# Question about discolored wood flooring



## Erikfsn (Dec 6, 2009)

The pictures below show a floor where I'm living that is getting discolored in places. There is also this white powder appearing.

The owner of the place says the floor was glued down to concrete. It looks to me like moisture has been getting in and that mold is probably developing. My guess is we will have to empty the room and rip out the floor, find and fix the leak then put new flooring in.

Does that sound right to you or do you have any other suggestions?
thanks,
Erik


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## Metro M & L (Jun 3, 2009)

The staining is on the corner. Tell your cat to stop peeing there.


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## Erikfsn (Dec 6, 2009)

Sorry, I don't have a cat.


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## mikeswoods (Oct 11, 2008)

You know that oak over below grade concrete is a huge risk---He gambled and lost.

Sell him on ceramic tile----He will have a failure again if wood goes back in that area.
----Mike-----


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## nymasterfloors (Jan 28, 2011)

Wood floors can always be installed on cement if and only if a proper vapor barrier is installed underneath. From what it looks like there. 2 things that come to mind a. Water damage b. Urine stains but urine stains are almost always round or oval. Is there any cupping in the floor? If there is then it's def water seeping up through the cement ask the homeowner what process they did when the floor was installed. They should have used tar and a plastic underlayment

Sent from my iPad using CT Forum


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## Nac-Pro (Jun 25, 2011)

From the pics looks like mold to me. I would never glue down hardwood to concrete, wood should be treated for it to be touching the concrete... what I would tell the owner is that if he wants hardwood that the best thing is to build a subfloor 1st.. Use a 1-1 1/2" foam with a 3/4" plywood and then put hardwood down.. It will keep your feet warm too.. Or just use a floating floor.. A good way to test to see if the concrete is repelling water is to get a garbage bag and tape it to the concrete and leave it for like 3-4 days and then remove it... If it's wet then you know that water is coming out of the concrete.. And try to take care of it as fast as u can.. That stuff can be harmful to your health 

Good luck.. Wish you the best...


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## RhodesHardwood (Jun 28, 2010)

The only time I have seen stains that dark they were from pets. You would think if there was that much moisture getting into the wood, it would have caused some cupping and possibly caused the floor to start buckling. If nothing has been spilled there and sat, then is has to be coming from underneath.


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## Nac-Pro (Jun 25, 2011)

Hmmm if it's piss it should be on top of the clear coat, if it's under it would be water... And for it to be that bad for piss well that must be alot of piss and never got cleaned up my dog pees on my hardwood and never did that, do u think that maybe the hardwood is starting to peturfry? (don't know how to spell it, sorry.. Lol) it is sitting on the concrete??


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## Erikfsn (Dec 6, 2009)

I asked the owner if there was a vapor barrier and he thought so, but wasn't sure. I'm not a floor expert (hence my request for all of you guys input) but I don't see how it could be glued down AND have a vapor barrier . . .

I'm not looking forward to emptying that room, it's FULL of stuff like IKEA wardrobes and a huge bed with lots of built in drawers, all of which took like 40 hours to assemble. Sigh


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## Plaudit (Jan 2, 2011)

Mold forming under the hardwood. The white is mold that has dried when exposed to the air.


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## Edger Boy (Dec 27, 2006)

Is this staining only in the area of your photos or is it spread throughout the entire wood floor area?

Are the stains in your photo near a air handling unit? We see many stained areas caused by a clogged a.c. cooling coil drain line. The water slowly spreads across the floor and causes water damage as shown in your photos. 

If that was pet urine stains you could smell it immediately.

Many engineered floors can be completely flooded and not cup or buckle.

We sanded and finished many old Bruce 3/8" 3-ply engineered oak floors and others that were completely flooded after hurricane Katrina that never cupped or buckled and now look better than new.


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## Erikfsn (Dec 6, 2009)

The staining is spread throughout the room, some spots are very small, but there are dozens of them. And, yeah there's no urine smell.

Thanks for all your replies.


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## BrandConst (May 9, 2011)

Erikfsn said:


> Sorry, I don't have a cat.


Tell your boy to stop pissing in the corner...it happens!


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## Erikfsn (Dec 6, 2009)

no kids either, I live with my wife and her 18 year old daughter.


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## TimelessQuality (Sep 23, 2007)

Have you been the only tenant since the floor was new?


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## Dirtywhiteboy (Oct 15, 2010)

Yep that's cat piss alright:thumbsup: Have a friend with an old cat that pisses on the wood floor now and looks just like that:laughing: are you in cat denial :clap:


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## TimelessQuality (Sep 23, 2007)

Yeah... It's worthy of a sig quote:whistling


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## Morgan Tile (Jun 25, 2011)

I was going to comment before i read the others but enough said.


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## Morgan Tile (Jun 25, 2011)

Is there any buckling on the floor?


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## RhodesHardwood (Jun 28, 2010)

Erikfsn said:


> The staining is spread throughout the room, some spots are very small, but there are dozens of them. And, yeah there's no urine smell.
> 
> Thanks for all your replies.


If their are spots all over then it is going to need to come out. As others mentioned if you decide to redo it with a new wood floor be sure all precautions are taken to avoid this. Moisture test concrete, vapor/moisture barrier, if using solid 3/4" put down plywood and nail to the plywood. You may also consider a floating engineered floor. These are much less likely to have issues.


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## smalpierre (Jan 19, 2011)

Nac-Pro said:


> From the pics looks like mold to me. I would never glue down hardwood to concrete, wood should be treated for it to be touching the concrete... what I would tell the owner is that if he wants hardwood that the best thing is to build a subfloor 1st.. Use a 1-1 1/2" foam with a 3/4" plywood and then put hardwood down.. It will keep your feet warm too.. Or just use a floating floor.. A good way to test to see if the concrete is repelling water is to get a garbage bag and tape it to the concrete and leave it for like 3-4 days and then remove it... If it's wet then you know that water is coming out of the concrete.. And try to take care of it as fast as u can.. That stuff can be harmful to your health
> 
> Good luck.. Wish you the best...


The wood is sitting on a layer of glue. I've glued tons of them down, and had to rip out floors that had been glued down for 15+ years to concrete without any sign of rot anywhere.

If there's a moisture problem, that subfloor isn't going to fix anything. It will just end up warping the ply and same mold problem will be under there.


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## Metro M & L (Jun 3, 2009)

Back at ya timeless.:thumbup:


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## hawaii (Feb 13, 2009)

*Hardwood Floors discoloration San Francisco Hawaii*

*I have repaired a lot of floors like this in San Francisco and Hawaii*

I am pretty sure this is a dog pee. The image on the very bottom shows the pee no question about it. If you wipe the pee and then mop the floor right away nothing will happen to the wood, especially if it is pre finished floor with nice aluminium oxide finish.
If you leave the pee for some time it will soak in the wood and then the only option is to refinish.No one can tell you if refinishing will sand off the discoloration in %100, some woods are taking the stain very deep some not as deep. 

* Couple of options to fix this hardwood flooring*

I have refinished plant stains, burns, pee stains and so on on a *hardwood flooring*
and it cleaned up completely. If after refinishing there is still discoloration on the hardwood floors you can stain the entire floor dark and that will fix the problem.

Second option is to replace the boards. You have to know what the manufacturer of the flooring is, you have to get luck they still produce it, the manufacturer still exist, they did not change the dimensions od the flooring and so on. So if you go into replacing you might run in a lot of problems.

You might be lucky if you bought the original floor from well established supplier and they still have it in stock.


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## hawaii (Feb 13, 2009)

It looks to me like a urine.
If you do not have a cat maybe a wild pet is coming to use the bathroom at your floor.
I do not even thing sanding will help, usually dark stains like this are deep and sanding make is just a little less pronounced but the stain is still there, you could sand the whole floor and stain it dark , something like dark walnut and this will do it.


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