Water Damage Hardwood and Parquet Floors

Posted by MAZlogics
| August 12, 2021
| Dubai, Facility Maintenance Solutions in Dubai, Facility Management Company Dubai, Plumbing Services, UAE

It boils down to five factors in determining if your wood floors can be fixed. If your wood floors have endured water damage, you will need to decide to fix or replace These are:

Visible physical damage
The water source (Clean or septic)
The amount of water on the floor.
The amount of time that the water was on the floor
Last but not least, should you hire a professional, or is the damage minimal enough to fix yourself.

Assessing the situation

When looking at your damaged floors you will need to assess the situation. While some water might be visible, other water may have seeped in the cracks of the floor and making the flooring do things that cannot be repaired but will need to be replaced. Look at the floor for:

Staining-Do you see any water staining that has gotten deep into the wood. There are a couple of different situations here. There are two types of stains, white stains, and black stains. While white stains can be taken care of with the use of various oils, black stains mean that the flooring has been damaged to the point of no return. You cannot get black stains out of the wood. So, the wood will have to be replaced.

Other things to look for.

Buckling-This is usually rare but it does happen. This is where the wood detaches from the subfloor. Buckling cannot be fixed and the floor will need to be replaced.

Crowning-This is the swelling and then shrinking of the wood from the moisture that it has been exposed to. When crowning occurs most of the time the wood can be saved.

Cupping-This can happen when moisture has been introduced to wood flooring. This is where the edges start to curl up. This is a type of damage that will need boards replaced.

The water source

Let’s take a look at the various water sources.

Salt Water-Salt water isn’t super damaging to a hardwood floor; it is dealt with right away. Most saltwater instances are due to a malfunctioning fish tank. Most of the time, we catch saltwater issues right away and don’t see much damage from them.
Black water-Black water is the most dangerous of the water types. It is raw sewage that could come from a broken sewage pipe or a backed-up toilet. If you have a black water issue, you really need to call in the experts to ensure it is appropriately handled. Blackwater contains numerous pathogens that carry a range of diseases. If your hardwood floors were exposed to black water, we highly recommend replacing them.

Other water sources that can ruin wood floors.

Grey water is similar to black water but originates from sources like dishwater or bathwater, so it generally poses less danger. It often contains soap and possibly bleach from laundry or dishwashing. Grey water issues typically occur when hoses for dishwater or laundry break or loosen. Assess the floor to determine the damage level, as many grey water spills can be cleaned quickly with minimal residual harm.
Clean water-Clean water is the best water damage you could have. It isn’t going to carry any pathogens or bacteria and it is clean. However, too much of a good thing turns it into a bad thing. Clean water should be used to clean your floors. However, too much standing clean water will damage a perfectly good floor. Be sure that you clean up standing water any time that you see it. This could be due to a pipe breaking or the hose on the ice maker coming off. There are many reasons for a clean water spill. But, to limit the damage the response should always be swift.

The amount of water on the floor.

The amount of water on the floor can be a determining factor. If you have said an ice cube falls, you probably won’t see the level of damage that you would with a burst pipe. Water from a fish tank could become various sizes as a tank to a fishbowl. The lower the amount of water the easier it is to contain.

The length of time that the water was on the floor.

In an ideal situation, you want to get the water cleaned up right away. However, sometimes a pipe will burst, and we don’t know it. Maybe you were on vacation or something. If you had standing water on your wood floors for any period of time, you would probably see the damage.