Short Answer: With care and precision
Long Answer: Wood flooring requires special attention during a water damage remediation. Wood, if dried out incorrect, can bow and cup, leading to uneven floors. As organic material, it is particularly susceptible to being used as food when mold takes hold, which is why we find it important to dry it out steadily alongside constant monitoring.
Cupping occurs when wood absorbs water and expands, forcing the wood to bend into a new shape. Once this process occurs, the only option that really makes sense is to tear out the flooring entirely and lay down all new material, which is much too expensive to consider in many cases. This is the reason why we stress the importance of a fast response, as well as the correct knowledge to perform the job.
One tool in our arsenal is the E-TES, which stands for Electric Thermal Energy System. The flooring first needs to be prepared by cleaning up as much excess water as possible. Next, subsurface hardwood panel water extractors are placed, which are connected to an extractor in order to pull the water trapped beneath the wood flooring.
Once as much water is extracted as possible, Preservation Tape (a high-bond, low-tack specialty tape used in restoration) is used to secure the water extraction panels down to the flooring. Next, the hoses connected to the panels are connected to a forced air unit and a plastic containment is placed and secured in place in order to keep the heat as low to the floor as possible. An E-TES unit is placed near the plastic containment and turned on, which monitors and adjusts the output of heat as it works to dry the flooring fully.
When all is said and done, if remediated in a fast and efficient manner, your hardwood floor can be salvaged, and IRS is here to help make that possible.
