Not a whole lot to document Bob, especially with my lack of knowledge. But I'll do my best to keep you all entertained with photos as I remember to take them. It all boils down to demolition and the manipulation back into something hopefully serviceable
figure it can't be any worse than from where I started
Got the throne out & the wax ring didn't look all that bad, so I'm now leaning to what Larry mentioned about condensation, or my other thought on the water inlet line possibly leaking....We're on a crawl space which is approx. 4' deep or so directly under here & the kitchen area, the rest of the space is too cramped/tight for my big behind to crawl around in to reach these areas. There is no water vapor protection that I can see, so I'm assuming moisture from that aspect/effect could also be a major contributing factor.
Fun removing this little step thing I built next to the tub, the Mrs likes her candles and wanted a place to set some while bathing, man there's no pleasing them or convincing them of other means & ways. Ended up using my largest pry bar and just ripping it out as the screws were all buried under the tile adhesive.
and now the main demo begins...here's some proof it was actually 'slapped' together with whatever was available from the looks of it
More as I go, but I'm in no rush at this point...Grrrr
She just might have to learn to use those bushes for a while after-all
Edit: I should correct myself and mention that someone previously used what looks like 30# tar paper as their moisture control. but that stuff is so brittle and cracked apart that it's totally useless...FWIW this joint was built in 1948.