Best case scenario exactly what airqual says - it's a sealant/caulking issue - you can recaulk the entire area and deal with the mold. If you have to tear out the tile work it gets more expensive quite a bit. I don't know what to advise with plaster walls - don't have those around here but I still think you probably have no choice but open up the wall to let it dry and get mold out. One thing I might try - if you can get the baseboards off the wall you could cut a hole in the wall at the lower level and see what is in the wall cavity perhaps this way (depending how high your trim goes, remember there is a baseplate). You could then patch with drywall as it's going to be hidden. but if you're not the DIY type at all, probably best to just call someone in. You have to pull the carpet out no matter what and padding and get everything away from that wall. If you do that and can identify which area looks "wettest" then that would give a clue where to start looking and I'd do that before anything else. Give servpro or other type business a call to come out and see the issue. They'll give you an estimate, I have no idea what they charge but they have all kinds of mold abatement sprays that will kill the stuff without having to totally destroy the wall. Sorry can't give you more help - I'm sure it's incredibly disappointing and stressful.

"but I'm wondering if a bathroom leak could be causing damage to such a large area and also if it looks like the flooring will need to be ripped up in all the rooms or just the bathroom." An unchecked leak in the bathroom could certainly damage a large area. Why does the flooring need to ripped up? You will proabably have to remove most of the garage ceiling below and open some walls to determine the extent of the mold in the wall cavity. If the built-in soap dish fell off the wall, this could be a source of the leak as well. Was it positioned such that water was constantly spraying on it during a shower? Was the shower running when you saw water dripping? or immediately after someone took a shower? If you observe the leak, cut a hole in the ceiling and see if you can follow the water path back to the source. Good luck.

Hello All, You’ve been so helpful in the past! I didn’t plan on redoing my bath as I did a partial fix up by adding the mirror, cabinet and sconces. The rest was to stay until I had a leak from both the tub and sink. I want to keep my redos but need new tiles in the bath, new tub, toilet, and floor. I don’t want to do tile all over the room as is. I’m considering a beveled White or grey and white marble tile for the bath and backsplash by the sink. The floor is so tiny so I’m trying to keep it simple. The backsplash is my biggest question. I would love some suggestions. Maintenance is key for me! Pretty, elegant and easy to clean is what I’m going for. I plan on keeping the shower curtain for color and a splash of art. I’m hoping insurance covers this and will find out soon! Thanks so much! Brenda

Cork is an excellent carpet replacement product. It is warm and quiet underfoot. It comes in two formats: A floating click-together format for 'dry' areas and a glue down tile for wet areas such as bathrooms and mud rooms. Yep...you heard me. The glue down cork tile is 100% water proof. As in MORE water proof than vinyl click together products. How? The glue down cork tiles are butted together (no grout lines) when installed. They are then coated x2 with water based polyurethane. The poly seals the seams to create a continuous sheet of cork. The only areas of concern (as with ALL floors in a bathroom) would be at the walls where cork meets drywall. I'm a cork flooring expert. I've done this more times than I can count. A situation like yours were you do NOT want to refinish the entire house because two rooms had issues. Cork is an oak. It has many of the same colour tones as White and Red oak. In fact it starts out quite orange (sigh...ignore that phase of it's life...it doesn't last very long) but soon calms down to a lovely soft yellow which is IDENTICAL to the current laminates you have. Here's how I would do it: I would pick a floating floor that has an IDENTICAL glue down tile option. I would install the floating floor in the bedroom. This gives you the 'total' floor height that you need to match. Now you remove the bathroom flooring and lay in new plywood OR cement backer board (cork doesn't care) to raise the floor up. Now you glue down the cork tile (6mm or 8mm) so that it matches the existing floating floor. Finish the floor in two coats of polyurethane and Voila! A continuous floor with minimal effort. A glue down tile floor (if you hire this part out) is going to cost (labour plus materials) the same as a porcelain tile installation. That's roughly $12-$15/sf. Sounds horrible until you realize you have 30sf to cover...now that's not too bad! A floating cork floor will cost (roughly) the same as a HIGH END vinyl floor installation ($4-$5/sf for materials + $3/sf for labour). www.icorkfloor.com Cork Flooring Tiles Glue Down - Forna Silver Birch 6mm Flooring (icorkfloor.com) Floating Cork Floor - 12mm Forna Floating Cork Flooring (icorkfloor.com) Those are just and example of how to get a continuous floor in two different formats of cork.