Surprisingly, I was calm. I think in my sleep deprived state I’m just numb to any and all situations. It’s not that I don’t overreact. I just don’t react. I told HH, “It’s just a floor.” But it was a floor that we had both spent a lot of time installing and while it was a pain to do {because of our concrete slab we had to glue each and every plank of the floating floor to its neighbors}, we were in love with the results. Maybe it would have been easier if we didn’t like it so much.

HH contacted our insurance agent to see what our options were. Under our policy, total replacement of the floor would be covered but only after a restoration company tried drying it out first. We had three different restoration companies come out and assess the damage. The first two told us what we were expecting to hear. ‘Nothing we can do. You’ll have to rip it all up and replace it.’ We had braced ourselves for this but it was still hard to swallow. The third company gave us a different assessment. They said they could dry it out. Their drying method included heating the floor gently to evaporate any water between the vapor barrier and wood then suctioning it up with a high-powered vacuum. To help dry up any water under the pad and vapor barrier, they would run air tubes under the pad. They’d also pop off baseboards on the affected walls, drill holes and blow air into them to dry them out. Since they were the only company that had a plan and our insurance required us to attempt a dry-out, we went with them. They said it would take them 4-7 days.

The restoration company set up the same day of their assessment. Even though nothing they were doing was dangerous in and of itself, we were told it wouldn’t be kid-friendly. We wouldn’t be able to walk easily through the area. The machines would be loud. Oh. And they were going to shut off the A/C to facilitate water evaporation and drying. So, we headed off to my dad’s house for a few days. {My dad has no internet service. That’s why I was MIA last week.} It was a much needed distraction.

The restoration company came out daily to test moisture levels and tweak the dry-out. To me, it looked like our floor was on life support.

And it was hot, hot, HOT inside the house.

Yep. 95 degrees inside and out. There’s no way we would have survived comfortably. I’m so thankful we had somewhere else to stay while all this was going on.

The dry-out is complete. HH had the restoration company go over the results in detail. The wood is dry. There is no moisture between the wood and the vapor barrier. The pad {under the vapor barrier} still shows moisture readings but we were told this would go away slowly as the moisture is absorbed into the slab. The walls are dry. There is no mold or mildew. We submitted a claim to our insurance and they will guarantee the restoration company’s work {since we attempted to dry it out} for three years. So, if any problems arise in the future {say, warping, buckling or mildewing} our insurance would pay for total replacement of the floor. We still have a little while to withdraw our claim if we choose to. HH is leery of our rates rising. We’re just trying to see what all of our options are from here. We’ve even looked into new flooring should we need it later. The only problem we’re seeing with our flooring choice and install is that there is no good way to repair a damaged section. If you pull up one plank, you can’t simply replace it because each plank is glued to the next. Ugh. Theoretically, we could pull up all flooring in the bedrooms and hallway then have a threshold at the great room but we really like the seamless look we have.

Hopefully, we won’t need a total replacement but we want to be prepared if it comes to that. Right now, everything is looking good but you just never know.

I think that gets you up to speed with all the mishaps here. It was definitely a punch to the gut. Especially since we just moved in not even two months ago. I guess that’s just how things go sometimes. We’ll learn from it and move on.

What about you? Any problems with your house recently? Any experience with water under wood floors? Any ideas for us?

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

62 Comments

Oh my that seemed like such a process to dry out the floor and wall. Glad to hear things are reporting dry. Our old house doesn’t have a finished basement is is our storage and one weekend we were out of town our pumped failed and water was everywhere. After buying a new pump we have learned to just keep things on the shelves and not the floors. However since it isn’t finished it wasn’t a big problem just cleaning and installing the new pump.

18.July.2012

Fingers crossed the drying worked and you have no further problems

18.July.2012

Oh no! I’m so sorry for you guys! But it sounds like you solved the problem – kudos for that!
Sorry no ideas or experience to offer, just moral support!

18.July.2012

Dana!!!
This sucks hon. I think what the restoration company did was awesome though, I had no idea that some thing like that could be done. Good to know since we have original hard woods in our living room and front hall (1949)! I can’t say we have had any issues like that, but we have a phantom dinning room light. It decides when it wants to be on and off. My hubby is not as handy as yours, I have a HFIL that seems to think that it is our dimmer switch. I am not so sure. We have two switches in the room, one that is a dimer, one not. They both do it. May have to do some investigating with an electrician. Glad to hear that your fix turned out ok, water is the worst!!

18.July.2012

I realize that I’m a complete stranger, but I’m send you virtual hugs… because everything about leaking water and wood floor just plain sucks. *crossing my fingers that the problem is completely taken care of*

18.July.2012

Oh, Dana…how you stay calm and collected is beyond me. We had hardwood floors installed years ago and the week after our fridge started leaking. Of course, we didn’t notice right away so there was a bit of warping. Not hugely noticeable…I’m so happy to hear you guys are all dried out!

18.July.2012

Hugs from here too! I know how much heart your husband put into the floor!

Oh that sucks! What a pain in the arse but so glad you guys had somewhere to go and at least you’re insurance is stepping up, hopefully without issues. The biggest issue in our house is crayon marks on the wall. Ahh toddlers.

18.July.2012

Just this past weekend we were watching “I want that” on the DIY Network and one of the products they showcased was a water alarm, that wasn’t the real name for it (sorry I can’t recall). But basically its a little round bubble about the size of an apple half that you place on the floor in an indoor utility area. It size just millimeters off the floor and the alarm sounds if water touches the sensor on the bottom to let you know there is a leak that you may not have otherwise noticed. Seems like that sort of device would have been perfect in this situation. Sorry I can’t remember the exact name, but I’m sure you could find it through a Google search. Glad to hear all is well now.

18.July.2012

Can totally relate we had the same kind of experience but ours was caused by the air conditioning complany that came to service our air after I had detected a leak. Despite me tell the repairman that it was still leaking he did not believe me and I was right. We eneded up having to have the hall and half the floor in the family toom taken up and replaced. Their insurance had to pay for it. We now also have a leak detector in the ac with a automatic shut off so it should never happen again. After our experience that became a standard in all their installations.

18.July.2012

I am so sorry to hear about the craziness going on at your house. I couldn’t be more sympathetic towards you. We live in an older, modest house, much like yours. We are constantly undergoing revamps and renovations. Last year, the remnants of a hurricane blew through our area and we were without power for almost a week – at the time we had a two week old newborn, a 20 month old, and a 5 year old. You are right, problems of a real house and a real family. I am happy that you were able to find a company to assist you and that you have nearby family. It is great to have family. Best of luck!

18.July.2012

UGH! We had a similar situation and we had to rip the flooring in the bathroom, hall, kitchen and dining room due to the water under the hardwood. It was my 1st major project. I hope to never do it again!

18.July.2012

Last summer my condo flooded from a busted pipe in the unit above. I was happy that they replaced my old floors and that I got to pick out new floors. I have always thought that we might have the same engineered floors actually, they are extremely similar. I love my new floors too and would hate to have to replace them.

18.July.2012

Dana,

I hope it all gets dryed up without issue!

18.July.2012

*HUGS!*

We had a roof leak about two years ago and I, much more ignorant about the whole thing, dried the floors with towela and was so happy they hadn’t warped. Now, two years later I can feel that they have risen a little and they creak when you walk on them. /sigh I think you two did a great job of getting on top of the situation and I will keep my fingers crossed for you!

18.July.2012

We had problems with that condensation drain pipe at our old house and again at the new(er) one and it was quite the mess. In the old house, the A/C unit was in the house, so the leak saturated carpet and baseboards. At the new place, the A/C unit is in the garage, so there’s less worry about flooring damage, but it’s still never gonna be a good day when you see water leaking out of your A/C, regardless of location.

Anyway, I finally managed to wrangle some very helpful info out of one of the A/C repair guys and it turns out that even if everything else is working correctly, that relatively small condensation drain pipe can build up with algae & other residue and become clogged pretty easily. (And I suspect that in homes where central air was added after construction, these drainage pipes often have much shallower pitches which encourages gunky water to drain slower than optimal.) Next thing y’know, there’s water dumping everywhere – there’s LOTS of condensation happening during these triple-digit Texas Summer days!

So now each time I change the air filter, I also use an old turkey baster to snort about 1/2 cup of bleach down that pipe to keep it gunk-free. I also use my air compressor and a jury-rigged nozzle (to make it fit the pipe opening snugly) to forcibly blast the pipe thoroughly clear about once every 6-8 months. Haven’t had any clogging problems or condensation overflows in almost 3 years now. (Crosses fingers that I haven’t just jinxed myself.) And the bleach that I send thru that condensation drainage pipe doesn’t seem to have any harmful effects on the grass out where it empties.

18.July.2012

We had something similar happen a few months after we moved into to our first house. We use cloth diapers for our babies and a diaper sprayer to clean the diapers in the toilet. Which leaks if you leave it on for too long. One of us (and there is still much debate about the identity of that person!) left it on while we were away for an overnight trip. I guess the pressure builds up and it starts to drip. And the dripping went under the bathroom vanity and seeped out into the hallway that connects the living room/dining room to the children’s room. The previous owner had installed laminate throughout the house (except the bathrooms, which are tile) right before selling the house to us. Which was good, even if it wasn’t my first choice in flooring. And the type of laminate that he chose, well, it shows the damage pretty much immediately, or at least within a few days.
So we’re sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place. We’re hoping that we’ll be able to remove the section of flooring that’s damaged and replace it, but it depends on the method of installation. The previous owner left us a couple of boxes of matching laminate when he left and we’re guessing that it was a diy job so we’re trying to be hopeful. The other question is a matter of when we repair it. We live in the desert so there’s no humidity and we’ve checked for mold and that doesn’t seem to be an issue. The floor is completely dried out. But buckled and damaged. And we don’t feel like we can leave this when we move in the next year (we’re military) and we rent the house out. It’s tempting to leave it until after the movers have come and get it done without kids or furniture around.

18.July.2012

I’ve had water damage twice in my house (from DIY projects) and it can be really expensive. The dehumidifiers are sooo loud and it definitely makes the house hotter than normal. Our incidents were a year apart and we ended up being dropped by our insurance company when they reviewed our status. And those were the only times we had ever claimed anything for any of our homes (during 12 years of homeownership). So you’re right to be careful with claiming it (but isn’t that what insurance is for??).

18.July.2012

I was going to suggest fans and a dehumidifier…but it looks like your crew took care of business with some much fancier tools! So glad you were able to restore the floors!

This makes me nervous though – we are in the middle of a kitchen renovation and plan to restore the old hardwood under the linoleum tiles. We’ve been warned that wood isn’t the best choice for kitchen flooring – but it’s just so pretty! You are right that wood and water don’t mix – but I think that is just a chance some of us are willing to take!

18.July.2012

Oh I want to cry. Those beautiful floors. I hope the problem is fixed!

18.July.2012

Sounds like you worked with a great company to dry the floors!!

One month after my husband and I bought our first home and moved in, a tree fell through one of the guest rooms during a bad storm. Right away, we were in panic mode removing everything we could from the room so it wouldn’t get wet from the DOWNPOUR outside. I tried very hard to catch all the water that was raining into our house with trash cans, buckets, towels – but in the end, our laminate floors buckled. Because we couldn’t match them, insurance paid for all new flooring in the whole house. Love the new floors – but I hated having to move everything again! I really hope you don’t have to go through that!

18.July.2012

It sucks to see anyone’s hard work go to waste. Sounds like y’all found it and fixed it pretty quick, so hopefully you won’t see any problems don’t the line. Right after we bought our first house and before we moved in, we had a huge hail storm and needed a new roof and all I could think was welcome to home ownership. It always helps me to think of how bad it could have been and consider myself lucky. All you can do is “keep calm and carry on.”

18.July.2012

Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear about the water leak! I’ll be keeping positive thoughts coming your way, hoping your floors stay looking great!

18.July.2012

I’m so sorry, Dana. We had a leak in our kitchen that did the same thing to our floors before it went through the floor and leaked through the ceiling of the basement. Our insurance company brought out a restoration company that did the same thing! When they say those machines are loud, that is an understatement, and the heat is unbearable. We had to live in the house while they ran 24/7 for about a week, but fortunately our bedrooms are far enough from the kitchen we could escape the roar a bit (and we have a separate a/c for that side of the house so it was cooler). I can’t imagine trying to keep a newborn asleep during that process. Glad you could escape. Hopefully this will do the trick. Good luck!

18.July.2012

Dana, I am soooo sorry that happened. I had a water pipe burst in my new home and it was only in the garage and I cried like a baby. Since then, water damage is my worst home owning fear. My advice: don’t sign off on anything with the Insurance company until you are 100% sure everything is good and that could take weeks. You are so blessed to have HH by your side… you guys are a great team!

18.July.2012

We had a similar problem with water at our high school gym. I am an assistant principal at the school and we had quite a bit of water on our floor. After a few weeks of trying to dry it out we ended up having to replace the entire hardwood floor as well as some of our indoor track. It would have been okay if the gym was 50 years old but the school was built only 8 years ago. Good luck with your floor and by the way your home has turned out great.

18.July.2012

I also have a mid-50s home, with engineered hardwood flooring in the great room and hallways — installed by the previous owner. Here are my wood and water encounters in this location, over the last 35 years:

o hot water heater fails; water leaks into hallway
o water softener connection comes loose; water leaks into hallway and rots surrounding drywall, some boards warp. (This was the worst!)
o both outside faucets freeze up in winter; kitchen and laundry floors flood in spring when faucets are turned on
o tree roots in outside sewer pipes cause backups in bathrooms, kitchen, and laundry (usually after a soaking rain following a drought)
o clothes washer drain connection fails, and floods floor in den and great room
o pipe in slab breaks, water runs continually and seeps under hardwood in great room. This was the hardest to locate, but easiest to fix (by the pros): use special “leak detection” equipment; pull up boards, jackhammer slab; repair pipe; re-cement and let dry; then put boards back in place.

I never hooked up my refrigerator to a plumbing line. Otherwise, I’m sure that would have flooded at some point, too. And the worst problem my dishwashers have caused is just to quit working.

Note for HH: The top item on my personal “dumb list” is when I backed into my almost-new garage door before it finished opening, denting the garage door and the trunk lid of my also almost-new car. I figured I’d wait to see if I did it again before fixing anything.

18.July.2012

Oh, that’s terrible! I hope that they all stay just as perfect as when you put them in – water is seriously the worst.

A few years back, my husband had a roommate who overflowed the toilet, but didn’t know about it until several hours later. At that point, the water had gone into the duct system and leaked down two floors into the basement. Most of the house had to be redone at that point. Brandon was super stressed out, but it turned out really well (then I moved in and changed everything anyway!) but he was really happy with the restoration people and the contractors he worked with. I’m also pretty sure that it didn’t affect the house insurance too much either – it definitely went up though.

18.July.2012

Oh my heart is just breaking for you. That really, really, sucks. Having been through 2 water leaks, it really does feel like a punch to the gut. Our first was when we egressed our basement. Miscommunication lead to the sprinkler system not being shut off. When the backhoe cut the sprinkler lines (which we knew would happen) and then they came on at 11 pm it completely flooded through the new window openings. We hadn’t installed the windows yet, just had plastic sheeting over the openings. We had to cut out all the drywall 4 ft up from the floor, throw out all the carpet, all the carpet pads, baseboards, and two dresser to boot. A simple window install job turned into a wreck over night with just the addition of water.

Hugs to you. I hope this solution works out and the Underdog is back in fine shape again.

18.July.2012

Ugh that sucks. Another blog I read nomnompaleo, they were out of their house for months after a huge water leaked destroyed their floors.

Have a look at Home Depot and Lowes for waterbugs. They make loud high pitched alarms when they come in contact with water. Our new house is going to be complete wood floors as well and I’m going to put one behind the fridge, under the sink, behind the dishwasher and by the water heater. Better safe than sorry.

18.July.2012

Our water problem was caused by me! A few years ago I was cleaning our upstairs hall bathroom tub. I decided to take the tub spout out and really clean it and the tile well and then re-caulk it. Apparently I reassembled it incorrectly. Instead of the water going down the drain, it went under the tub. We noticed this when my son was taking a shower and the ceiling in our first floor hallway was all wet. We ran a fan for a few days to dry it out. The ceiling turned a little brownish so I tried to clean it as best I could. We didn’t want to repaint as I would have to repaint the entire living room ceiling, too. It has a texture on it and my husband dreams of removing it one day and paint would make the process more difficult. If you look really closely you might notice it but it’s not bad.

That’s the last time I will take a tub spout out.

Another time our refrigerator ice maker tube leaked into the basement. Luckily it landed on a recessed lid of a large Rubbermaid container and I happened to go downstairs and hear the “drip, drip, drip” before it did any damage at all!

18.July.2012

Awful news. You are right to be wary of your rates rising though…we had a total house claim 2 years ago after a tornado and then a few months ago we had the garage on our new house broken into and some very expensive items stolen. We were assured by our insurance company that our rates wouldn’t rise but that our deductible would increase from $500 to $1000. That was fine with us. Well…wouldn’t you know that as soon as our claim cheque had cleared we got a notice that our deductible had been increased to $10,000!! So now I live in fear that we’re going to lose all our stuff again and have no way of replacing it. :( You already had a roof claim last year didn’t you?

I just blogged about the previous owners less than stellar decision that has eaten up our last two evenings! Not as major as your drama though, yikes! http://flutterflutter.ca/

Oh, Dana. That really stinks! I’m happy that the problem seems to be remediated. I sure do hopeit lasts through the long haul for you. I know just how much time, effort and love you guys have put into your home. Here’s hoping things look up from here.

18.July.2012

Yes it is only a floor but when you have put so much planning, time and effort in to renovating and for this to happen. I can relate to you not reacting ! The first night I moved home after my kitchen reno, I spotted a suspiscious damp spot on the hard wood floor from under the cabinets; the new spotless white cabinets topped with wide, clean benchtops that were a world away from original 1960 cabinetry with soggy cork benchtop and mouse eaten cupboards! I think I stood there with no expression for about 10 minutes (long enough to alarm the dog!) then muttered ”Im not gunna say a word”…because I would have cried. Luckily the source of the problem was easily fixed and after crawling under the house like a mad women decided it was only a very small area…and that the kitchen wasn’t going to rot. Fingers and toes crossed it all works out for you and HH.

18.July.2012

How awful! We have been in our house less than a year and have had major issues, also. We removed some molding and trim from the wall and found mold! Had to replace all our windows and some sheetrock. Went to replace the flooring (almost identical to yours, engineered hardwood hand scraped is what I chose, just a little darker) and found past termite damage and a whole in the subfloor. Redid all our sub flooring and that corner of the house. Now, the trim in the middle of our French doors is broken, so time to order new doors and there are termites – so also time for a termite bond (were in the South). I love your blog and feel your pain! I hate expensive fixes. Hang in there!!!!

18.July.2012

*hole in the subfloor. Darn spell check!

18.July.2012

Ugh! Water is the worst! The first house my husband and I purchased had QUEST water pipes. (defective plumbing material… Class action lawsuit on the stuff). Needless to say it felt like every other month a pipe would burst . My stomach was in knots the entire 3 years we lived there. Waking up at 2am to a river flowing in our garage was a total nightmare. We actually sold the house, thankfully, and moved on. It is good to know that you and HH have it under control now. Wishing you the best from here on out!

18.July.2012

Carpeting glued down? Ick!

18.July.2012

Yes, we did claim the roof last year after a big storm blew through the area. That’s one reason why we’re afraid of our rates skyrocketing. We’ve been told that the roof claim was a ‘catastrophe’ claim and isn’t included in determining our rates…but insurance companies totally have the upper hand on this stuff. They can tell us whatever we want to hear then do something else.

18.July.2012

Oh my! Is it bad that your encounters are making me feel a little better?

18.July.2012

I’m so sorry you had to go through this! I have enjoyed watching you all transform the underdog. I pray everything worked and that everything under there is dry! Thank you for sharing your story!

We renovated a house in the fall of 2010. It was BEAUTIFUL and had dark, laminate flooring that we loved. Fast forward a few months and we had a terrible snow storm with freezing temperatures that caused a pipe to freeze in our attic….then subsequently burst while we were out, causing hundreds of gallons of water to flood the ceiling in our kitchen and ruin almost all of our flooring and a lot of the work that we had JUST completed a few months prior. It was a nightmare, but we luckily had insurance that covered it all. Hang in there!!!

19.July.2012

Oh no! I am so sorry for you and HH —

I work for a builder and 99% of our homes are slabs with glue down Hardwood Flooring and due to the construction process boards do get scuffed, water damage happens… and our flooring company IS able to repair boards and or sections…. (we have had incidents with snakes and shovels as well as hurricane rain)

I would look into a couple local companies and or if you happen to find some of their workers they may know the tricks of the trade from doing this all day every day… Don’t throw in the towel if it starts to buckle.. Let me know if you need me to ask any questions!! :)

19.July.2012

Awwwww, sorry. Just what you needed (not) in your already sleep-deprived and stressed state. Home Ownership sure isn’t for sissies.

When things like this happen to me (sump pump here and 3 days without power) , I remember that the Buddhists say life has 10,000 joys and 10,000 sorrows. You have so many joys – beautiful healthy children, a sound marriage, family support nearby, peace, enough food, and a beautiful home etc. Even if the worst happens, and you have to replace the floor, it’s only an inconvenience. Someone I know says, if you can fix a problem with money, it’s not a tragedy. As sorrows go, it’s more annoying than disastrous.

And your husband – stupid and lazy? I think not.

Still, it’s rotten to have had it happen and I hope everything works out with the drying. I didn’t even know that such restoration companies existed. So I learned something today.

19.July.2012

Hi Dana. Any chance you are interested in posting a mood board for your master bedroom?

19.July.2012

I would love to create a mood board for our master bedroom…not just for readers but for my own benefit as well! As soon as I put one together, I’ll post it. I may not get time until after the kiddos return to school though.

19.July.2012

That someone you know who said ‘if you can fix a problem with money, it’s not a tragedy’ sounds awesome. You’re right. We can’t replace family, friends, experiences, health and peace. Thanks for reminding me!

19.July.2012

Not at all. Actually, I hoped it might have that effect. I guess a corollary of Murphy’s Law might be: “If it can leak, eventually it probably will.” I think you did all the right things to recover with (hopefully) minimal-to-no damage. And now, are you ready for a puppy?

19.July.2012

Ugh, such a bummer! I feel like this uber-hot summer has done nothing but wreak havoc on people’s homes. Our own home has encountered a 90+ hour power outage (RIP sensitive tropical fish), the demise of our hot water heater, and some super sad plants in our beds. Sorry to hear about your bad luck. Hopefully the drying out process is completely successful!

19.July.2012

Hey Dana! I have never commented before- except on giveaways :) but I felt this warranted a post. I feel like I can feel your exhaustion through the computer and I felt like I had to reach out! I worked in Disaster Restoration for years and just wanted to (hopefully) put your mind at ease. The reason the first companies were nervous was because engineered wood floors are different then hardwood floors and can be far more susceptible to irreparable water damage. That being said, there is hope if you catch it before the floors begin to warp. I can tell based on the equipment used combined with the way it was set up that the company you used not only knows what they’re doing, but are up on the latest techniques. In the end, if you had low/no moisture readings above the vapor barrier you are in the clear! Rest easy, my friend (when you can).

19.July.2012

Thank you so much for this!

19.July.2012

NO WAY!

23.July.2012

The line to our ice maker recently sprung a leak – taking our entire kitchen floor with it. Marmoleum and water don’t mix either. It took a long time for the leak to become evident, at first we thought it was the dishwasher, located in the opposite corner. We live at the beach so our house is on stilts, we had water leaking onto our car parked below the house. We had 6 of those noisy fans in your pictures and 3 dehumidifiers keeping it a steady 95 degrees in the house for 4 days. Thank goodness for insurance – underpinning and insulation under the house and Marmoleum in the kitchen will be replaced shortly. We kept saying how happy we were that it was clean water – it could have been so much worse!

07.August.2012

Just found your blog via younghouselove! I can totally relate to this post. My parents had a custom built home in the early 90’s with seamless hardwood floors (no rooms on the first floor had doors- except for the bathroom). After living in the home for 5 years, a pipe behind the dishwasher busted and we had to replace the whole downstairs. Mind you, the house was huge (roughly 5000 sqft), so we’re talking around 2500 sqft. The whole family (all 5 kids, 2 parents, grandma who was living with us, and pets) had to stay in a hotel for 1 month while they fixed the floors. It was a great adventure, even though all of us were in a 2 room suite.

02.December.2012

Hi Abby. Can you please tell me how you resolved the issue? We just had a leak with our fridge two weeks ago and are already seeing our solid hardwood mesquite planks buckling.

14.January.2013

Abby:

Our frig just leaked under some of our pre-engineered flooring. Maybe a few planks worth. How much warp did you see in your floor?

Thanks,

Craig

17.January.2014

how much did they charge you for the equipment and the drying? Because that cost us 1,300 I don’t know if that is a common price..

14.August.2014

[…] No more speed bump! There’s a new culvert in there. You just can’t see it. The driveway slopes ever-so-slightly away from the garage and out to the side yard and road. We also had the contractor install and bury two new drain lines that connect to downspouts at the front and back of the house. We haven’t had a problem with water seeping into the garage before and we’d like to keep it that way. Remember, we’re a bit paranoid when it comes to water + our house. […]

22.August.2014

This is beautiful! I am thrilled to see the progress…it gives me hope for the future. I’m mostly jealous, but in a very happy-for-you kind of way. I’m sure your kiddos will appreciate playing on a smooth driveway too. Thanks for sharing this! :)

25.October.2014

Dana,
Did your engineered wood survive? We just had a water pipe leak and are going through the same thing. We didn’t use the mats because they told us that would pull up the wood for sure. We are one a concrete slab so I don’t know anything about a vapor barrier.

25.October.2014

It did! They are a few places near the leak (in the hallway) where the seams between some of the planks are more noticeable now during the colder months when the house is less humid due to artificial heat but nothing was ruined. We used a little brown caulk to fill in the resulting gaps but in the summer (when it’s more humid and the wood naturally expands) there are no gaps. It isn’t perfect but it’s way better than replacing the entire floor.

I feel for you and your situation. Water leaks + wood are never fun. I hope things work out for you.