PSA: Check your subfloor moisture before laying LVP, I learned the hard way in my basement last month

I pulled up a corner of the new vinyl plank after a week and found black mold spreading under it because the concrete slab was still sweating from a small leak I missed, so now I'm ripping out 400 square feet and starting over with a moisture meter-anyone else get burned by a hidden moisture issue?

2 comments

2 Comments

sam_harris6814d ago

Yeah just get a good moisture meter. Cheaper than redoing the whole floor.

nathang6715d ago

Man that's rough... I did almost the exact same thing in my basement last year. Had a tiny pin leak in a copper pipe behind the wall that was just barely weeping into the slab, didn't notice until I pulled up a plank six months later and found a whole section of the subfloor was basically mush. Ended up having to tear out half the room and treat everything with mold killer before I could even think about laying new flooring. The worst part was the smell underneath when I pulled it up, like damp dirt and mildew that just hit you in the face. Now I always let the slab sit for a week with a dehumidifier running and test three or four spots with a meter before I even unbox the planks.