Oak floor with water damage

[nimrag]

A water line under the kitchen sink for the RO system was chewed through by rodents. It leaked out over night. When the oak floor was installed, it was put over the old linoleum floor. Some of the joints have buckled, but aren't too bad. In one spot, it has lifted over half an inch. It is tongue and groove and nailed down.

What are the solutions available? Can individual pieces be replaced? Can the raised edges be sanded down to the same height as the rest of the floor?

Thanks

 

[jake00]

It can be sanded, but the moisture has to come out first.

It'll probably be easier to replace , plus that'll help dry out the subfloor

If you sand it now, then the moisture leaves the wood, the edges will then be lower than the center , giving a crown look.

 

[James-W]

Can you post some pictures? It would help a lot if you could.

 

[nimrag]

It happened 11 days ago, how long before it's dry enough to start messing with it? The temps inside are mid 60's. When you say replace, do you mean the whole floor or just the damaged parts?

I will try to post pictures tomorrow.

 

[larry4406]

Traditional 3/4" thick strip oak flooring (sand-on-site) or engineered pre-finished?. Easiest way to tell the difference is that sand-on-site floor is smooth and flat across the joints whereas pre-finished has intentional v-grooves at the joints.

If it buckled that bad, I would say you are SOL on it fully relaxing. This comes with 30 years experience building production homes and having experienced many water leaks.

Sand-on-site has about 1/4" sanding allowance between the tongue and groove whereas pre-finished has a thin veneer maybe 1/16-1/8" so usually cannot be sanded out. Pre-finished has the intentional v-groove at the joints and this width will narrow if you were to sand. If pre-finished, good luck trying to find a box of matching material; that stuff goes out of stock frequently. If sand-on-site, you can use a moisture meter and remove back all of the water logged floor until you get back to a dry material. Then weave in new boards, sand and stain.

FYI - Wet buckled wood that is sanded flat to remove the upward crests, once dry, will result in reversed crowns at the joints once fully dry. Been there before.

I feel your pain.

 

[kd3pc]

cut the bad stuff out, and replace with individual pieces, sand and refinish to what the other floor looks like. Hard part is finding real wood anymore, and that size matches what you have.

Other option, especially if it is not real hardwood....replace it all with new flooring.

 

[nimrag]

It's the pre-finished floor. It has the small v groove between the planks.

This happened at my moms house and I am waiting for her to send pictures. When she does, I will post them.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[dutchgray]

This is why if you have a wood floor fitted you should get a couple extra yards and properly store it somewhere in the house if you can.

 

[nimrag]

not the best picture, I'm having her send more

I can't get it to load here, but it's in my gallery

 

[nimrag]

 

[jake00]

Can't tell much from the pics,

Had a lady whose dishwasher leaked, we pulled out the hardwood and let the subfloor come back down to 10% m/c. Took a couple months, put new flooring down (thankfully she had an extra box)

 

[kd3pc]

picture makes the problem look pretty easy to fix...no ripples

see if you can get her to lay a level or something across the boards..

bests

 

[nimrag]

I am going up there, later this week. I will get some better pictures.

 

[cgrutt]

Had a similar thing happen at a vacation house. Floor was glued down to concrete and buckled same way. I was able to pull up about 5 rows, cut about 1/16" off each row and re-cut the T&G and set it back down. Gap was slightly wider than normal in winter but closed up in summer. The cut was so small and spread across a number of rows and wasn't noticeable at all. Not sure if this is an option for you or not but something to consider. Good luck.

Oh, I cut the grove side leaving tongue and then re-cut groove to correct depth. Piece of cake on table saw.