photo by Matthew Lupoli
I noticed the spot more than a year ago. A soft area near the bathroom door. It was most obvious when I was barefoot, the floor a little lower, a little softer.
Still, everything was fine on the surface. So I put it out of my mind. I had other things to think about.
Not totally out of my mind, of course. Every so often I’d step on the soft spot, and for a second or two I’d entertain the thought of doing something about it. But the soft spot wasn’t hurting anything, was it?
Attempting to keep a house in perfect running order is akin to trying to maintain perfect health. Only hypochondriacs think it’s possible to avoid every pain and pimple and gurgle in the stomach.
(Is there a word for a hypochondriac of the perfectly maintained house?)
The time comes, however, when you have to look under the rug and face the problem.
For me, it was a couple of events.
#1. My asthma medicine wasn’t doing the trick. My doctor strongly advised that I should get rid of my carpet and the dust mites that lived therein.
#2. The soft spot under the carpet started getting more noticeable.
So … I called the contractor who remodeled my kitchen. And on the Thursday before Easter, they showed up, ready to work.
the garage
First they pried off some of the baseboards and moved my furniture into the living room and garage. Then they tore up the carpet and the carpet pad, and we had our first look at the problem below.
It turned out, I had a double problem. Some time in the past there must have been water damage near the bathroom door. The result: de-laminated plywood.
The second problem had something to do with the furnace exhaust spewing warm, moist air someplace it didn’t belong.
The contractor promised to fix it. In the meantime, I moved downstairs to sleep in the guest room.
Although some problems can be ignored, it turned out that this was not one of them. When the work is all done, I’m sure I’m going to be glad we ripped off the carpet and exposed an ugly problem that needed to be fixed. 
And is your asthma problem under better control now? Houses=repairs-expense 🙁
I think I’ll have to wait a while to see if getting rid of the carpet is going to help my asthma. Thanks for asking.
Yeah, we’ve all been there. Ignoring a problem until it gets worse. Ug, hate it. Good thing it’s been taken care of now!
If I hadn’t wanted to replace the carpet, it would have been an expensive mess to rip up the carpet just to investigate and I might not have done it. I’m sure glad I did.
Sorry to hear about your floor. A major inconvenience while getting it fixed, I am sure.
Fortunately the pre-finished hardwood doesn’t smell. But the hammers and saws are so terrifically noisy that I have to leave the house during the day. I’ll be glad when it’s over.
The title of the post is so scary, I was expecting to read about some kind of monster in your basement! 😛
Good. I’m glad a gave you a little scare.
Water damage can be awful but it sounds like you caught it early enough. Glad you’ve got a knowledgeable team working the problem.
I think I do have a knowledgeable team, but I’m still keeping my fingers crossed about the ducts. Fixing ducts that are hidden inside the walls and ceiling is a tricky proposition.
I hope it all works out okay, Nicki.
The floor was finished this afternoon. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the duct work repair.
Yep, some things can’t be ignored for too long. Good luck to you, Nicki.
Thanks, Evelyne. So far, so good. It’s not an easy job, though, with all the twists and turns the ducts take inside the walls.
Will there be some lovely “after” shots next week?
No, you can’t ignore
the soft floor.
Unless you want to pay more
later.
Yes, I will have some “after shots.” I have something else in mind for next week, so I’ll show my floors’ new look in two weeks.
You brought up an important point: the higher cost of letting things get too bad.
Water is always an enemy to a house, especially when plywood is used. I am just happy that all water/ pipe accidents here so far always happened in tiled rooms which resulted that nothing serious ever happened.
Hope the work will be done soon so you can move back again 🙂
The project should be finished by next weekend. Then I can start unpacking all the dishes and knick-knacks I wrapped so nicely in newspaper.
A little water can do a lot of damage. I’m glad you found the source of the problem, Nicki.
Now they just have to figure out how to get to all that hidden duct work. I have another closet to empty today to make the project easier.
Glad you found the problem and have a good crew working on the solution.
Thanks, Nancy. They are an excellent crew.
Many problems start like that. You notice something but don’t pursue it until there is another indicator of a big problem. Good luck with your project and I hope the end result is also pretty to look at.
I finally just picked up the phone and told Anne Marie and Keith to some over and take measurements. It feels good to make a decision and move forward with it–even though this project is turning out to be more work than I imagined at first. I’ll be glad when it’s over. And I do expect it will be pretty to look at.
Oh no! Although it meant more work and hassle (so sorry), I’m glad the problem was caught.
Isn’t that so like life? You start to tackle a problem and discover a bigger one underneath.
Yes, I agree. It’s so much like life. Fear of finding a bigger problem underneath is one of the reasons we don’t tackle the small things. It’s a difficult judgement call. Sometimes I think we are better off leaving things alone. In interpersonal relations, for example, if we just let something go, it might be forgotten the next day and that would be the end of it. On the other hand, it might be something that would grow toxic beneath the surface and should be examined.
Sorry to hear about the plywood and the moist air, but glad that they are going to go away soon. It looks like a big messy job, just look at all the brown stuff everywhere. I might have mentioned this before, but once I lived in an apartment and the tiles started popping up in the living room. It took about a week to fix. It was a ten-year old apartment, and the reason was probably a mix of humidity and poor workmenship in the first place.
Hope you get new tiles or floorboards that you like, and they are the kind that are scratch-proof. Once I lived in an apartment that had rectangular wooden tiling but as the years went on, deep grooves appeared in most of them.
It is a big, messy job, but I’m confident I’ll like the result. The installer is very meticulous. He’s already finished the dining room and most of the living room. It’s beautiful pre-finished oak.