What to Check for Hidden Water Damage Before You Renovate
Last spring a couple in Doylestown called the professionals about two weeks before their primary bathroom renovation was due to start. They had picked out handmade green zellige tile, a walnut vanity and a brass fixture set with a ten-week lead time. The tile was already stacked in the garage.
Their contractor pulled out the old tub surround on a Monday morning and asked them to come take a look. The studs behind it were black. The subfloor near the drain was soft enough that a screwdriver went in up to the handle. Nothing in the room had looked wrong beforehand: no stains, no smell, no bubbling paint. The culprit was a slow weep at the shower valve, maybe a cup of water a day, going on for years.
Pros see some version of that every few months. A renovation is often the moment hidden moisture finally gets found, and it tends to happen after the budget is set and the finishes are ordered. The better plan is to look first. A handful of checks, most of them free, will tell you a lot before you spend anything on tile.
Look before you order anything
Water damage changes the scope of a job. Rotten framing has to come out, a soft subfloor has to be replaced, and wet insulation has to be dried or removed before anything new goes over it. Find all of that after the cabinets are on order and you end up paying to fix it on a schedule someone else set.
The tricky part is that water travels. It follows a pipe or a stud and shows up a few feet from where it started, and drywall can feel dry on the face while the back is soaked.
There are plenty of restoration companies around Bucks County who can check a room for you, and at Sunrise Water Damage they do it with a moisture meter and a thermal camera, which pick up wet material behind a finished wall without cutting into it. The EPA’s brief guide to mold and moisture says water-damaged areas need to be dried within 24 to 48 hours to prevent mold growth, so a suspicion is worth chasing sooner rather than later.
What you can check yourself
Start with a flashlight held flat against the wall or ceiling. Light raking across the surface shows ripples, bubbles and shadows in drywall that you’d never notice head-on.
Then work through the room:
Press a screwdriver tip into the baseboard and the bottom of the door casings. Wood should push back. If it feels like a damp cracker, keep looking.
Open the cabinet under every sink. Swollen particleboard on the floor of the cabinet, rust on the nuts and a white crust on the fittings all point to a slow leak.
Tap the tile in the shower. A hollow sound means the bond has let go, and water is usually the reason.
Look at the ceiling in the room below any bathroom or laundry. A faint tan ring, or one patch of paint that’s newer than the rest, deserves a question.
Smell the room with the door closed for a while. Musty, like a wet towel in a gym bag, in a room that has no business smelling that way.
One more test costs nothing. Turn off every tap and appliance in the house, then watch the dial on your water meter for half an hour. If it moves, water is going somewhere.
Where it hides in kitchens and bathrooms
In kitchens, the usual suspects are the dishwasher supply and drain lines, the ice maker line behind the refrigerator, and the window over the sink where the caulk has aged out. A dishwasher gasket can drip for months onto the cabinet floor next to it before anyone sees a thing. Pull the toe-kick panel and shine a light in there.
Bathrooms have more places to go wrong. The shower valve is the one that got the Doylestown couple, and the tub overflow gasket and the wax ring under the toilet are close behind. The wood around a toilet flange is worth a good press with your thumb, since a failed ring seeps down into the subfloor with nothing showing above.
Exterior walls are the other one. Water gets in around a window with failed flashing, runs down inside the wall, and stains the plaster on the inside only after it has already done its work in the framing. If a window corner has peeling paint or a soft sill, check the wall beneath it.
If you find something
Stop and leave it alone. The tempting move is a coat of stain-blocking primer and a fresh paint color, which hides the evidence and leaves the water source running behind it.
Find where the water is coming from and have it fixed first. Then dry the area completely and confirm it with a meter before anything gets closed back up. The CDC’s guidance on mold says the same: mold keeps coming back wherever dampness persists, so whatever is feeding it has to be stopped.
The framing and subfloor in the Doylestown bathroom were replaced, the valve was repaired, and the zellige went up about five weeks later than planned. The tile looks great, and they’re glad they didn’t set it over what was underneath.
Before you sign off on the plan
Run the flashlight and screwdriver checks in every room that’s getting work.
Look under sinks and behind appliances, and pull the toe-kick on the dishwasher.
Check the ceilings below bathrooms and laundry rooms.
Do the water meter test.
If anything feels soft, smells musty or reads wet, get it checked with a meter before the order goes in.
If all of that comes back dry, go ahead and order the tile.
Sunrise Water Damage Restoration975 Second Street Pike, Suite BRichboro, PA 18954(215) 399-6538
Our writers like to find the latest trends for home decor. We launched the award-winning Seasons in Colour in 2015 and the luxury property and interior decor blog www.alltheprettyhomes.com in 2024 to cover all your interior design, travel and lifestyle inspiration needs. Download our free bathroom renovation guide here.
