When most hardwood flooring is installed, it typically has a tongue and groove system, which interlocks the boards together, with nails hammered into them to hold them down and in place.
When hardwood floors become saturated, the wood can absorb water and start to expand. Hardwood flooring can bow and bulge up. Once hardwood floors have bowed up, you may or may not be able to shrink them back into place. Saving the floor becomes a matter of time and talent. Depending on each situation, water damaged hardwood flooring must be gradually dehumidified and shrunk back into place using professional equipment and methods. Instead of entering into a potentially expensive weekend of DIY hardwood floor drying, your best bet is to call in the professionals at Service Team of Professionals ("STOP"). You can't just press them back down because the high humidity of the wood (and its consequent expansion) will prevent this. You can't even nail them back down. The wood is just too strong.
If hardwood flooring is dried out timely and thoroughly using professional processes, the wood can actually spring right back into its original place as if it has a memory. If not dried out in a timely manner, the wood will continue to "remember" the bowed shape instead of its original shape; never to return.
The best advice you can get in a hardwood floor water damage situation is to act quickly, and use professional techniques and professional equipment. Since replacing hardwood flooring can cost $8-5 per square foot, it will be restoration money saved.
Service Team of Professionals offers around-the-clock emergency services, 24/7. So if you have an emergency on your hands and you want professional help, give us a call.
Whether you call a professional, or deal with the matter yourself, the first step is to stop the flooding or leak, if possible, wherever the source is coming from. If it's a leak and you can't tell where the source is coming from, perhaps inside a wall or from the ceiling, then try to put a bucket and/or towels in place in order to absorb any standing water. You don't want water sitting on your hardwood floors for an extended period of time.
If it's a flood situation, the first step in our process, after making sure that the water is turned off, is to extract the water. We use high grade commercial extraction machines and/or sump pumps in order to move water out of an area quickly.
After that, we use professional air movers and dehumidification equipment for drying out the hardwood flooring and living space. The overriding concern in any water damage situation is the potential for mold growth. Indoor air quality can be affected in a very bad way after a water damage event.
If you have hardwood floors that have water damage, or if you aren't sure if you have hardwood floors that can be saved, just give us a call. We would be more than happy to come to your home or business and take a look, or just answer any questions you may have over the phone.
