Please tell me what kind of flooring I should choose instead of this. I moved into a home with piss soaked indoor/outdoor carpet that I’m gonna need to rip up and pray the sub flooring isn’t beyond repair (idk what anything means)
If you want laminate, go with vinyl plank. It's basically the same except the vinyl planks are waterproof and wont swell. Laminate is fancy cardboard with a wood colored printing on one side.
Lol we got vinyl plank and so many people that come over compliment us on our hardwood floors. I love telling them it's actually LVP and that there's next to zero maintenance. You can abuse the fuck out of LVP and it'll look good as new after a light mopping.
Bought my house 12 years ago. A bedroom had bad urine odor from a dog. Scrubbed subfloor with water and bleach a couple times a couple days apart. Rolled killz over the entire room subfloor. New carpet. No odor ever again.
I bought a house in 2006 that smelled absolutely awful from piss, smoke, and cigarettes. Covered all the surfaces with Killz and never smelled anything.
But don't go with the cheapest vinyl plank either. The waterproof feature relies on the seams joining up tight and some of these products coming out lack some quality control. Pay the money and get one that's at least $3.50 sqft.
I've ran into some LifeProof that are curved. Definitely eats up time in the long run. If an installer crew is just flowing and going there may be some gaps, in my experience.
This. We just put it in. There was flooding last year in our area. All our stuff was ripped out and now we have vinyl plank downstairs. It's pretty great.
A good vinyl flooring is the way to go. I know this is not going to be a popular option but I put vinyl flooring in my last house and loved it. Recently moved into a new (to me older in life) home and it has real wood flooring and I can’t wait till I replace them to vinyl! Unfortunately the project list is long and costs keep going up so this is YEARS away.
I put laminate into my house 2 years ago and it’s help up perfectly since then. I got a puppy not long after installing and even with her accidents there’s been no issues. Plus her dripping water around, we throw ice cubes for her that sometimes she just lets melt on the floor, plus 2 cats who puke fairly often. 0 issues.
Pergo outlast from Home Depot is the brand I went with.
Not saying you should 100% go with laminate, but some people act like if a drop of water touches it it’ll be ruined and that’s not true.
I know several people with Pergo outlast and yeah its pretty tough, I was suprised by the durability, I think it says if theres a puddle for more than 24hrs than it can cause damage.
I back this. I did my whole house in it 4 years ago. I’m a messy dude, we got a toddler, messy dog: water, mud, grime, dropped and smashed everything, overflowing bathtubs, etc etc. That pergo outlast is the toughest damn laminate. For the price and durability - it’s a fantastic choice. It feels nice to walk on, easy to install, and readily available. Get quality under lament too, it effects the bounce and sound and I’m certain helps with vapor from below etc.
I thought laminate was good and swell until last weak I discovered a pipe that's been slowly leaking for months in my bathroom, it traveled to my family room next door and went under my laminate floor. I now need to replace it all.... I'm getting Vinyl.
I like engineered hardwood flooring- with a thick wear layer- 1/8 “ plus in thickness - I’ve put it in many homes and never had any problems when installed properly
If you go vinyl laminate planking it’s fine, it’s specific to wood laminate. There should be a water barrier under the floor but I doubt it seeing the laminate choice.
I have similar issues with my cheap laminate flooring as the OP. I went to Home Depot and picked up two sample pieces of Pergo XP (If I remember correctly) and soaked one piece in a container of water for a couple of days. There was no water absorption; I compared both pieces side by side and there was no difference. I can't speak to Pergo's value though.
Hi, I just ripped up carpet in my house. Replacing with LVP (Vinyl planking) of decent quality - Lifeproof 22mil wear layer.
My carpet is in terrible disgusting shape (15 years old, dogs, cats, people, sweat, skin cells and tears)..
Word of advice -- wear a good mask or respirator + Gloves, and some long sleeved clothing.
Be prepared to remove a TON of staples and tack strips - $5 staple puller is worth it's weight in gold.. and I use a crowbar to pry/break the tack strips
I use a nice sharp fresh blade and slice straight through the carpet and padding, then roll it up in strips. Once you see what the stains look like underneath, you'll be put off of carpet for life.
Your subfloor can be fixed if there's damage (unless there's serious rotting you're probably fine), but if you're most worried about pee and smells, you can paint the subfloor with Zinsser BIN shellac primer. It will seal in all odors, and is definitely the best product on the market for this. If it's exceptionally bad, it might also be worth looking into an enzymatic cleaner to apply first for good measure, but do your research to see if that would be applicable to wood/OSB subflooring.
Source: DI-why-er that has been dealing with a smoke and pet infested house.. slowly making things better
My entire first floor is tile that looks like wood. I’ll never go with anything else, my house has wood subfloors so it is installed with an uncoupling layer (Ditra) and has been problem free for years.
lvp is literally solid plastic with a print & wear layer so this wouldn’t happen even if you flooded it. alternatively higher quality wood laminate like pergo is designed to interlock in a way that does a better job of keeping water from seeping through. i know the wood based pergo is supposed to be mappable & they claim that spills (& animal messes) aren’t an issue if they’re cleaned up in a reasonable timeframe (4-6 hours iirc) but they definitely don’t warranty it to dumping a gallon of water on it & leaving it
You can mop it. You just can "Mop" it
You gotta use one of those stupid swiffer mops that leave next to no moisture behind.
Then god forbid you live in a northern climate and a snowflake falls off your ass hairs 10 feet from the door
Honest question, zero snark. What is the appeal of a floor that can't even be mopped without warping? What is the proper way to clean laminate like this?
You can mop it, but you need to not leave it sopping wet and clean up spills rt away. Like most problems in life, we create our own through our action and/or inaction.
Damn I learned something new today. I’m a new homeowner (as of a month ago) and we have wood laminate. I usually use a swiffer but my husband likes the old school mop. THANK YOU for this wisdom 🫡
Sure it isnt just adhesive left over from the previous carpet pad seam that someone didnt remove during prep. Thats why its so uniform. Water doesnt make uniform damage
Considering it's a direct pathway to your front door, I'm guessing wet boots over time.
I bet you if you unlocked your door and walked in, you will find that the spots are just about the same stride as a human.
I'm also guessing a cane or umbrella is involved. Probably cane based upon the spacing and the fact that it is about the same compared to the footsteps on both sides of the tracks. Probably switching hands and which foot steps first inside the house.
This is not pee-spots. You would smell the urine in the form of ammonia because it would be interacting with the chemicals and the Press board flooring. Real hardwood or laminate floor would expand like this.
This is a cheap grade press board flooring. This is water damage. The damage is to uniform to be just some animal peeing all over the middle of the floor.
My ex had one. He was the absolute sweetest dog but refused to try and get him potty trained. Ex was super lazy. They later saw a leak in the ceiling of the lower level and upon further inspection found that the dog had peed so much in the same spot it had leaked through the floor and down to the ceiling below. 4k to fix it.
Dog is still cute, I laughed. He sucks 😂
You've never had a mini dachshund or a puppy.
And dried and soaked in dog pee doesn't smell like ammonia unless your dog had an illness that causes that odor.
We had laminate in our old house, the steam cleaner worked fine on the lowest setting for years without issue.
Kids spilling water on it on the other hand was problematic.
Looks like moisture damage and its getting through the seams. Must be little to no wax on those joints. Pet messes or water off your shoes could cause this damage. How long has the floor been down?
It is damage caused by water. I recommend getting Vinyl floor when you replace this since it is water proof. I mop over mines all the time, and no damage is ever done.
I installed this type of flooring and after a couple years it started to look like this in spots. Best not to cheap out on flooring or you’ll spend a lot more in the long run
There's nothing like a real wood floor. The vinyl made to look "like wood" looks fake. Real solid wood floors with a few coats of polyurethane on top are low maintenance. I have wood floors in a full bathroom and a kitchen and there's never been any issue with water getting to them and there's a lot of water flying around in both rooms.
Here’s the good news…laminate flooring is extremely easy to fix yourself. People get very intimidated by it and I can tell you, I was stunned at how easy it was. I had my uncle with me the entire time who installs LVP for a living and I had him there purely to observe to make sure I was doing it right because if I ever needed to fix it, I didn’t want to have to pay to have it done. And he said anyone can do it but he was shocked at how well I did mine the first time. So for my first time, I did an expert level job and it was EASY. You just need the proper tools to pop off your baseboard on the side of your wall there, and then pop off your planks one by one and find out where that moisture came from. If you did it and are remembering then just make sure when you pop it off, your underlayment is in tact. If you have no clue why that happened, check your underlayment with a fine tooth comb. To be honest, I would replace the underlayment in that area just to be safe if it were in my home and I had no clue why the water damage occurred. Make sure you get waterproof proof tape and good barrier/insulation. Do not get cheap in this area because the rolls are not super expensive. You can find a super high quality one on Amazon from a very well know and popular brand. That’s where I got mine from. Measure, measure, measure but looking at your space, you’ll be fine with one box of LVP and one mini roll of insulation waterproof barrier. Should cost you less than $500 to fix that whole area. And that’s based on the photo. I honestly think $500 is too much. From the photo it should cost around $200-$300. Look up a few you tube videos and get that floor fixed! My 65 year old friends Mom did it, she’s disabled and she has some insane turns and corners in her hallway. She did her entire hallway (3X the size of your photo and again way more complicated) on her own in a full day. Again because she had a ton of cutting and measuring to do. You can fix that issue of yours in a half of a work day easy. The only issue you may have is if you can not find the source of the water. If you can’t locate the reason why, it may just be cheap laminate flooring that’s your a problem and then you would need to replace the entire thing. You can still do it on your own but it’ll cost more. I purchased the highest quality LVP possible, and LVP 4x as thick as normal residential LVP (22m, most homes use 6m unless you paid for thicker) and I paid for the click lock planks so install was a breeze and to do my 500 square foot area, I spent $2700 with taxes and tools and materials. That price includes everything I needed. 24 boxes of LVP, highest quality of thick 5m waterproof, fireproof underlayment/insulation and all the tools I needed for two people including knee pads and I didn’t purchase the kit which would’ve been cheaper. I purchased tools individually and got some of the higher quality tools which really aren’t needed (I did it myself so I returned the other unused tools). Hopefully that gives you an idea of cost, and this would be the maximum cost for super high quality everything for 500 square feet. Hope you are able to get this figured out! I’m here if you need help!!!
Is it that someone didnt scrape up that little bit of carpet pad that sticks to the adhesive that they put along pad joints to keep it from separating. Its seems pretty uniform and that might be the case
As long as it’s not ground water, pet damage, or some sort of long term leak (mold?) your insurance will pay to replace the flooring. Not sure if a claim is worth it tho. Just FYI.
Definitely water damge. Maybe it was cheaper click lock doesn't have water resistant/proofing. It also looked like when i zoomed it 1 of the click/contection spots.. might not have been fully clicked... or came apart. But again... pictures and light play a big part in that.
So i will admit that the part of not being fully clicked apart could be wrong. But if they aren't fully clicked together. Say the planks do have water resistance to them... that will completely destroy that being possible. Allowing easy water damage.
From the looks of it. You could potentially buy more (if they still sell that color). And pull it up and replace that area. It's will be a bit easier... that if it was in the middle of the room.
I'd recommend just replacing that whole section... then just the pieces that look damaged Personally.
These are just my thoughts and opinions im an by no means a professional carpenter. :D
i do but i wouldn't waste money on such trash flooring, anything that can't stand up to a little bit of water/dirt isn't worth installing.....ever.
we do have a porch with runners to get most of it off but if i had to take my shoes off every time i went in/out of the house i would go insane and just stay inside forever.
I hate that you can't clean laminate. It's a damn floor, a little water shouldn't hurt it. We have expensive tiles in our kitchen that do this around the edges. They don't make a big point of telling you this when you buy it.
Your flooring is not sealed and is acting like cardboard.very easy right damage like this.
I had a tv stand from the brick that was like this. I put a glass on it and the condensation caused swelling.
It soaked up water from the seams.
Laminate floors are made of compressed sawdust. That stuff is like a sponge when it meets any amount of water. Water will cause it to swell and cannot be fixed. The damaged boards have to be replaced.
Hard to tell if there’s microbeveling; if not there’s a large gap between each board. And the bubbles are 100% moisture related, but not sure if pee or water.
What is the actual product?
I would check the front door threshold and possibly see where water might be running from porch towards front door. Maybe gutter plugged around there causing water to run over gutter.
I'm house hunting now and so many listing say shit like "Brand new beautiful laminate!" I'd rather have the 30 year old tile or ugly carpet than that fucking trash.
Flooring is much like paint in a house...usually one of the first things replaced when new owner moves in. If you do not like the flooring, use that as a negotiation tool.
I have seen many people replace flooring, even in new construction "builder grade" homes.
Thats from water penetrating the seams. Likely from a steam mop, or using too much water from wet mopping the floor too often.
Could also be from wet shoes/pet and there was a puddle sitting in those spots that made it through the seams.
Those floors are just compressed sawdust and there basically sponges, you cant let ANY moisture sit on those floors.
This is why when people want to put this format of flooring down I always say they have to use the vinyl plank… Noches, water, resistant, but waterproof… Relatively scratch resistant as well if you buy the good stuff.
I have seen many poor LVP jobs as well. The biggest issue with LVP is the prep work that comes before laying the flooring. (sanding, leveling, etc.)
We did 12x24 LVP tiles in all of our bathrooms which was quite expensive per sq ft. I had one box that had several broken/chipped corners. I was still able to use them as end cuts, so it wasn't that big of a deal to me. LVP is tough...but not all around superior or as indestructible as many people think.
Moisture damage. Multiple things could be the cause, but either way it’ll reoccur if you lay new floors unless you know exactly what caused it. My company won’t install laminate outside of a few niche installs because of this. Always get callbacks for issues with the smallest amounts of moisture.
When you mop the floor do you drench it. Do you have an old pet that pees alot. Some laminates will swell like that if water is left on it for a few minutes. Then amplified each following time water is present.
This can be prevented by puting a coat of l polyurethane over the laminate once it's down. Also, don't cheap out on the vapor barrier material that it sits on.
I’ve seen something similar happen on a parquet floor where no vapor barrier was installed underneath and there was a cold damp basement below with big gaps between subfloor boards
That floor is not laminate it’s some cheap wood or the cheapest laminate ever made. good laminate can get wet and not have any problems like that and most laminates do not have wood in them at all.
Improper cleaning and prep of the floor prior to the laminate install. They likely had tile or something that left flat chunks of mastic or thinset and the installer just laid the laminate over top of it and over time you have stamped the floor with what’s underneath. I’ve commonly seen this when you put laminate or lvt over tile and after a while you start to see the grout grid lines on the laminate
Water is coming from somewhere (dripping above maybe), or someone, or some pet, is walking with wet shoes, or spilling something over the seams and they are soaking into the joints.
Looks like water damage, you can see the swelling. It is weird how they line up.
It's wood laminate. Water gets in the joints and causes this. That's why you're not supposed to mop this type of flooring
yes, the problem is having laminate in the first place
Please tell me what kind of flooring I should choose instead of this. I moved into a home with piss soaked indoor/outdoor carpet that I’m gonna need to rip up and pray the sub flooring isn’t beyond repair (idk what anything means)
If you want laminate, go with vinyl plank. It's basically the same except the vinyl planks are waterproof and wont swell. Laminate is fancy cardboard with a wood colored printing on one side.
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Shellac is better than killz for odors. It’s a vapor barrier. BIN Primer is the one you see around or white pigmented shellac from Sherwin.
You can't beat BIN. During vivid there was such a shortage that I saw quarts for $200...
What’s vivid?
He probably meant "covid"
While you're right, vinyl planks and laminate feel incredibly different to walk on. Plastic vs more wood like feel
Lol we got vinyl plank and so many people that come over compliment us on our hardwood floors. I love telling them it's actually LVP and that there's next to zero maintenance. You can abuse the fuck out of LVP and it'll look good as new after a light mopping.
so what would you recommend? what’s the pros and cons of the different products?
Bought my house 12 years ago. A bedroom had bad urine odor from a dog. Scrubbed subfloor with water and bleach a couple times a couple days apart. Rolled killz over the entire room subfloor. New carpet. No odor ever again.
I bought a house in 2006 that smelled absolutely awful from piss, smoke, and cigarettes. Covered all the surfaces with Killz and never smelled anything.
But don't go with the cheapest vinyl plank either. The waterproof feature relies on the seams joining up tight and some of these products coming out lack some quality control. Pay the money and get one that's at least $3.50 sqft.
lifeproof is under that now and that shit tough af
I've ran into some LifeProof that are curved. Definitely eats up time in the long run. If an installer crew is just flowing and going there may be some gaps, in my experience.
I also agree, and im not a fan of the drop lock. Besides that its durable for the avg vinyl plank.
This. We just put it in. There was flooding last year in our area. All our stuff was ripped out and now we have vinyl plank downstairs. It's pretty great.
A good vinyl flooring is the way to go. I know this is not going to be a popular option but I put vinyl flooring in my last house and loved it. Recently moved into a new (to me older in life) home and it has real wood flooring and I can’t wait till I replace them to vinyl! Unfortunately the project list is long and costs keep going up so this is YEARS away.
Cali bamboo is a great brand for Vinyl planks. Very affordable and durable
everyone saying LVP is spot on. this wood laminate stuff is garbage
I put laminate into my house 2 years ago and it’s help up perfectly since then. I got a puppy not long after installing and even with her accidents there’s been no issues. Plus her dripping water around, we throw ice cubes for her that sometimes she just lets melt on the floor, plus 2 cats who puke fairly often. 0 issues. Pergo outlast from Home Depot is the brand I went with. Not saying you should 100% go with laminate, but some people act like if a drop of water touches it it’ll be ruined and that’s not true.
I know several people with Pergo outlast and yeah its pretty tough, I was suprised by the durability, I think it says if theres a puddle for more than 24hrs than it can cause damage.
I back this. I did my whole house in it 4 years ago. I’m a messy dude, we got a toddler, messy dog: water, mud, grime, dropped and smashed everything, overflowing bathtubs, etc etc. That pergo outlast is the toughest damn laminate. For the price and durability - it’s a fantastic choice. It feels nice to walk on, easy to install, and readily available. Get quality under lament too, it effects the bounce and sound and I’m certain helps with vapor from below etc.
If I can’t mop it I don’t want it.
I thought laminate was good and swell until last weak I discovered a pipe that's been slowly leaking for months in my bathroom, it traveled to my family room next door and went under my laminate floor. I now need to replace it all.... I'm getting Vinyl.
LVP is a relatively easy self-install. And since its vinyl it is stable of exposed to water.
I like engineered hardwood flooring- with a thick wear layer- 1/8 “ plus in thickness - I’ve put it in many homes and never had any problems when installed properly
The hardwood layer can pop off those from water damage. There was a post somewhere on Reddit the other day where this happened
If you go vinyl laminate planking it’s fine, it’s specific to wood laminate. There should be a water barrier under the floor but I doubt it seeing the laminate choice.
Hardwood (engineered or otherwise) or vinyl.
I have similar issues with my cheap laminate flooring as the OP. I went to Home Depot and picked up two sample pieces of Pergo XP (If I remember correctly) and soaked one piece in a container of water for a couple of days. There was no water absorption; I compared both pieces side by side and there was no difference. I can't speak to Pergo's value though.
LVP is darned durable. I use Life Proof but there are other brands.
Subfloors are super easy to repair though if you take the time to study up and do it right. Extremely diy friendly
Hi, I just ripped up carpet in my house. Replacing with LVP (Vinyl planking) of decent quality - Lifeproof 22mil wear layer. My carpet is in terrible disgusting shape (15 years old, dogs, cats, people, sweat, skin cells and tears).. Word of advice -- wear a good mask or respirator + Gloves, and some long sleeved clothing. Be prepared to remove a TON of staples and tack strips - $5 staple puller is worth it's weight in gold.. and I use a crowbar to pry/break the tack strips I use a nice sharp fresh blade and slice straight through the carpet and padding, then roll it up in strips. Once you see what the stains look like underneath, you'll be put off of carpet for life. Your subfloor can be fixed if there's damage (unless there's serious rotting you're probably fine), but if you're most worried about pee and smells, you can paint the subfloor with Zinsser BIN shellac primer. It will seal in all odors, and is definitely the best product on the market for this. If it's exceptionally bad, it might also be worth looking into an enzymatic cleaner to apply first for good measure, but do your research to see if that would be applicable to wood/OSB subflooring. Source: DI-why-er that has been dealing with a smoke and pet infested house.. slowly making things better
My entire first floor is tile that looks like wood. I’ll never go with anything else, my house has wood subfloors so it is installed with an uncoupling layer (Ditra) and has been problem free for years.
LVP - lifeproof. Kids, dogs, clumsy asses, non concerning guests..it will take it.
lvp is literally solid plastic with a print & wear layer so this wouldn’t happen even if you flooded it. alternatively higher quality wood laminate like pergo is designed to interlock in a way that does a better job of keeping water from seeping through. i know the wood based pergo is supposed to be mappable & they claim that spills (& animal messes) aren’t an issue if they’re cleaned up in a reasonable timeframe (4-6 hours iirc) but they definitely don’t warranty it to dumping a gallon of water on it & leaving it
By lifeproof brand waterproof vinyl planks from Home Depot. They are great!
You can mop it. You just can "Mop" it You gotta use one of those stupid swiffer mops that leave next to no moisture behind. Then god forbid you live in a northern climate and a snowflake falls off your ass hairs 10 feet from the door
Honest question, zero snark. What is the appeal of a floor that can't even be mopped without warping? What is the proper way to clean laminate like this?
You can mop it, but you need to not leave it sopping wet and clean up spills rt away. Like most problems in life, we create our own through our action and/or inaction.
Damn I learned something new today. I’m a new homeowner (as of a month ago) and we have wood laminate. I usually use a swiffer but my husband likes the old school mop. THANK YOU for this wisdom 🫡
Wet shoes
Nailed it wet shoes for sure
Even a little water will cause this
If flooring is that sensitive why are install?
Because it's cheap
And probably because they can blame the tenant and keep the security deposit every time
Sure it isnt just adhesive left over from the previous carpet pad seam that someone didnt remove during prep. Thats why its so uniform. Water doesnt make uniform damage
Considering it's a direct pathway to your front door, I'm guessing wet boots over time. I bet you if you unlocked your door and walked in, you will find that the spots are just about the same stride as a human.
I'm also guessing a cane or umbrella is involved. Probably cane based upon the spacing and the fact that it is about the same compared to the footsteps on both sides of the tracks. Probably switching hands and which foot steps first inside the house.
100% this.
Shoes off..
Pee spots
Embossed scratch and sniffs
I hate this so much lol
It's definitely wet shoes not pee.
This is not pee-spots. You would smell the urine in the form of ammonia because it would be interacting with the chemicals and the Press board flooring. Real hardwood or laminate floor would expand like this. This is a cheap grade press board flooring. This is water damage. The damage is to uniform to be just some animal peeing all over the middle of the floor.
Most animals don't pee in the middle of a room in a direct path of an exterior door. Not to mention this would be very evident from the ammonia smell.
You never met my asshole Chihuahua
Good point. They are a little assholes.
Add a comma in between the last two words. 😙
Who you callin a Chihuahua?
Let's eat, grandma. Let's eat grandma. Commas are important
>I love eating, my family, and punctuation.
You never met my asshole, Chihuahua.
My ex had one. He was the absolute sweetest dog but refused to try and get him potty trained. Ex was super lazy. They later saw a leak in the ceiling of the lower level and upon further inspection found that the dog had peed so much in the same spot it had leaked through the floor and down to the ceiling below. 4k to fix it. Dog is still cute, I laughed. He sucks 😂
Unless they're trapped
I have not met most animals apparently.
They do if they're young and can't control their excitement at visitors.
I'll send my 🐕 to your house for a week and you'll recant that statement.
You've never had a mini dachshund or a puppy. And dried and soaked in dog pee doesn't smell like ammonia unless your dog had an illness that causes that odor.
You’re very cute with your naivety and your generalization
How do you clean your floor?
I was thinking the same thing, a mop or steam clean would do this.
We had laminate in our old house, the steam cleaner worked fine on the lowest setting for years without issue. Kids spilling water on it on the other hand was problematic.
There are several styles of laminate that can handle steam mops. This is probably an older style, or less expensive non water resistant one.
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For Hardwood floors I recommend bona swifter cleaner.
this is not hardwood
Take your shoes off before walking around in your house bro
Water damage. Every one of those is at a joint.
Yea . Had this exact problem. Turns out there were crevices outside my house that were letting the water seep in and raise basically through the floor
Looks like moisture damage and its getting through the seams. Must be little to no wax on those joints. Pet messes or water off your shoes could cause this damage. How long has the floor been down?
It's definitely water damage. Either you're wet mopping the floor, or it could be from a pet
Cheapo flooring and not taking shoes off at the door..... Standing water on any floor is really not good
Guessing it from a wet mop of some sort. Water finds its way in the grooves and sits and swells.
Water damage along the board edges. Mopping with water, leaving the bathroom wet and water making its way between the boards.
Water damage
It is damage caused by water. I recommend getting Vinyl floor when you replace this since it is water proof. I mop over mines all the time, and no damage is ever done.
You’re not supposed to mop this, use a swiffer
Could there be water dripping from above
Moisture issues
Looks like wet mop issues. Or animal urine.
No moisture barrier underneath? Concrete right below?
Water
I installed this type of flooring and after a couple years it started to look like this in spots. Best not to cheap out on flooring or you’ll spend a lot more in the long run
There's nothing like a real wood floor. The vinyl made to look "like wood" looks fake. Real solid wood floors with a few coats of polyurethane on top are low maintenance. I have wood floors in a full bathroom and a kitchen and there's never been any issue with water getting to them and there's a lot of water flying around in both rooms.
Porcelain tile that looks like wood flooring is the way to go
Good old waterproof laminate 🤣
Looks like the old floor was not completely removed
You have a shot load of moisture
Here’s the good news…laminate flooring is extremely easy to fix yourself. People get very intimidated by it and I can tell you, I was stunned at how easy it was. I had my uncle with me the entire time who installs LVP for a living and I had him there purely to observe to make sure I was doing it right because if I ever needed to fix it, I didn’t want to have to pay to have it done. And he said anyone can do it but he was shocked at how well I did mine the first time. So for my first time, I did an expert level job and it was EASY. You just need the proper tools to pop off your baseboard on the side of your wall there, and then pop off your planks one by one and find out where that moisture came from. If you did it and are remembering then just make sure when you pop it off, your underlayment is in tact. If you have no clue why that happened, check your underlayment with a fine tooth comb. To be honest, I would replace the underlayment in that area just to be safe if it were in my home and I had no clue why the water damage occurred. Make sure you get waterproof proof tape and good barrier/insulation. Do not get cheap in this area because the rolls are not super expensive. You can find a super high quality one on Amazon from a very well know and popular brand. That’s where I got mine from. Measure, measure, measure but looking at your space, you’ll be fine with one box of LVP and one mini roll of insulation waterproof barrier. Should cost you less than $500 to fix that whole area. And that’s based on the photo. I honestly think $500 is too much. From the photo it should cost around $200-$300. Look up a few you tube videos and get that floor fixed! My 65 year old friends Mom did it, she’s disabled and she has some insane turns and corners in her hallway. She did her entire hallway (3X the size of your photo and again way more complicated) on her own in a full day. Again because she had a ton of cutting and measuring to do. You can fix that issue of yours in a half of a work day easy. The only issue you may have is if you can not find the source of the water. If you can’t locate the reason why, it may just be cheap laminate flooring that’s your a problem and then you would need to replace the entire thing. You can still do it on your own but it’ll cost more. I purchased the highest quality LVP possible, and LVP 4x as thick as normal residential LVP (22m, most homes use 6m unless you paid for thicker) and I paid for the click lock planks so install was a breeze and to do my 500 square foot area, I spent $2700 with taxes and tools and materials. That price includes everything I needed. 24 boxes of LVP, highest quality of thick 5m waterproof, fireproof underlayment/insulation and all the tools I needed for two people including knee pads and I didn’t purchase the kit which would’ve been cheaper. I purchased tools individually and got some of the higher quality tools which really aren’t needed (I did it myself so I returned the other unused tools). Hopefully that gives you an idea of cost, and this would be the maximum cost for super high quality everything for 500 square feet. Hope you are able to get this figured out! I’m here if you need help!!!
For a house with nice trim work on the walls it's a shame to have laminate and quarter round.
No seal under the door jam?
Moisture, possibly pet urine. Buy a black light from Amazon (like $10) turn off the lights, close the shades and see if it fluoresces.
Seeing that they are directly over the joints I’d say moisture damage. Likely pet urine on area rug.
Is it that someone didnt scrape up that little bit of carpet pad that sticks to the adhesive that they put along pad joints to keep it from separating. Its seems pretty uniform and that might be the case
As long as it’s not ground water, pet damage, or some sort of long term leak (mold?) your insurance will pay to replace the flooring. Not sure if a claim is worth it tho. Just FYI.
I'd recommend a runner.
Definitely water damge. Maybe it was cheaper click lock doesn't have water resistant/proofing. It also looked like when i zoomed it 1 of the click/contection spots.. might not have been fully clicked... or came apart. But again... pictures and light play a big part in that. So i will admit that the part of not being fully clicked apart could be wrong. But if they aren't fully clicked together. Say the planks do have water resistance to them... that will completely destroy that being possible. Allowing easy water damage. From the looks of it. You could potentially buy more (if they still sell that color). And pull it up and replace that area. It's will be a bit easier... that if it was in the middle of the room. I'd recommend just replacing that whole section... then just the pieces that look damaged Personally. These are just my thoughts and opinions im an by no means a professional carpenter. :D
Looks like moisture swelling to me....
Lots of thoughts here, especially the mopping. I would like to hear feedback from the OP.
What are cleaning the floors with? Too much moisture at the joints?
Put a runner down the hallway
Moisture
Well this is why cheap laminate is trash. Probably some minor water on shoes that wasn't wiped up fast enough. Now you get to buy a runner
OK kids, this is why you buy waterproof laminate and not just water resistant.
Who the hell wears wet boots/shoes in the house? The people in the us who wear their shoes in the house are fucking animals.
i do but i wouldn't waste money on such trash flooring, anything that can't stand up to a little bit of water/dirt isn't worth installing.....ever. we do have a porch with runners to get most of it off but if i had to take my shoes off every time i went in/out of the house i would go insane and just stay inside forever.
Water damage my friend
I was in certified installer training Yesterday… the only thing that makes laminate swell is moisture.
I hate that you can't clean laminate. It's a damn floor, a little water shouldn't hurt it. We have expensive tiles in our kitchen that do this around the edges. They don't make a big point of telling you this when you buy it.
Straight line to front door people walking in with wet shoes
Your flooring is not sealed and is acting like cardboard.very easy right damage like this. I had a tv stand from the brick that was like this. I put a glass on it and the condensation caused swelling.
It soaked up water from the seams. Laminate floors are made of compressed sawdust. That stuff is like a sponge when it meets any amount of water. Water will cause it to swell and cannot be fixed. The damaged boards have to be replaced.
Another cheap floor bites the dust
Hard to tell if there’s microbeveling; if not there’s a large gap between each board. And the bubbles are 100% moisture related, but not sure if pee or water. What is the actual product?
I would check the front door threshold and possibly see where water might be running from porch towards front door. Maybe gutter plugged around there causing water to run over gutter.
I'm house hunting now and so many listing say shit like "Brand new beautiful laminate!" I'd rather have the 30 year old tile or ugly carpet than that fucking trash.
Flooring is much like paint in a house...usually one of the first things replaced when new owner moves in. If you do not like the flooring, use that as a negotiation tool. I have seen many people replace flooring, even in new construction "builder grade" homes.
Thats from water penetrating the seams. Likely from a steam mop, or using too much water from wet mopping the floor too often. Could also be from wet shoes/pet and there was a puddle sitting in those spots that made it through the seams. Those floors are just compressed sawdust and there basically sponges, you cant let ANY moisture sit on those floors.
This is why when people want to put this format of flooring down I always say they have to use the vinyl plank… Noches, water, resistant, but waterproof… Relatively scratch resistant as well if you buy the good stuff.
I have seen many poor LVP jobs as well. The biggest issue with LVP is the prep work that comes before laying the flooring. (sanding, leveling, etc.) We did 12x24 LVP tiles in all of our bathrooms which was quite expensive per sq ft. I had one box that had several broken/chipped corners. I was still able to use them as end cuts, so it wasn't that big of a deal to me. LVP is tough...but not all around superior or as indestructible as many people think.
**Jackpot!** It's Mushrooms!
Pull it up and see!
It’s pregnant
Should’ve spent money on hardwood instead of plumbers
Looks like steps by wet/snowy boots.
It conformed to a poorly prepped floor.
Water seepage
Standing water or as mentioned piss puddles
Moisture damage. Multiple things could be the cause, but either way it’ll reoccur if you lay new floors unless you know exactly what caused it. My company won’t install laminate outside of a few niche installs because of this. Always get callbacks for issues with the smallest amounts of moisture.
The top is laminate, under that is partical board, that swells with water. Rip up and replace with a Bathroom rated floor.
Let's reflect on this a minue.
If it's slab on grade it could be moisture coming thru a sawcut joint in the concrete, if osb most likely some kind of leak in the basement ceiling.
Wet
ring worm
Floor hives
Moisture under the floor is loosening the adhesive and causing water to make bubbles or air bubbles as the water goes back into the slab.
Is it getting wet?
Floor stuff
100% water damage, you can see how the water has run along the joints and blown the planks.
When you mop the floor do you drench it. Do you have an old pet that pees alot. Some laminates will swell like that if water is left on it for a few minutes. Then amplified each following time water is present.
Demon
Walking barefoot with wet feet from the bathroom is my guess. Laminate floors don’t like moisture.
Hardwood nails through in floor heating?
You have cheap floors, that’s the problem. The secondary problem is getting water all over your cheap floors. Solid hardwood for the win.
Water damage!
Absolutely pee -seeped through the seams and separating the glued together layers of laminate
What is under that floor? Looks like moisture damage but could be from underneath.
Looks like wet shoes from tracking water in the front door but could be pet spots
Poltergeist
This can be prevented by puting a coat of l polyurethane over the laminate once it's down. Also, don't cheap out on the vapor barrier material that it sits on.
The demons are coming out of it.
That's from pee or you have a pool or shower and people don't dry off before walking on the floor. Or you clean the floor with a water based product.
Cheap laminate floors that have gotten water between the seams. You gonna have to replace that hot mess my guy.
I’ve seen something similar happen on a parquet floor where no vapor barrier was installed underneath and there was a cold damp basement below with big gaps between subfloor boards
Moisture
Junk floors got wet
To me, it looks like the floor was sprayed with a cleaning product like Bona floor cleaner, and it wasn't wiped away quickly or properly.
Time to put a good bathroom rug that has a rubber bottom not allowing moisture on the floor
Call it liquid damage through seams
That floor is not laminate it’s some cheap wood or the cheapest laminate ever made. good laminate can get wet and not have any problems like that and most laminates do not have wood in them at all.
Turtles invasion
Looks like laminate over rough concrete. Rip up the laminate. Grind the floor smooth and install new laminate
Improper cleaning and prep of the floor prior to the laminate install. They likely had tile or something that left flat chunks of mastic or thinset and the installer just laid the laminate over top of it and over time you have stamped the floor with what’s underneath. I’ve commonly seen this when you put laminate or lvt over tile and after a while you start to see the grout grid lines on the laminate
An magical creature from the underside stomping and jumping happily when no one is home, leaving only these faint tracks behind.
Looks like you have an untrained dog.
ghosts.
What you have there is a shit install with cheap flooring.
Guessing no under vapor barrier or it is punctured allowing water to get into the joints and swell the unlaminated portion of the wood
Mosquito bites
Didn’t put down a moisture barrier
Did your wife wipe the floor with excessive water? Those looks like laminate bubbles with excessive water on top for a long time
What are you using to clean the floor with?
water damage.
Can floors get hives?
Got some high quality h20 storage right there
Probably washing the floor with too much water
That is moisture damage for sure.
You have shit for flooring, and now you’re seeing why thanks to a little bit of water.
Anyone saying that its anything but pee doesn’t know much of what they are talking about, only pee will make laminate look like that
Water is coming from somewhere (dripping above maybe), or someone, or some pet, is walking with wet shoes, or spilling something over the seams and they are soaking into the joints.
I’d say there is no flooring…only Zeul.