Mt Airy's Flood Damage Technicians Explain How Moisture Can Effect Wood Floors

6/18/2018 (Permalink)

Stormwater Removal and Drying in Mt Airy Floors Needed? Try SERVPRO, "Like it never even happened."

SERVPRO Removes Water to Mitigate Damages After Storms in the Mt Airy Area

Excessive moisture can affect various materials inside your Mt Airy condo differently. When drying various substances, it helps to know how water acts when it comes into contact with the particular item. Wood floors get affected by moisture in primarily the same fashion every time. Grasping how the flooring reacts when it gets wet aids our SERVPRO technicians in the water removal process.
 
How wood floors behave when they get saturated depends on several factors including the amount of moisture and how long the materials have been wet. When mitigating flood damage problems in Mt Airy that take place after a severe thunderstorm, permeance and exposure time are the two significant variables determining the amount of damage to the floorboards. Permeance refers to how easily water vapor passes through a material. Exposure time refers to how long material was in contact with moisture, allowing for continued wicking into the wood grains.

When materials stay in contact with water for an extended period, the typical problems associated with moisture damage can get much worse. All wood naturally contains a small amount of moisture. As more water soaks into the wood, it expands. When wood expands warping is likely. Buckling can also occur at the joints where the floor pieces come together. The longer the wood floor stays in contact with water, the worse the buckling issues can become.
 
If water stays inside the wood, buckling can become permanent and remain after the floors are dried out. In some cases, buckling can be fixed by sanding down and refinishing the floors. In other situations, the floor's buckling is so severe that the wood floor must be pulled up and replaced.

How the water comes into contact with the wooden flooring can also affect how the wood reacts to being wet. When moisture gets absorbed from the bottom and sides of the wood floor, the edges of the floor pieces slightly raise or "cup." Cupping can often be fixed by sanding down the floors. When the top of the wood holds more moisture than the sides and the bottom crowning can take place. Crowning makes the wood arch creating a bowed shape in the middle. Crowning usually happens when the bottom of the wood gets dried too much and too quickly. In most cases, crowning cannot be repaired by sanding and refinishing, and the flooring materials must get removed and replaced.
 
Rapidly drying, but controlled and monitored, wood flooring materials after a storm hits town is the best way to prevent buckling, cupping, and crowning. Our SERVPRO technicians always closely monitor moisture levels within the wood during the drying process so that over-drying does not occur. Anytime you need help removing water from wood floors after a severe thunderstorm or flooding, call SERVPRO of Manayunk at (215) 482-0800.

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