I received a phone call from one of our very dear 90-year-old clients. He asked me to come over and look at his wife’s bathroom because there was a problem. When I got there, he explained that he had heard an odd noise come from the bathroom, and he said “when I opened the bathroom door, I noticed the floor had shifted.” He explained that his wife had died 10+ years ago, and the bathroom had not been used at all since the last time she used it.

After a little investigation, I figured out that the toilet water supply stop valve at the wall developed a very small leak that dripped in such a way that allowed the subfloor to absorb the moisture. After a few years, the subfloor and supporting floor joist became damp. Staying damp, they started rotting from mold and being devoured by wood-destroying insects, and possibly rodents. One day the fateful last bite was taken from a structural member, which caused the floor to collapse under its own weight. “Collapsed” seemed more apropos to me than “shifted.” Read more