Hi - I also posted this in the Disaster forum. Long story short: tankless hot water heater failed & flooded bathroom & 2 adjacent bedrooms.

We removed the carpet & pad & have multiple fans blowing. There is an odor now in the empty rooms. Previous owners were heavy smokers & we got rid of the smell in the house during our initial reno with lots of cleaning, sealing, painting.

Older house (60's) and there are old tile squares under carpet. We realize they probably have asbestos which is no big deal to us, since they are covered. It's just that now, we smell some funk.

Initially we put down 6 mil plastic & then carpeted. Worked fine, except that if you moved furniture, the carpet would slip or the plastic would bunch a little & then you'd hear a slight "crunching" of the plastic when walking.

My question is, is there a better way to seal / vapor barrier this floor before going back with carpet? Should we KILZ it, go back with plastic (need better way to stick it down) or remove the tiles (some of which are now loose)? Would we have to scrape up the mastic or could we just KILZ over it?

Thanks for your help!