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Fire & Water - Cleanup & Restoration

How We Handle Damaged Hardwood Floors

3/17/2022 (Permalink)

A strong storm can push large amounts of water through an Elk Grove home in just a few hours. Once the water is removed, you may find your hardwood flooring buckled, cupped, or warped, which is common after a flood disaster. SERVPRO will work to not only dry your property, but to also restore your damaged hardwood flooring.

Although the effects are quick to start, we can often prevent them from being permanent. Buckling is evident by the boards swelling higher than the ones next to them. With cupping and warping, floorboards twist in place, and if enough water has gotten into the boards, they pop up from the sub-floor.

Before we start any work, we first have to test and lower the moisture content to twelve percent or lower if possible. If the wood is too damp, any efforts to remove damage will only cause more. Depending on how high the number is, it could take as long as four or five weeks to bring it down to a safe level.

We begin with dehumidifiers to lower the humidity of the affected rooms to under forty-five percent. At that point, SERVPRO technicians set up air movers to blow warm air over and under the floorboards. This increased airflow and the higher temperature slowly draws out the moisture from the wood where the dehumidifiers absorb it.

When the humidity gets down to sixteen percent, we can safely install space heaters to quickly raise the temperature without causing secondary damage to the wood. It also increases evaporation which increases the effectiveness of the dehumidifiers.

With the moisture content now at a safe level, we can safely sand off any bulges and twists. Not only can we eliminate most of the visual loss, but our team members also disguise any repair efforts through carefully refinishing the repaired wood. In cases where the damage is too severe, we can sand down replacement boards to fit precisely.

If you find your hardwood flooring damaged by a flood, SERVPRO of Elk Grove / E. Schaumburg / Itasca / Roselle will make every effort to provide you with a floor indistinguishable from the original. It is not a quick or straightforward task, but it is one we have provided our neighbors for almost twenty years. Call us at (847) 593-3055 today to get started.

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