The Tardis came with laminate (fake) wood flooring that started to curl at the edges of the planks. To resolve this the planks were removed and surprise, surprise; we found some serious water damage and mold issue in front of the sink location.
Mold in front of sink
The odd thing was is that there was little to no mold on the plywood under the sink.
We think that the cause of the mold was from water spilling onto the floor in that area. We were careful and tried to mop up any water that we spilled as soon as we spilled it. Cannot say about the POs.
The other place there was some minor water damage was right next to the rear AC/heating unit. Not sure how water got into that area.
Now instead of just installing new flooring the existing plywood needs to be replaced. We could just remove the damaged sections but will pull the entire floor to check the conditions below the foam insulation. The removed plywood will be used as templates for the new plywood and flooring.
Lessons learned.
1. Do not use laminate flooring because it allows water to seep through to the subfloor.
2. The finish flooring should extend under the cabinets. This prevents any spilled water from coming in contact with the plywood under the cabinets.
3. To help control water migrating to the wood subfloor at the edges of the finish flooring add a bead of caulk at the edges and at the cabinet floor interface.