Solutions to Common Hardwood Flooring Damage

Damage to hardwood floors can be tough to address. Luckily, a hardwood floor installation is durable. Many problems can be addressed by removing moisture from the environment or by sanding the floor down and re-applying finish. It really depends on the problem, though. Here are some common ones:

Gaps

Wood floors move a little bit naturally depending on weather and humidity, but you want them to move together. Make sure the wood is completely dry during the hardwood floor installation. If you have too large a gap between planks, you risk each board getting damaged or malformed.

Cupping and Buckling

These can happen when a floor gets too wet or sustains repeated water damage over time. Cupping happens in a humid environment, where individual boards start to create a bowl shape. Buckling also happens in these environments when the wood expands to the point where it lifts away from its fastening. Buckled flooring can be re-fastened if it hasn’t cracked or torn out its grooves. Both of these issues can be avoided with a dehumidifier in a contained space and by applying moisture vapor protection.

High Traffic Wear

Wood wears over time. Luckily, hardwood floor installation is the gift that keeps on giving. You can sand off the finish and then sand the scuffed or damaged wood itself down with a finer grit. Look up the right grit for your floor or have a residential flooring subcontractor do the work for you. Once sanded, new layers of finish can be applied. Make sure to let each dry between applications.

Stains

Stains that are on top of the finish are easy to remove with some Minwax or another floor cleaner for wood floors. Stains that are in the finish have to be sanded out – there’s no other solution. Stains that have made it down into the wood itself mean the actual floorboards will have to be replaced.

Upon installation of a floor, always get a few extra floorboards from your residential flooring subcontractor. This gives you some extra just in case you ever have to replace damaged boards. And if you need help, call in the experts.