Did you recently experience a flood at home? Seek local dry out services to salvage your furniture.
Regardless of the cause, flooding can prove disastrous for your home and everything it contains. If floodwater makes its way into your home following a storm or heavy rain, the biggest challenge is to salvage your furniture from water damage.
Basements, in particular, are highly vulnerable to flooding and water damage. If you’ve finished your basement and spent a lot on furniture, framing, and carpeting, you should be even more worried.
But no matter how serious the situation is, taking prompt measures such as seeking immediate dry out services should help you save most of your possessions. Let’s take a look at how excess moisture can damage your furniture:
How Moisture Damages Your Furniture
If not addressed, moisture will penetrate the furniture’s upholstery materials and porous wood, causing changes in its appearance and structure. This can lead to the following complications:
- Water Stains: Because of dampness, white spots begin to develop on wooden furniture and the finish gets hazy.
- Veneer Gets Loose:The core of veneered furniture is typically made of particleboard, medium-density fiberboard, or plywood. These are low-quality materials that tend to swell when exposed to water. This causes the veneer to loosen as its seams come apart.
- Cracking and Warping: When exposed to moisture, the wood in the furniture saturates and expands. Upon drying, the wood shrinks, leading to cracks and splits. Also, different parts of the furniture lose moisture content at different rates. When one part dries faster than the rest of the surfaces, the piece warps. The area that dries faster shrinks more quickly, causing stress that alters the shape of the piece.
- Broken Pieces: The different parts of furniture are joined together using a glue. As moisture seeps into the furniture, it ruins the glue, loosening the joints of the pieces. The weakened furniture eventually breaks apart.
- Decaying Wood: When the moisture content in the wood exceeds 30%, lignicolous, a type of fungi, develops on the wooden surface. These fungi release enzymes that break the wood cells apart, causing the wood to rot.
- Mold: Mold requires organic matter and moisture to form and spread. The upholstery and wood in your furniture, when exposed to moisture, provide the perfect environment for mold to grow. The longer your furniture remains exposed to moisture, the higher are the chances of mold growth.
How to Salvage Your Water Damaged Furniture
It’s important to know that waiting too long before addressing water damages could make your furniture unsalvageable. As long as you act on time, slow drying and effective repair should save the furniture.
However, water damaged surfaces and standing water can be dangerous for anyone trying to dry the furniture or other areas without protective gear.Therefore, its best to seek professional drying services to address water damages.
For emergency dry out services, get in touch with the S.T.O.P team.
