Wood Floor Restoration and Refinishing After Water Damage

Water can really transform a hardwood floor. If you’ve ever seen one buckle, you know the problem. At least, part of it. And you might think a flooded wood floor is beyond hope.

Well, there is hope. If you call Local Restoration before the floor starts to buckle.

A severely buckled floor can develop a real hump. But the buckling starts when it begins to pull the nails out of the subfloor. So don’t delay.

We’ll bring our special Injectidry system into action. It’s top-rated equipment that we use in conjunction with hardwood floor-drying panels. The results have your floor looking virtually good as new, and because you won’t have to replace the flooring, it can save you or your insurance company thousands of dollars.

Wait a minute. Floor-drying panels? They’re those black things in the photo. In effect, they’re like giant vacuum cleaner attachments. The yellow tubes connect to holes throughout the panels. The other end of the tubing goes to our Injectidry system, causing a suction under the panels. Thus this drying equipment draws air up from the subfloor, up between the grooves in the boards, and through the boards themselves -- bringing with it the moisture.

We combine this system with our desiccant dehumidifiers (which produce very, very dry air).

But if your floor has been wet for too long, buckling will probably occur (the longer it’s wet, the greater the chance of that). Then it’s a different story.

So call Rapid Restoration and avoid a total loss. You’ll find that our service is as beautiful as your floor was... and will be again.

(To view our Hardwood Floor Drying video, click the Play Button twice.)

Why removing water and subfloor moisture is so important...

Arrows show direction of water movement under the panels

Properly removing all moisture beneath your wood floor promotes even drying. You don’t want water trapped between the wood floor and subfloor.

f the floor dries unevenly (faster on the top side than on the subfloor side), cupping can occur, as shown above. The underside moisture causes that side to expand, which raises the edges.

If cupping has occurred, you’ll need to have the floor sanded. DO NOT SAND THE FLOOR BEFORE IT HAS DRIED COMPLETELY!

If sanded before drying, your nice, flat floor won’t stay that way for long. As it continues to dry, the edges, which will have been sanded thinner than the middle, will shrink. It then becomes a crowned floor.

A tip to the homeowner:

When water damage occurs to your hardwood or tile floor, ask your insurance company (and the restoration company) how they’re going to deal with the loss. If they want to replace the floor, ask this simple question:

Why not just dry the floor?

To many companies in our industry lack either the expertise, patience or judgment to preserve a valuable floor. They have lazily relied on “dumpster feeding” -- ripping the wet flooring out and replacing it. Remember -- you may be able to have it dried in place!

You’d be surprised. Even if you do nothing and swelling causes a BIG hump to appear in the middle of your room, as it dries the floor will go back down. We don’t advise you “do nothing,” because, although the floor may again be flat, the boards themselves may not be, due to uneven drying. But if caught in time, and dried properly, your hardwood floor will probably return to pre-loss condition, and not even need refinishing!

For professional service call Local Restoration at:
1-800-222-6815

All of Local Restoration technicians are IICRC certified!