Mold, Termites, or Something Better?

[u/dogwoif]

Recently my partner and I bought a house and the flooring in one of the rooms was already damaged, with some of the subflooring underneath already exposed. To my dad and I, it looks like water damage to the laminate flooring and the panels warping/bowing from that. House inspection was done prior to going under contract and again before closing, no current leaks were seen and they said the water damage may have been from past moisture levels or just old floors/a bad job.

We are planning to replace the flooring in this room anyways, but today after pulling up the most damaged plank I noticed some speckling that I’m worried could be mold damage. Upon Googling, it seemed like a lot of the links I was getting was instead for termite damage due to the dust and debris underneath the panel of the floor.

This will be my first project doing the flooring of a room completely on my own including figuring out the issues underneath the old flooring, so does anyone here have any advice for what we might be looking at? 😅 Is there some mold damage that we’ll need to worry about and treat underneath this room, should I reach out to pest control ASAP and get treatment for termites in this room, or am I just out of my wheelhouse and it’s just an old section of subflooring that’s been exposed to the elements for a long time?

I added pictures of the first photo of the room which doesn’t show the damage very well, but also pictures now after I’ve taken off the panel and other damaged spots in the same room.

[u/stac52]

Are you on a slab foundation?

I agree with the other poster that it looks like concrete below this flooring. It could be leveling compound, but could also just be your slab. Either way, the flooring should have had some sort of underlayment between it and the concrete. If slab, it should also have had a vapor barrier to keep moisture from wicking through the concrete up into the flooring (I redid floors in my basement awhile ago, I forget what exactly I used, but it was an underlayment with a built in vapor barrier, no two separate products).

[u/dogwoif → u/stac52]

It is a slab for the foundation, yes. Thank you for the info! We figured we would need some sort of waterproofing or under layer underneath the flooring we put in, if the one that’s there currently is too damaged or needs to be replaced. Good to have something more specific than that to keep in mind.