Water Leak On Wood Floors
Wood floors can add character and style to your home but water damage leave dark stains and can cause the wood to buckle.
Water leak on wood floors. To lighten dark stains. Luckily if you can dry your wood floors they can often be saved. Water damage can have severe consequences that results in wood floor swelling or buckling from the humidity. If the water is just a puddle from someone s wet boots or a leak in the kitchen first mop up the moisture then dry the floor as best you can.
The darker the stain the more likely it is that water penetrated through the protective layers of finish and into the wood itself. Add fans in this room as well and if there are windows in this room open them as well if it s not raining. If you have access to the floor from below applying heat from underneath will also help dry both the sub floor and the hardwood. Another reason water seeping through the floors is such a serious issue is if you have a two story home or live in a multi level apartment complex.
For this reason a professional should scope out the situation before you enter freely if you do in fact live in a multi level establishment. The sleek shine and natural colors make real wood floors very desirable. You can use a combination of surface drying and air circulation to help remove moisture from the wood. After a flood or spill it is imperative to extract as much water from your wood floor as possible.
If the leak comes from an appliance like your refrigerator you will have to get it fixed before you can start repairing your flooring. This material is highly vulnerable to water damage and swells when it gets soaked ruining the integrity of the material. Most laminate flooring that is water damaged must be replaced. The standing water can cause the flooring and sheetrock below to be compromised and it could collapse altogether.
If you ve got hot water heat in your home with radiators installed in each room you should investigate whether one of the connections to the radiator is leaking. If you have an extra dehumidifier use it here too. The leak could be the result of a broken pipe or something else inside your home s walls. Chances are that some of the water leaked into the sub floor beneath the hardwood flooring and you want to dry this out as well.
Although selecting your flooring is something under your control having flooding or water damage is something that can happen whether you want it to or not. If not caught very quickly there will be no chance of repairing the hardwood floor. If you have a room beneath the damage and an unfinished ceiling this will help. The majority of a laminate flooring plank is made with wood pulp much like particleboard or mdf medium density fiberboard.
Even waxed or sealed floors cannot withstand excessive water and if the wax or sealer is wearing. If the stain is black you re probably going to need to employ a tougher cleaning method than one you d use for white water stains. More commonly we ll find water damage on wood flooring that was caused by internal sources of water.