Having the Marmoleum Pulled Out from Under Me

As it went in.  It's quite DIY friendly.   Ours was
mostly installed by, then 18 year old, Stoic,
and his 12 year old helper, Inventive

Issue #1:  The salesman warned me that I couldn't put the dog's water dish on our Marmoleum Click kitchen floor.  But I did it anyway.  I wasn't totally stupid about it, I didn't think, because I put a larger baking pan underneath to catch the slops. 

I have loved the retro look and soft sheen.  The pattern has
interest, but doesn't demand attention.
It's been comfortable to walk on, and is fairly easy to clean.
I'm OK with a bit of 'patina,' as this scratches & scuffs a bit,
but I don't think it ruins the look.

Unfortunately, at some point, moisture got underneath and condensed on the metal pan, keeping the floor damp, and expanding the seam just a bit.  Not noticeable by anyone but Hubby and me, so no biggie.  We moved on and moved the water dish outside.

Issue #2:  Princess Sassy and Prince Steadfast's puppy, Henry, liked to chew.  He especially liked to play with and chew water bottles.  Empty or full, they were tremendous fun to him, either rolling or crackling.  We stored the extra cases of water from the wedding receptions under my little desk.  From an open end of a partial case, he would occasionally get hold of a bottle, chase it around the house, and grab it in his mouth.
  Eventually, it would break open and we'd have a frustrating, but harmless, puddle to clean up.  (It was better than his other puddles!)

He made his way through that partial case of bottles and it was the end of the problem.  
We thought.  
Until we found that he'd tried to get into the remaining, sealed case, biting through one of the bottles, which leaked a lake trapped under the box.  (We'd underestimated how tenacious he could be.) We discovered that when the flooring started to swell in front of the desk and across the doorway between the back hall and entry.  It wasn't a large hill, just a bubbled up spot that was springy as we stepped from one area to the other.  Over time, it dried and shrunk.  Not completely back into place, but it was ignorable.

Wetness on the underside of the flooring planks

Issue #3, AKA: The Last Straw:  One morning in September the floor in front of our main sink seemed a little springy.  Day-by-day, the springiness grew along with the height of the floor.  The mountain of flooring got high enough that we were tripping over it.  (Being an incompetent blogger, I neglected to take it's picture for sharing.)  The flooring in that spot was obviously ruined, and I pulled it up to find that it was quite wet underneath, the wettest place situated between the sink cabinet and the dishwasher to its right.  We, of course, quit using the dishwasher, which caused a whole 'nother set of aggravations in a household that produces a LOT of dirty dishes.

You can see the water stains on the pad.
This messy-looking exposure only got worse,
as it's tough to not have flooring in the messiest part of the room

Hubby said we need to replace the flooring.  Of course, we 'abused' the Marmoleum Click in a way that no wood-fiber-cored material could handle.  It wasn't technically the flooring's fault.  But they were just things that happen in a busy household and kitchen, and we need a floor that can take it.  We have kids, dogs, 2 dishwashers, and a set of laundry equipment all sitting on that flooring.  It's very likely it'll face water again... Besides, replacing a section of click-together floor means tearing it out to an edge and replacing a large section.  We probably don't have enough flooring on hand, and they don't make our color any more.

We seem to have 3 options for replacement to consider.  I'll leave that discussion for another post.

By the way, like our van's mysterious metally-scraping sound that disappeared as soon as it was in front of the mechanic, the dishwasher, when pulled out as far as we could while still being hooked up, so we could watch it while running, refused to leak.  --Unless it's underneath or behind, where we still can't see it.  Before we replace the floor, we have to pull it out all the way, so that's when we'll do more sleuthing about that.