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Water Damaged Old Oak Floor - Salvagable?

16 years ago

We've got the typical 2 1/4" oak floors found in a lot of old New England homes, and it is (now was) a really nice appearance type wood.

Room flooded, the whole room while we were gone for a week. Disaster struck slowly. Water everywhere and going to through ceiling below. Water must have been absorbed into the buried old wide pine flooring and subflooring original to the house.

We've fixed everything but the floor, and I added a new water shutoff alongside the ancient main valve to the house which will be used whenever we leave overnight.

We've now got a room full of cupped boards. I'd hoped they'd just dry out, but that hasn't had an effect. Every board has raised edges, but still butt tightly. There's one area that has a 2" high hump where the boards have pushed themselves above the subfloor.

Does this sound repairable? Can I slice into and re-nail the hump, and sand the remaining part, or is it time for a new floor?

Salvage is preferable to replacement because of floor trim and ornamentation.

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Comments (3)

glennsfc
16 years ago
Does not sound good. The fact that you got a 2" high hump suggests that you will have what we call edge compression set on the board edges which will become evident once the floor dries out. If you can deal with significant gapping of your once beautiful floor, then maybe trying to salvage it may be what you want to do.

However, your bigger issue here could be mold problems down the road. Replacement may be your best alternative.

If you can't replace the floor due to no insurance or no available funds, then by all means get a dehumidifier going below the floor to help speed the drying process.

What is below the floor system?
walrus
Original Author
16 years ago
It's an 1870's balloon framed house. It's been several months since the leak, and I don't think mold will be a problem. The floor has probably has dried out as much as it will, and if not, certainly the steam heat will complete that soon. And framed as it is, there's likely air flow between the floor joists. I'd feel safe applying polyurethane on it now.

Not worth insurance claim with our high deductible.

So what typically happens when a cupped floor is sanded? I can probably level the hump and blend it well.
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glennsfc
16 years ago
First the good news...cupped floors that are sanded flat will sometimes exhibit what we call slight crowning of the boards...not all that bad a look.

Now the bad news...You must wait at least through the heating season before you attempt to sand that floor. You have to give that floor more time to dry out and shrink, otherwise your refinishing efforts may be for naught.

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