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If your luxurious hardwood floors have been doused with water, you immediately wonder if they have been damaged beyond repair. Have they been ruined forever? A little water could mar the finish or leave a dark stain. When large amounts of water are absorbed, the porous planks swell.
Normal moisture content in hardwood flooring usually ranges between 6 and 12 percent, but soaked planks might get up to 40%. When floors get this wet, the structure of the wood cells can be damaged. Several other factors can affect your prospects:
If the water intrusion is less than a few hours, you may be able to clean up the spill with a mop and some towels. If you are lucky, a box fan will remove the remaining humidity.
However, if the water sat longer on the surface, moisture would have soaked into the pores of the wood. The first 24 hours are critical, and the longer the wood is in contact with water, the worse the damage will be. Water might spread to the baseboards and up the walls, causing even more damage.
And after 48 hours, you need to be concerned with mold. Airborne spores will flourish when organic food sources (wood and sheetrock) remain damp. And then mold can drift into your HVAC system and spread throughout the home.
Another aspect that determines whether you can repair your floors or not is the type of water that got on the floors. Clean water from your sink, faucet, bathtub, shower doesn’t contain dangerous material. If you can quickly remove the water and dry out all the moisture, you might only have to replace small, damaged areas.
Greywater describes wastewater containing bleach, detergents, or food particles. Even originally clean water can turn into greywater over time. The restoration crew will mitigate potential damage when they repair the area.
Dangerous “blackwater” contains harmful bacteria from contaminated sources such as overflowing toilets, backed-up sewage systems, nearby streams, etc. Exposure to blackwater usually requires a new installation rather than repairs.
Even if the problem was caused by “clean” water, you need to watch out for signs of permanent floor damage. When boards are forced together by built-up moisture, it results in “cupping” or “crowning.” This lumpy, wavy floor looks and feels uneven.
Maybe the damage shows in the coloring (or lack of.) Whitish circles, which indicate mild damage that could be addressed with repairs and refinishing. However, dark black stains indicate more water was absorbed, and major repairs are needed.
After water damage, your restoration team might bring in fans, blowers, and dehumidifiers. Sometimes cupping and crowning can be corrected by simply restoring proper humidity inside the room. But if the floors need to be replaced, even the subfloor must be “bone dry.” Engaging a full service restoration company with the proper resources and staff will get your home back to normal ASAP.
If you are pretty handy, have a complete set of tools, and access to all the needed materials, should you attempt to repair the damage and replace the floors? Consider your realistic timeline. If you have plenty of time to spend repairing your wood floor’s water damage, it might be possible. But your family and pets might not have the patience to wait through the process.
Rather than researching how to install engineered hardwood flooring from the internet, outsource the stress to 24Restore.
When you have soaked hardwoods, or any water damage, call 24Restore for help. If there is only minor damage, the experts might be able to save them. Depending on your situation, they might replace the ruined floorboards, then refinish the entire floor. If the floor’s damage is more extensive, even the subfloor may need to be replaced. Sometimes new installations can be less expensive than repairs; the only way you will know is when the experts assess the situation.
Minnesota based 24Restore can determine the extent of the damage, estimate the extent of needed repairs, prepare a timeline, and then start to work. 24Restore’s technicians are certified by the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) to handle your water damage.
“24Restore came within an hour of our water damage to assess the problem and restore and reconstruct our kitchen and my office. Everyone from 24Restore was professional, kind and did an outstanding job of damage assessment and restoration.”
Your service was excellent. The young man was thorough and very dedicated to completing the job. He’s a good one. I would recommend your services to anyone who need them.
Your team has been absolutely amazing, professional, sympathetic and wonderful. They took my mess and made it manageable as I shed a few tears, which they also consoled with empathy. At a time when we have floods and tornados city wide you responded within hours. Thank, I am impressed and I have passed the word on to many.
Very good experience……everyone I dealt with through 24 Restore was very professional and very kind.
This note is a note of thanks and appreciation of the services provided…..we could even say our home looks better than before we incurred our water damage…Job well done!
I don’t often take the time to write a follow up complimentary letter. However I was very impressed with 24 Restore and felt they went above and beyond to surpass expectations with WOW service. Thank you for the great service and great job that your team did to get my house back in shape.
I have recommended them to many of my friends. They are the only service that I have ever used that always gets my stains out and that clean my carpets beautifully. I can’t say enough good thins about them
Thank you for all the work put in to get out home……It would have been an impossible task for us to have accomplished in such a short time. We appreciate all that you have done for us! We are so grateful!
Yes. I appreciated the ability to funnel all activities thru a one-stop shop proved to be very valuable in a disaster project such as ours demo, construction and finish as well as work directly with insurance company. The team has been professional and those on site have been respectful of our home and schedule.
Alex did a great job scheduling, coordinating, and keeping me informed. He made sure that everything was done in a timely manner. I always felt that my job was a priority. All the workmen did a great job and were very polite. I am pleased with the results. I would highly recommend your company!
From the time of initial contact to the time of job completion was 24 hrs. Very pleased with job outcome. Will definitely use you again. If ever in need.
Response time was awesome. We we’re bewildered by what was happening and what needed to be done. 24hr came in and took care of what needed to be done.
I thought 24 was very professional and timely work.
24Restore was very responsive and did a thorough job plus they cleaned up after themselves.
The job was exceptionally well done. You were recommended to me by Dennis Carlson, a freind and I would definatley refer 24restore to friends and family.
Very Professional!
Everyone was on top of everything and got back to me in a reasonable time. Clean up was done absolutely perfect at the end of each job.
The guys who worked here were great, polite, personable and hard workers. They did a great job! So thankful this is over!
Working with the employees at 24restore has been an easy process. They aimed to please.
Kudos to Shelli Abraham especially, she worked with the mortgage company and insurance company so I didn’t have to, I’m a caregiver for my husband with Dementia, she took the pressure off having to deal with them, thanks Shelli.
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