How to build a house » Floor

Recovery works after water damage hardwood floor

One of the most destructive factors for hardwood flooring is the impact of a large amount of water on it. How does water damage hardwood floor and what can you do with that?

How does water spill?

  • Parquet floor wet from waterbroken pipe;
  • neighbors flooded;
  • water was poured out through the edge of the tub or sink;
  • crashed aquarium;
  • etc.

To solve whether repair of a hardwood floor after is possible, it is necessary to estimate a condition of boards. If you have this kind of trouble, several useful tips of professionals, using which it is possible to salvage a floor covering, will be just by the way:

  • Having found water on flooring, it is needed to provide, first of all, indoors good ventilation. Open windows if weather allows and then dry water. In the extreme case, open all air vents in the apartment.
  • It is necessary to clean from a floor all paths or carpets, everything that absorbs liquid in itself.
  • At the following stage, we begin to collect water by means of a floor rag.
  • If there is a lot of water, you need to give an opportunity to expand in horizontally way to the boards. It is necessary to remove a plinth and door thresholds in the room where the floor was suffered.

When can you do a repair water damage work?

Repair is possible if:

  • the hardwood board got wet on certain sites of a floor, but not on all surface;
  • “flood” occurred two or three, at most five days ago;
  • deformation is insignificant, the difference on height constitutes several millimeters.

Repair is impossible if:

  • Hardwood floors swollen from waterwater impregnated a floor on all area of the room;
  • crude floor stood week and more (dry rots already began to breed in wood);
  • elements rose in waves, they can be pulled out.

What to do if the floor was swollen up so strongly that separate boars literally are dropped out? If water got into a covering so deeply, then it is necessary to dismantle it and to lay new. Here, unfortunately, even the most skilled master won’t fix that situation.

Recovery after hardwood floor water damage

The worst enemy of hardwood floor is water. Wood quickly absorbs moisture and extends. Therefore, if you have a pipe burst, then you will soon see a “wave” on a floor, edges of boards will be darken, and the fungal mold can be formed under them. Especially painfully, the beech reacts to moisture. With an oak, the situation is better, but all the same not to do without restoration.

  • If water has not had time to be absorbed in a wood, and boards didn’t come unstuck from a floor but only were slightly deformed, you were lucky. You may be able to do sanding. However, it is possible to fix it only after complete drying of a floor and better to address the specialist with experience of similar works.
  • If water stayed on a floor for so long time that some sites of a floor were swelled, it is necessary to be engaged in restoration seriously. Estimate the amount of tragedy and remove the damaged areas. Dried strips can be re-used, and wet and buckling – to be replaced.
  • Don’t begin work on restoration before complete drying of a floor. It may take from several weeks to several months. If the mold already was formed, process affected areas with antifungal means.
  • When the flooring is dry, replace the strips have become unusable, choose the right shade of a tree. If the area of damages is more than 30% of floor surface, it is reasonable to make complete replacement of all hardwood flooring.
  • Floor before and after restorationFinish recovery with sanding of the entire surface using a grinder. Rough grinding will clean a difference of heights between old and new levels, and will remove a varnish remaining balance. Thin grinding by a small emery paper will finally align the boards, and will destroy roughness.
  • Putty flooring and apply protective oil, which will hide small defects of wood and will protect it from negative impact of moisture and difference of temperatures. The floor, processed on such technology, seems more warmly to the touch and purchases antistatic properties. It is possible to use also a traditional method – to cover a hardwood with several varnish layers. So, it will purchase brightness and gloss.

When works on recovery are finished, your floor will return to its former beauty. You will be able to enjoy for more years to its benefits.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.