Sorry I had no idea where else to put this. My toilet backed up and flooded the bathroom and part of the kitchen. I moped and cleaned everything up of course. However, now (a few days later), I noticed a squishing noise when I walked in that part of the kitchen. Then I noticed that I could easily pull up a tile and the floor under that was soaked. I continued to pull up all the tiles in the effected area. The entire area is wet and makes a squishing sound when I walk on it. Right now I am just letting it dry. Does anyone have any advise as to what I should do now?
I would probably replace the underlayment--wonderboard, hard backer, whatever the tile is set on. A squishy sound makes me think there is quite a lot of water in there...and I don't think I'd trust trying to re-set the tile on that surface. Have you tried putting fans in there? Maybe it's possible that if you dried it for quite some time, it would be OK.
I assume this is linoleum tile. If you have linoleum tile on a wood floor, let the wood dry and reglue the tile down with mastic tile glue. Messy stuff. If the floor is particleboard the board may swell from the moisture and never be flat again. So see how bad it is. If you have a concrete floor, let it dry and reglue the tile as above. Wonderboard (brand name, there are others) is a cement board which must be screwed down to a wood or particleboard floor and then ceramic tile is cemented to it with a special cement called Thinset. The tile is then grouted. This makes a waterproof floor and the tile should never come loose again. But it is expensive. i think the hard backer Midget is referring to is a pressed paper type of material, like paper clipboards are made of. About a 1/16th" thick. This is nailed to the wood or particleboard floor to give you a flat, smooth surface to glue to...but it will not be waterproof. BTW, somewhere I saw that a women glued herself to a kitchen floor with mastic....or was that someone at work??
Thanks everyone for your replies. As it turns out the damage was not from the toilet. There was a leak in the heat pipe that was undetected until I pulled up the tiles. Since this was clearly not my fault I called my landlord and they sent their maintenance person over to fix it. It also turns out that there was another pipe that was leaking as well. Now all the pipes are fixed and we justhave to wait for the wood to dry. The maintenance person is going to replace the tiles. Since the downstairs apartment is currently vacant, the maintenance person opened the window and turned on the heat. I hope this will cause the remaining water to evaporate quickly. I am also going to keep my window open as much as I can to help improve the air circulation and I hope speed up drying time. I know that using any kind of heater or other forced air device could cause the wood to buckle. Is using just a fan ok? Would that even help much? I know that it can take a long time (sometimes weeks or even months) for wood to dry. The section of flooring affected is about 5' longx4' wide and the wood is particle board. I would like to speed up the drying time as much as possible without doing more damage. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Again thanks everyone for your advice.
I personally don't see using a fan as a bad idea. Where as a heater or aircondition causes a moderate to drastic temperature change, a fan generally accelerates 'room-temperature' air, which is generally just slightly cooler. After the wood dries, I would suggest using a level to check for any bowing, or buckling of the wood, as you pointed out. If you would notice any of this, replace the underlaying wood. You'll want to avoid any nasty accidents in the future due to this. Reglue the tile as stated above, and let the glue adhear for a while. Also, if the area in the kitchen with the affected floor is a heavily-trafficed area, I'd advise a small 'detour'. I'm sure you're not just letting people walk over that area, but it needed to be said just in case . Update with any changes so we know how everything is going.
Dont forget to leave the windows and doors open when you use any glue that gives off vapours - some tile glue is quite dangerous to breathe in - and wear one of those filter masks
I'm sorry about your tiles...I suggest you take all the tiles off, replace the subfloor and then install some quality, moisture resistant flooring, so you will be safe in chase you are flooded again. You should try some engineered as they act really well to moisture and scratches. Here is a cheap place to buy the flooring from:http://webnetguide.com/shopping-services/home-garden/detail,1874070470,wooden_flooring.html. I hope this info helps.
