How many times have we gone into a water loss involving a hardwood floor and several months after you’ve completed the work there is now a noisy wood floor concern in the area of the water loss? As a certified wood floor inspector, I see this time after time and in many cases the water restoration professional is unaware of the characteristics of certain wood products.
The first thing we must take in consideration is whether the floor is a solid or engineered wood floor. Moisture readings are required on a solid wood floor to determine how much of the wood floor has taken on moisture. For example, if the wood floor has increased by more than 10% moisture content, the wood floor has most likely swelled and is pushing the shouldering boards by 3/8” or more. This will create large gaps when the floor is totally dried and back to original moisture content. The simplest way to test for this is to take a 10 to 30 board width measurement. For example, if we have a 4-inch-wide material and measure 32 boards, it should equal 128 inches. However, if you obtain measurement of 128-7/16” wide when the floor dries back to normal, there will be a .015” gap between each board. These unsightly gaps were not present before the floor experienced the water exposure and will be a concern to the property owner.