Shower and Tub Overflow in Marysville, WA

A tub holds many times the water of a toilet bowl, so a tub overflow moves a lot of water fast. In the two-story homes common in newer Marysville subdivisions, an upstairs bath often sits over a family room, a dining room or the stairway, and the water can run straight through the floor framing to the ceiling below. Primary bath closets often open off the bathroom, so closet carpet can soak from edge to edge before anyone notices. In a single-story home over a crawlspace, the water drops through to the insulation instead. It starts as clean water, but it does not stay clean for long in carpet pad and cool, damp wall cavities.

In the first hour, nearly all of the water can still be pulled from tile, carpet and the top of the subfloor. By 24 hours, carpet pad is full, drywall has wicked moisture several inches up, and the ceiling below may be holding water like a shallow bowl. By 48 hours, clean water starts to degrade toward category 2 and mold can begin on damp drywall paper and framing. After a week, ceiling drywall can come down, carpet backing separates from the face fibers, wood trim cups, and the job needs far more removal than an early response would have.

Because tub and shower overflows begin as clean water, more can usually be saved than after a toilet. Bedroom and closet carpet can often be dried in place by extracting hard, lifting one edge and floating it with air movers, as long as the work starts within a day or two. Tile floors dry once the grout and subfloor are dried, and drywall that wicked only a few inches can be dried with air aimed at the base of the wall. A ceiling below can often be dried through small holes rather than full removal, and a crawlspace dries with a dehumidifier once the wet insulation comes down.

Some materials still have to go. Carpet pad that stayed wet more than a day or two is usually replaced, since it is inexpensive compared with the risk of odor and mold. Ceiling drywall that sagged or softened is cut out, along with any insulation above it that holds water. Laminate and engineered flooring in a hallway that swelled at the seams rarely lies flat again. In a crawlspace, insulation batts that filled with water sag and pull away from the joists, so they are bagged and replaced after the framing dries.

Tub and shower overflows across Marysville follow the floor plan. In Cedarcrest and Getchell Hill, many homes from the 2000s on have large primary baths with soaking tubs upstairs, so one forgotten tub can reach a lot of finished space below. In the older blocks around Downtown, bathrooms are more often on a single level over a crawlspace, and the water ends up on the vapor barrier instead of a ceiling. In the 1970s and 1980s neighborhoods to the north and east that replaced the old strawberry fields, original tub drains and overflow gaskets are often the weak point.

Nearby towns call with the same problem. In Mukilteo, many Harbour Pointe homes were built from the late 1970s on, and upstairs tubs there often sit over living rooms. Everett has everything from older north Everett houses to newer homes around Silver Lake, and in Arlington, newer homes in Gleneagle share the upstairs bath layout. One call connects you with a local restoration pro who comes out, extracts the water and sets up drying.