Floorwizard

Customer had a 40 gallon fish tank spill all over 2 1/4 solid wood installed in a kitchen.
Wood is warped and trashed.
The wood has settled down quite a bit, but it is still obvious that there was a problem. Some waves and such still in wood.
One store said they can sand their floor down to bring the wood back into shape.

What are your thoughts on this?

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"in 20 years you will regret more what you did not do than what you did"

Mike Finley

I'm not a floor guy, but I know wood. The wood cupped from the water sitting underneath the hardwood and creating a difference in moisture on the top and the bottom of the wood. As long as it is now dry and the moisture levels have stabalized the wood should not change in shape again, so in theory what they are proposing should work.

My only concern would be that cupping wood has the power to pull fasteners out or even pull them through itself, so it would be important that the floor is still attached correctly and now not riding up in some spots that will result in it making noise when you walk over those spots.

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justin savage

do not let anyone sand the floor until it is completely dry. you need a moisture meter to tell this. sanding it while its still cupped will cut the edges off, then when it dries and the wood flattens back to original shape the edges will look crowned(opposite of what they have now). use dehumidifiers and time to let it dry, it can take awhile. justin

PrecisionFloors

Great advice Justin

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Precision Flooring
Hampton, VA (757) 256-0848
Tile, Hardwood, Laminate, and Resilients
Installation, Sales & Repair - "We do it right the FIRST time"

Teetorbilt

I agree with everybody that said let it dry completely. Wood's funny, it often goes right back to where it was originally.

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Glasshousebltr

Yea Teetor's right, sometimes wood goes back to where it was originally, had 2 wives that did the same.

Bob

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Bob

reveivl

Agreed on the drying. My four year old came and got me one time having 'made a lake' on the maple floor. It took several months to finally get the last little ripple out of it. But it's all gone now, you'd never know it happened. Rich.

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Floorwizard

thanx

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"in 20 years you will regret more what you did not do than what you did"

Donedat

Yep I agree. Let it dry down completely. What I do is take a reading in the wet area and then walk to another side of the home where we know it is dry and take a reading there. The floor is "dry" when the wet area matches the reading in the dry area. FYI, a dry reading around here is usually under 10% on a moisture meter (6-8% usually but not always).

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adams,b

you could take a few rows up and let air get in there a little better, or if your in a big hurry just replace all of the wet stuff.

Kfedka

First off I'm asumming you talking about hardwood. With that much water spilt, the humitidy of the wood went way up. It will take a long time for it to dry out. Couple of quesitons. How long has the hardwood been in it and how old is the house that its in? How big of an area in square feet did it spill onto? It could possibly to repair, but would require more than just resanding and finishing. You would need to restaple/nail areas that are warped really bad, give it more time to settle in with the added staples/nails then resand/refinish.

A+Carpenter

Thats what I would have done. Why let the moisture stay in there with the wood to cause more problems and stall the drying process??????

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