What's this seeping through my floor?

8 years ago

My husband and I were planning on pulling up the old vinyl in our entryway. Underneath is cement and we were going to paint it and seal with poly till we could afford the floor we wanted. The original owners laid down peel and stick vinyl squares on top of old sheet vinyl. My original thought was to pull it all up. The previous owners had cats and I could smell pee. I think they threw the peel and stick vinyl on top of the old vinyl to hide the pee. So gross. I found out our floor could have asbestos so we decided to leave it, cover with kilz, caulk seams of vinyl, then paint and seal. Came out pretty good except that there is now brown stuff seeping through some of the seams. I have no idea what this is. As far as I know there are no pipes or anything running below it. Any thoughts?

Featured Answer

qam999

8 years ago

Unfortunately, concrete is porous and will have absorbed the years of cat pee. (The longer the years of being soaked in urine, the bigger the problem.) There are remedies, and they will all involve removing the paint and treating the concrete directly. If you JUST had the concrete affected, you could try this: http://www.wikihow.com/Remove-Urine-Odor-from-Concrete http://bedwettingstore.com/buyers-guide-stain-removers-concrete.html http://www.concreteconstruction.net/concrete-surfaces/letting-the-cat-out.aspx

However, given the layers of paint and vinyl, plus the asbestos, plus urine-soaked concrete, there will not be any simple solutions. I would give serious consideration to having this jackhammered out by a licensed abatement and demolition company. Then check what's underneath, abate any other issues, and engineer and repour a slab.

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Comments (8)

PRO
Cancork Floor Inc.
8 years ago
Many products will give off colour until they are removed. I know that vinyl on vinyl can cause discolouration as time goes by. You've sealed in what had been evaporating into the air.

It is possible that moisture is moving, slowly, from one layer to another. You've sealed it so it no longer has the ability to move into the air. That moisture is probably emulsifying (dissolving and then carrying product with it) the old chemicals, urine, vinyl, etc and bringing it to the surface.

The surface is now sealed so it is just "sitting there" like a bubble caught in ice. I would expect this to get worse, not better. Not until you remove everything and get at the original substrate (sounds like concrete) will you be able to stop this from happening.

It was probably already happening, but because it wasn't sealed in most of it went into the air. The rest was washed away every time you mopped.

How much is it to have the asbestos remediation for this area of flooring?
jalva24
Original Author
8 years ago
We haven't had an abatement company give us a quote yet. I was really hoping to avoid it but it might be inevitable. A friend thought maybe it was adhesive seeping through. I had read that that can happen when you use glue on self adhesive tile (which the previous owner did) but I would think the seepage would be more beige like glue than the brown we're experiencing. Sounds like I need an abatement company, right?
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jalva24
Original Author
8 years ago
Wow...this is way more complicated than I originally thought. Thanks for input :-)
jalva24
Original Author
8 years ago
So another question then. Once we primed with kilz the smell is gone. So we thought since the smell was taken care of and the seepage was under the poly that we could then lay resilient flooring planks on top. Bad idea?
jodevine
8 years ago
It is definitely the adhesive from the peel and stick tiles. Put those down in my basement years ago and I remember after a year or so seeing dark stuff oozing from the seams I was told by the installer that that was indeed from peel and stick adhesive. I used some type of adhesive remover and it did come off and eventually stopped oozing. Would never use them again.
PRO
Cancork Floor Inc.
8 years ago
Kilz is KNOWN to eliminate urine smell. So it was the kilz that got rid of the odour. The discolouration will continue. The original issues are still there. You "might" get 5 years out of a floating floor over this floor...but it must be EXTREMELY flat. You probably will lose all warranty (two layers of flooring is RARELY considered "appropriate" underlay).

You MIGHT get someone to lay sheet vinyl/lino over this but the 2 layers of previous flooring = NO WARRANTY. Again, two layers of flooring = inappropriate underlay. Vinyl can stain vinyl. Poly and vinyl don't like each other. The list goes on and on.

The question becomes: How much more money will you throw at this floor before you decide to use an abatement company? When do you decide you've spent too much money on a this floor? Anything you add to this floor = lost money. That includes the price of the Kilz, the paint and the poly. Give yourself an hourly wage ($10 is nice) and now add up everything you've done.

Abatement vs. "Good Money After Bad". That is the question. I would stop and live with what you've achieved and have the "next step" = abatement. Once it is done you can do whatever you want whenever you want with as much/little money as you want. Until then = good money after bad.
jalva24
Original Author
8 years ago
Thanks, Stephanie. You have definitely given us some info that we need to sort out. I think we're going to start with a quote from an abatement company and go from there. Thanks for all the advice.