Water and wood do not mix. When tragedy strikes and your dishwasher escapes, your washing machine hose bursts, or your ice maker has a collapse, your wood floors can pay the price. But how can you know if they're salvageable? At Surbiton Floor Sanding , we have seen the worst. The fantastic news is that no matter what occurred, we can repair or replace them. The question is...which one will it be?
FAST ACTION MAY SAVE YOUR WOOD FLOOR
Wood is a porous natural substance that may only withstand the consequences of water for a short moment. That is why you must act fast to prevent damage from occurring. But sometimes, things happen that you can't plan for. By way of instance, you're away on holiday and while you're lying on a beach soaking up sunlight, a tube breaks and flooding your kitchen which then remains that way for several days. Now what?
SIGNS OF WATER DAMAGE TO LOOK FOR
Here are some signs of harm to Search for:
-Staining and/or discoloration
-Cupping -- the borders of the individual planks are raised higher than the middle
-Crowning -- the Center of the individual boards swells and rises
-Buckling from absorbed moisture
-Popping nails
-Lifting of floorboards (particularly at the ends)
-Mold growth (can happen within 48 hours of flood )
Depending on how long the floor was wet, damage can vary. Considering the normal moisture content in a normal hardwood floor is somewhere between 6 and 12 per cent and a flooded hardwood floor may have a moisture content of up to 40 percent, damage can be severe. A lot of it has to do with the amount of time which the floor is subjected to the water. More moisture will be retained if the flooring is made to dry by itself.
4 DECIDING FACTORS FOR REPLACEMENT OR REPAIR
Determining whether a water-damaged hardwood flooring can be repaired or should be torn up and replaced will depend on a number of factors such as:
-The length of time the flooring has been subjected to water
-Whether your flooring is solid hardwood or engineered hardwood
-The seriousness of the harm (Has the water squeezed to the subfloor? ) )
-The floor's end (It can be difficult to match particular stain colors when replacing isolated floorboards, particularly if the stain has"mellowed" with time.)
Strong hardwood flooring gives you the broadest range of options for repair. As it's solid wood throughout the whole plank, we could sand away around 1/4 of an inch of the wood to remove surface or cupping mold. When the boards are sterile, we could restain. Additionally, solid flooring could be replaced and fresh planks can be retrofitted more readily to the existing flooring. With engineered wood flooring, because only the top coating is actual wood, there is less substance to sand, which limits the repair choices.
If the damage is minor, the floor can sometimes be saved by replacing influenced boards then sanding and refinishing the entire floor. If the damage is severe or extensive, causing significant growth, the whole floor may need replacing -- and sometimes even the subfloor is going to need to be replaced.
Should you suspect water damage, the first step is to get the floor's condition assessed by means of a hardwood flooring specialist. Call Surbiton Floor Sanding at 020 3369 5065 and one of our hardwood water damage repair experts can help assess the situation and provide you an estimate on repairing or replacing your wood floors.
