Water can cause immense damage to floors in your home or business. Follow our water damage repair tips to deal with and get finally rid of your water woes
Have you ever experienced flooding in your home? Whether it’s caused by severe weather, burst pipes, an overflowing toilet or appliance leaks, dealing with it and the subsequent damage water causes can be a nightmare.
When disaster strikes, one of people’s first concerns usually is their floors. Will they be able to come out of it unscathed? The best you can hope for is minimal damage.
Unfortunately, water damage can cause a number of flooring problems. Dealing with the cleanup and repair after water damage can be overwhelming.
What are some of the concerns that property owners face when dealing with water damage to floors?
Fortunately, help is within reach! Five Star Restoration offers the best solutions for this kind of emergency. We specialize in removing and drying water damage caused by pipe leaks, slab leaks, sewer backups, water heater failure, roof leaks and more.
Each type of flooring shows different signs of water damage. Here is what to look for when inspecting your floors:
✓ Buckling: Floor planks are completely separated and removed from the floor base below.
✓ Dark Spots: Stains are telltale signs. They may also be evidence of mold or mildew.
✓ Bulging: Wood planks bubble upwards.
✓ Cupping: Planks have raised edges but have dips in the middle.
✓ Discoloration: This may be due to mold or mildew.
✓ Warping: Planks are no longer flat and are either cupping or bulging.
✓ Swelling: This is most evident at the edges.
✓Musty Odor: Usually caused by mold or mildew.
✓ Discoloration: Can be a sign of standing water or mildew growth.
✓ Discoloration: Any sign of stains can indicate water damage.
✓ Hollow Sound: When tiles give off a hollow sound when tapped it means they have become loose.
✓ Damaged Grout: Cracked or missing pieces of grout.
✓ Discoloration
✓ Bulging
Before any floor repair can be done, if the floors are salvageable, it is important to have the flooring material and surface below thoroughly dried. When you have experienced serious flooding and water damage, call on the experts to completely dry affected areas.
The type of flooring you have in your home determines the best strategy to dry it when it has been water damaged. The caution in repairing your water-damaged floors is to be sure you do a thorough job. If not, you may end up with a mold problem down the road.
Once the liquid has been completely removed, the next step is to treat the stains to kill mold and mildew spores.
When there are signs of warping, cupping, buckling or separating, the damaged boards need to be removed and replaced. If a subfloor is present and shows signs of discoloration, it should be should be cleaned and dried completely prior to replacing flooring material.
Same goes for concrete slabs. If deterioration of the subfloor has occurred, the affected area may need to be taken out.
If you have been lucky and only a few boards show signs of water damage, it’s possible to just nail or screw the new boards into place. However, if a whole section needs to be replaced, a saw is used to cut into the floor and the damaged sections removed with a pry bar.
After this process, new planks that match the existing floor are laid down. To ensure uniformity, the entire hardwood floor is sanded and refinished.
For severe cases of damage, it may even be more cost effective to just replace the whole floor in the affected room(s).
While laminate flooring may be more resistant to water than real wood floors, large amounts of water typical of a flood or pipe leak can definitely cause damage. The first signs of water damage are swelling and warping.
Much like hardwood floors, laminate flooring also show signs of buckling, cracking, splitting, cupping or crowning.
Unlike hardwood floors, however, even if only a part of laminate flooring is damaged, it may be more cost effective to replace the entire floor.
It can difficult to remove individual damaged pieces and replace them to perfectly match the non-damaged portion of the floor depending on the age of the flooring and the availability of the same product.
Carpets can handle a significant amount of water. However, this can pose different concerns than hard surfaces after water damage. Because carpet absorbs water, it can quickly grow mold or mildew. It can also ruin your subfloor.
It is critical to have the water extracted, and the carpet quickly lifted or removed after flooding. Five Star Restoration, an expert water damage restoration company, has powerful equipment that can extract water from the carpet efficiently as well as commercial grade air movers to rapidly dry the material before any kind of growth begins.
After drying, it is important to have the carpet cleaned, sanitized and deodorized to remove unpleasant odors and kill any traces of mold or mildew spores. Usually, the carpet pad must be replaced and in cases where the carpet cannot be salvaged, it must be replaced as well.
If you are not sure your location is in the areas we cover, or if you'd just like to chat or ask a question, give us a call.
We are committed to an excellent finished product and even better customer service. Rest assured that when we show up for your restoration needs, you'll be informed, confident and stress-free.
