Floods are often the main cause of water damage throughout your home. Unfortunately, this can very quickly begin to cause damage to your wood floors if the right restoration process is not taken.
The amount of damage that occurs to your wood floors depends heavily on how long the water stands on the floor before the restoration process begins. Therefore, it is extremely important to get help from a professional as soon as possible. Below are some of the damages that water can cause to your wood floors.
Common Damages Water can cause to your Wood Floors
- Cupping: This is when the sides of each board are higher than the centre of the board – the board has a concave surface.
- Buckling: This occurs when the wood floor lifts away from the sub-floor surface.
- Warping: This is when excess moisture causes the floorboards to lose their original shape.
- Additionally, wooden sub-flooring can be damaged in flooding situations. If it is not dried properly, the carpet or linoleum covering it may need to be removed – adding to the cost of damages.
When wood floors are flooded, it is extremely important that you call a professional drying and restoration company who knows how to minimise the damages caused by excess moisture in wood.
Our Wood Drying Tips
- It is important that wood floors are dried gradually to prevent any cracking or splitting of the wood.
- One of the first decisions that our technicians will help you make is whether you will be able to keep your wooden flooring or whether it is too badly damaged to dry and restore. For example, if your flooring is manufactured wood with a laminate surface, it may not be salvageable as moisture gets trapped under the laminate.
- The way your flooring was installed, e.g., nailed, glued or floated, will also impact the restoration process. For example, nails may lift out and glue may dissolve.
- Waxes and polyurethane finishes can inhibit the drying process and may need to be removed to facilitate the drying process.
- Dryers and dehumidifiers will be used to dry any wood that is salvageable.
- Drying may take 7-10 days or longer depending on the amount of moisture that the wood has absorbed.
If you need wood floor water damage restoration, call AllAces Cleaning & Restoration on 1800 00 1010. The sooner you call, the more of your floors we can rescue.