Can Water Damaged Hardwood Floors Be Repaired

Hardwood floors are a great choice for home floor. Non only practice they look good, they're like shooting fish in a barrel to care for, resist wear and they're fifty-fifty eco-friendly. Still, hardwood flooring does have one draw dorsum, it tin't stand up upwardly to prolonged exposure to h2o, and so if h2o is allowed to stay on a hardwood floor the wood will be damaged (either stained or warped). Depending on the corporeality of water and how long it's been on the forest, the damage could be equally slight as a pocket-sized stain or and then bad you volition really need to replace some boards. Withal, before you go into replacing boards, here's some ideas on how you can repair h2o damaged wood floors.

Starting time by drying the floor

If the water is simply a puddle from someone's moisture boots or a leak in the kitchen, outset mop upwardly the moisture then dry the floor every bit all-time yous can. A fan or a hair dryer on a depression setting volition help dry both the surface and the subfloor under the difficult wood. If y'all have access to the floor from below, applying heat from underneath will also help dry both the sub floor and the hardwood.

Removing h2o stains

If your hardwood floor dries with a white hazy film on the surface you might get rid of it using a soft cotton wool cloth and a very mild abrasive such as tooth paste, polishing compound or even tobacco ashes mixed with mineral oil. Gently rub the stained area until the haze is gone.

Unfortunately hardwood frequently dries with a very noticeable black stain. Sometimes the stain is just on the surface, but it could go all the way through the board in which case the stained board volition demand to be replaced.

Removing a black surface stain is a three step procedure

Marker out your piece of work area with painter'southward tape so remove the surface cease starting with threescore or 80 grit sandpaper and finishing with 120 grit.

Side by side, mix oxalic acid crystals (bachelor at home or hardware stores) with warm water, then advisedly brush the mixture onto the stained area. Allow the solution to dry and if the stain is still there, repeat the application. The oxalic acid solution acts equally a bleach to remove the nighttime stain, but if the stain persists afterward repeated applications your board is permanently stained and will need to be replaced.

Finally, refinish the area using wood stain to match the floor then seal the repaired area with polyurethane.

Flattening warped boards

A slightly warped hardwood board can often be flattened out by placing something heavy on it for a few days until the board loses its trend to curlicue.

More desperately warped boards may be flattened using a heavier object or your other alternative is to face blast the edge downwards, counter sinking the nail heads then filling the holes with color matching wood filler or a colour stick.

If applying weight or confront nailing can't go rid of the warp, you will demand to remove and replace the damaged boards.