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 become so buckled that it has come completely away from the subfloor to which it was attached it may be necessary to call in a hardwood floor installer to reattach the planks.
In all cases when dealing with repairing hardwood floor water damage the key to a successful restoration is to completely remove the moisture that caused the original damage in the first place. No matter how carefully you carry out your restoration, if you haven’t fixed the origin of the water the problem will return and cost you even more of both your time and money.
For all your water removal needs, contact the professionals at Water Damage Local.com.
This is an interesting article. Some people have issues with wood floors that absorbed moisture. I am wondering how long the process would take. I guess it depends on the size of the damaged area and the moisture content.
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