We are selling our house but my son (about 5 days ago) didn’t close the shower door properly and flooded the (upstairs) bathroom floor. We mopped up the water on the floor but unbeknown to us it had gone under the Lino and stayed wet for about 2 days until we noticed the damp smell. I’ve ripped up the Lino up and let the floor dry out for about 3 days now. I’ve tested the surfaces of the floor with a small knife and it hasn’t burst or become deteriorated but it does still smell a bit mouldy.
I’ve bleached all the floor twice which got rid of 90% of the smell but when I tested it today with a moisture meter I get readings of between 18% and 21% where the water was.
Does anyone know how long this will take to dry out to levels below 10% as we have a house survey being done a week tomorrow (20th Aug) and we don’t want this flagged to our buyers as a prospective leaky pipe etc because we are hoping to comple the sale 4 days after the survey is scheduled.
We have bought all new Lino and will have it fitted (by our carpet fitter) in the next couple of days or so … bearing that in mind, could anyone give me any advice on what the survey would show and would it be something that would affect the sale with those readings of 18-20% and if there is anything I can do to speed up the drying ?
Have you thought of buying a cheap de-humidifier, or even renting one? The plasterers I worked with used them all the time to dry out newly plastered walls.
Hi @Judd and @caricature - I considered this but I’m not sure it would be much good because I already have the door and window open wide and the space is only quite small (about 9’ x 8’) ?
Having windows and doors open wouldn’t be as effective, the lino needs to be up, so that the floor can get some heat as the room warms up and the water evaporate.
If you’re going to leave windows open, then you wouldn’t use a dehumidifier since in effect, this would mean you’d be trying to dry the entire planet’s air.
I got a £100 special (compressor model) from Screwfix around eighteen months ago for a customer who was having condensation problems and the landlord was too tight to put in a whole-house extractor unit. Before I installed it, I tried it out in my house first, and within forty-five minutes or so, the water collection tank was nearly half full. I couldn’t believe it, I didn’t realise my house was so damp.
Get a compressor model if budget allows, some use those type of moisture absorbing crystals which aren’t as efective.
Suppose you need to consider how often you might actually use a dehumidifier. Might be cheaper to hire one and one less thing to leave in a corner somewhere to gather dust.
I suppose it’s unthinkable to delay your plans for a bit Bread is it??
As if the floor dries too quickly it is likely to warp , and crack ??
Slow and easy does it !!
On the other hand, the floor was not wet for long by the sound of it, so the dehumidifier might
be the way to go??
Not checked, but presumably there’ll be a cheaper (that 48 hrs) weekend option. Might be worth seeing how things dry out by then and giving it a blast if it’s not dropped to below ambient level.
I’m not a builder or surveyor but I agree with using a good dehumidifier. They can soak up a lot of water however I wouldn’t open your windows. Open windows bring in more humidity so technically make it worse. If you have the time and patience, a hand held hair dryer directly to the floor should help a lot.
My husband and I had to almost replace our complete back wall including a door, patio door, 5 windows, some sills , joists and subfloor and partial floor. We had to jack the top floor up while we worked. When we finished we hired a guy who detects water in the walls and foundation and we were ok.
Good luck with this.
Repairing water damage is labour intense work.
I’ve bought and installed a dehumidifier which is now running in the bathroom with the door and window shut.
Thanks for all your advice … much appreciated.
@Donkeyman - we have the removal people arranged and so do the our buyers and the people we are buying the property from, so its a bit tricky rearranging everything.
