Plywood and OSB hold moisture well after the surface has returned to its normal colour, and a concrete slab that has taken water can keep releasing it for weeks. Underlay, insulation and any levelling compound below all behave the same way, and none of it can be judged by standing on the floor. Where a property has a water history, we take readings and write them down rather than working from how the floor feels underfoot.
The date, the source, how long it sat and what was done afterwards change the scope more than the room dimensions do.
Meters on the wood, and where a slab is involved and the new floor is moisture sensitive, an in-situ probe or calcium chloride test.
Lift a section rather than spot-checking. What is under a floor that has taken water is the part that decides the real scope.
Removal, disposal, subfloor work, levelling and new floor as individual items, with photographs taken before anything came up.
After a leak or a flood, the visible floor is the last thing that should be replaced. The subfloor or slab under it has to be dried and checked first, because plywood, OSB and concrete hold moisture long after the surface looks normal.
We remove the damaged flooring, test the moisture in what is underneath, replace any subfloor that has swollen or delaminated, and only then install the new floor. The scope is written down so an insurer or a future buyer can see what was done.
Pictured: our High River project – newly installed multi-tone hardwood in a living room with a grey recliner.
The June 2013 southern Alberta flood reached High River, and that is not distant history for a floor. It changed what is under a lot of surfaces in this town, and it changed the sequence in which work was done, much of it in a hurry, some of it thoroughly, some of it not.
So when we look at a floor here, the first question is not what material you would like. It is what has happened to this assembly, when, and what was done about it afterwards. A replaced surface does not tell you the subfloor was replaced. It does not tell you a slab was tested, or that joists were checked, or that levelling compound placed over a damp base was ever allowed to dry properly.
What we do about that is take readings and write them down. Meters on wood. Where a slab is involved and the new floor is moisture sensitive, an in-situ probe or a calcium chloride test rather than a judgement. And where the history warrants it, we lift a section and look rather than spot-check from the edge of the room.
The other half of the picture is age. Part of High River's housing predates the modern subfloor, which means plank boards rather than sheet goods underneath and, in many of those homes, several old layers on top.
If we find old vinyl tile that could contain asbestos, we stop work and tell you; abatement is done by certified workers, not by us.
Where flooring work follows a water event or an insurance claim, the useful thing a flooring contractor produces is documentation, not opinion. That means room-by-room measurements, the floor types identified, photographs taken before anything is lifted, and a written breakdown that separates removal, disposal, subfloor work, levelling and the new floor into individual lines.
Be clear about what that is and is not. We are a flooring contractor. We are not adjusters, we do not run restoration drying equipment, and we hold no remediation certification. Where a restoration contractor has already been through the property, we want their final readings and the date the equipment came off, because that determines whether we can start or need to wait.
Waiting is often the right answer. A floor laid over a substrate that is still wet gives you cupping, adhesive failure and, below grade, a mould problem that costs a multiple of what the flooring did.
It is still worth mentioning. A replaced surface does not tell you what happened to the subfloor, the joists or a slab underneath, and remedial work done under time pressure is not always complete. Knowing the history tells us where to open up rather than guess.
Sometimes, and it is written off too quickly. Solid boards cup when they take moisture from below, and that is not automatically permanent; a floor that dries slowly and evenly often flattens over weeks or months, at which point sanding and refinishing restores it. Sanding while the boards are still damp is the mistake, because the crowns come off and those areas end up dished once the wood flattens.
Laminate is the clearest case. The core is fibreboard and once it has swollen at the edges the board is finished. Carpet underlay is effectively always replaced because it behaves like a sponge. Carpet itself can sometimes be saved if the water was clean and it was lifted quickly, but not where the water was contaminated.
No. We are a flooring contractor, not adjusters, and we do not perform restoration drying or hold remediation certification. What we produce is a flooring scope you can submit: room-by-room measurements, floor types identified, photographs taken before anything is lifted, and removal, disposal, subfloor work, levelling and new floor broken out as separate lines.
Mostly what is underneath: plank subfloors and old layers that need an overlay panel or levelling before a click floor goes down. Our subfloor repair page covers that preparation.