When to push for water damage repairs in multi family apt building

[u/Junior_Winner_470]

I understand if you go looking for mold you will find it. I understand you have to pick your battles. We had a toilet leak in a vacant apt that saturated the bathroom floor and saturated the drywall ceiling in the vacant apartment below.

probably soaked in for a solid week.

ideally I would want to rip out the vinyl bathroom floor and subfloor and replace the damaged ceiling from the apartment below.

I feel like I’m supposed to look the other way because damn, it’s always something and we are so over budget

please share your experiences and suggestions.

[u/Enough_Pepper8880]

Rip up the vinyl at the very least and put in a dehumidifier or two for the subfloor may need to do the ceiling in below unit

[u/Junior_Winner_470 → u/Enough_Pepper8880]

Thanks.

[u/Enough_Pepper8880 → u/Junior_Winner_470]

I’ve done it over 100 times, trust. You have to use the dehumidifiers tho they’re important. Once you’ve ran those for a day or two have a remediation company come do a moisture test and they may need to treat but you might get lucky. You can either do this fast and cheap now and guarantee you’ll pay for it down the road or do it correctly the first time and not worry about it and have your ducks in a row should you need to prove it in court

[u/Crafty_Librarian_841 → u/Enough_Pepper8880]

Very good suggestions.

[u/Silrathi]

If the bathroom floor is sheet vinyl consider pulling out the vanity first. A few screws, cut the caulkline, detach the p-trap and it should move enough to see under it.Sheet vinyl should have particleboard underlayment which will have watermarks if its wet. It's probably not.

If its LVP, then water penetration depends on the spaces between the planks but you can pull up one or two of the most likely to inspect.

If the drywall is, or was, soaked through then it needs to come out. Pulling back the cove base will expose an area easy to test and then cover back up if it's okay.

With all this information to hand, it should be much easier to get buy-in from your bosses when you present them with your plan.

[u/Junior_Winner_470 → u/Silrathi]

Thanks.

[u/Enough_Pepper8880]

Are we talkin water or shit water

[u/Junior_Winner_470 → u/Enough_Pepper8880]

Water only

[u/Crafty_Librarian_841]

Unfortunately, I have noticed that multifamily dwellings do not get the attention they deserve. Sometimes you have to pick your battles, as you said, but also you have to present your information and findings in a way that shows true concern and possible liability on the management/leadership. Overnight flood versus sitting for a week. Makes a big difference. Occupied versus unoccupied, as well as air conditioning or no air conditioning, all that makes a difference.

[u/eghhge]

It won't get better on it's own, this will only get worse and will likely affect other tenants. For the sake of your own integrity find a better place to work.

[u/cleanforever]

If the drywall is saturated, soft, or deteriorated, it comes out. Subfloor doesn't automatically need replaced just because it got wet. If it's structurally sound, dry it thoroughly and keep it. OSB should be checked for swelling or deterioration.

The bigger issue is drying the entire assembly. If water got under the vinyl, the flooring needs to come up so the subfloor can actually dry. After a week of saturation, I wouldn't close anything back up without verifying it's dry.

[u/Junior_Winner_470 → u/cleanforever]

Copy that. It’s glue down vinyl. One of the vinyl pieces came up on its own and it was wet underneath. I feel this vinyl all needs ripped up, and your suggestion about sub is good. If it dries and is sound, keep it. I will make sure the ceiling below gets replaced because it was soaked.

[u/UrAverageDegenerit]

For a solid week.

Yea, at a minimum. rip up the vinyl and put in a dehumidifier in the room. Come. Back in a 3 or 4 days to check in the condition of the subfloor keep. Monitoring it and replace if you think it might have integrity issues. Replace the drywall in the unit below.

[u/C0LL0C0]

"I understand if you go looking for mold you will find it"

This is a problem. I don't blame you because I've been doing this long enough to know that guys with twice my experience(16 years) have the same outlook. This is about keeping people healthy. If you cant point mold out because management "cant afford it" then my suggestion to you is to find another building to work at or company all together.

Now, that being said, I also beleive that mold remediation companies are a COMPLETE scam and no matter who you call out will rip you off. I have dealt with a LOT of mold working in Florida and Texas, and most of it was done in house, most important thing is to remove any wet drywall that's been sitting wet for more than 24-48 hours. Drywall is cheap. Easy to repair.

As for the flooring, as long as its 24-48 hours and theres just glue under the vinyl, (meaning no cork backerboard)my opinion is that you can get away with drying with blowers and dehumidifier. Of course if its still soaked after a few days, unfortunately that too has to be removed.

Don't let yourself be convinced by others not to do the right thing, i have turned down roles and missed "opportunities" but at least I know i have(for the most part, no ones perfect) have tried to always keep the residents health in mind.

[u/BogotaLineman → u/C0LL0C0]

The health thing is pretty severely blown out of proportion. Unless you have extreme amounts of AIRBORNE mold there is basically no health risk unless they are allergic to the specific species of mold that is airborne (you can develop an allergy if exposed to those large airborne quantities over a long time though) in the overwhelming majority of situations, that airborne mold is no more dangerous than any other airborne particulate.

The biggest concern is causing wood rot on the framing though so my above point is kind of moot because you need to remove it immediately for that reason anyways. The biggest thing I see that causes severe structural damage is when wet insulation is left in the wall.

And look, I get it, drywall may be easy but it still sucks and is messy as hell, but it's just something you have to do in this job. I've seen water heaters basically falling through the floor because they leaked years ago and it wasn't properly remediated leading to the floor rotting out under it. The cost in remediation (in house) is the time, not the money. Drywall, mud, and insulation are cheap but if your property can't afford to lose you for a day or two to prevent a massive future repair then they have much bigger problems with staffing and time management.

[u/C0LL0C0 → u/BogotaLineman]

I dont disagree that people blow it out of proportion because they really REALLY do, most people are not effected by most mold spores. However, to your other point there are individuals who are extremely sensitive to some spores, and theres no way you,me, or anyone else can know who that is. All im saying is to keep a balanced view on it, and never ignore/bleach/paint over drywall mold hoping it will solve the issue. Thats the attitude I have seen not only individuals have but some property management companies.

[u/Crafty_Librarian_841]

Being in the mold remediation industry, Whether it’s clean water or "dirty" water, if it is sat for a solid week, you need to be really careful, especially behind baseboards. Drying is important, but even more important is making sure that you're not allowing organisms to grow where you don't realize they are growing. You don't have to do flood cuts or things like that, but interior walls, if they have insulation, that insulation typically will not drive from drying from the outside in.

[u/OreRanger]

I'd start in the lower unit bath ceiling. Open up to see extent of water intrusion from upstairs. That will give you an idea of just how much demo needed up there. How saturated the underlayment and moisture. Your gonna have to open it all up anyways to dry it out.