Water Damaged Floor Repair and Restoration
Restoration On A Water Damaged Hardwood Floor You might be familiar with this situation: you have recently installed beautiful cherry wood floors and then you notice the thing most dreaded by homeowners…..warped floor boards. Your first instinct might be to fix the floor. A word of caution, though: are you ready for what you might find? Repairing water damage on a hardwood floor is a task that may be necessary from time to time on a small scale with intermittent spillages or minor leaks. Alternatively you may be faced with major water damage following flood or a large body of water that has saturated your hardwood floorboards. Repairing Minor Hardwood Floor Water Damage If you have discovered a minor leak that has allowed water to seep onto your hardwood floorboards, there may be a single spot that has become damp and discoloured compared to the rest of your floor. In this case there are some simple steps that you can take to repair the hardwood floor water damage. Firstly, make sure you have identified the source of the water damage and fixed it completely. Any later repair work will be for nothing if you do not seal the leak or repair the pipes from where the water is coming. Next, you may be faced with a spot that is discoloured and possibly swollen and cracked or warped. The wood grain has become affected by the water damage and has reacted. Dry out the affected area until it is completely dry before beginning any restoration work on it. Begin by sanding back the affected area starting with a coarse sandpaper before moving back to a finer grit. Once the area has been sanded back and the stain edges are smooth treat the area with a wood sealant that matches the rest of the floor. Following one coat of sealant it may be necessary to sand it back before adding another coat. Some kind of blending process may have to be done so that the damaged area winds up looking the same as the original floor. Major Hardwood Floor Water Damage Repair When a lot of moisture has been absorbed by a hardwood floor the most common result is that the wood expands. When the boards expand they become wider and one of two things might happen, you might have a buckled floor or you may have a floor that is cupped. In either case you are left with a seriously uneven floor. In order to restore the water damaged hardwood floor without having to pull up the entire floor and replace it you can use a process known as desiccant dehumidification. This is carried out by bringing in a desiccant dehumidifier which if very effective at reducing the humidity level in the air. The desiccant dehumidifier can be run under sealed conditions to completely remove the moisture from the area. In this case you are removing moisture from the floorboards. Running a dehumidifier for an extended period will help to reduce the swollen floorboards and counteract the cupping or buckling that has taken place. As the moisture is drawn out of the air it will also be drawn out of the hardwood floorboards and they will shrink back to their normal size. Effectively you want the top surface of the floorboards and the bottom surface to be balanced in moisture content. Once the floor has been properly dried and the moisture is removed from the surrounding area, the floor can be sanded back and refinished so that it is returned to its original smoothness again. If the hardwood floor has...
Read MoreMinneapolis Water Damage Floor Repair MN | Water Damaged Floors
Repair and Restoration For Water Damaged Floors In all cases of water damage in floors, cleanup should always start with removing any standing water to prevent further damage. Next, discard any floor materials that cannot be salvaged anymore such as carpet padding. It is also very important to remove excess moisture from the floor and especially the subfloor of wooden floorings. This can be done by using dehumidifiers or fans and other drying devices that force dry air onto the area and help restore the correct level of humidity. Once the surface is thoroughly dry, it should be treated against mold growth. Water Damage Floor Repair After applying an anti-mold treatment, the floor should be ready for repair and restoration. The specific methods for restoring water damaged floors will depend on the type of floors that were affected. For carpeted floors, replace the carpet padding and then reinstall new carpet if the old one was severely damaged and beyond cleaning. For water damaged wooden floors, make sure you have removed all hardwood that was damaged. The subfloor must also be replaced if the water has weakened it. Apply a floor-leveling compound and then install new wood flooring, making sure it has the same color, thickness and texture as the existing floor. Re-sanding and refinishing the replacement wood pieces may also be necessary so they will blend with the rest of the floor. For water-damaged tiles, use baking soda and water solution to clean stains off tiles. If there is serious staining and discoloration, it would be necessary to call a tile professional. If there are cracked grout lines or any loose tiles, they would have to be removed and replaced. It is important to make sure there is no moisture in the surface underneath the tiles. When It’s Best to Call for Professional Help Whether you have had water damage in your home caused by a storm or the cause of water damage in your home is sewage backup, do not attempt to do the cleanup yourself. You will be putting yourself at great risk because you are dealing with highly contaminated water. You should call a water damage restoration professional instead. Also, if the water damage is extensive, affecting large areas or more than one floor, then it is also best to call professional help because you may not be able to clean up everything quickly and time is of the essence in any water damage incident. Molds can grow on a surface that has been wet for just a day or two. In addition, the wet floor and subfloor must be dried thoroughly and this is done properly with the use of specialized equipment. You may have to rent them so why not just hire a professional water damage crew who already has the needed equipment and training to do the job efficiently. Calling for professional help is not just a convenient way to have your water damaged floors cleaned up and restored. In most cases, it is necessary to prevent further damage....
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