Water on floor AGAIN!

A

Angela Short

New member
I was filling a 5 gallon jug last night and was to lazy to put it in the sink for the "just in case I forget" senerio. Well, yep I forgot it. Good thing the baby got me up at 1:30. I walked into the kitchen for a bottle and was greeted with a nice cold flood in the floor. Yes its hardwood :(. This time it soaked through the floor and has ran through the ceiling of the finished garage and pooled on the floor down there also. Any tips to dry out water from under hardwood? Its still soaked under the floor and the garage ceiling already has developed a few nice crackes on the tape joints. I am sooo mad at myself! Anyone have a spare dehumidifier I can use for a few weeks?
 
When I had flood on the hardwood, when it dried out, it warped and everytime the central air kicked on, it creeked. I used fans and really good space heater.
 
Yea, the living room's hardwood is all cupped and nasty looking but it didn't have near as much water on it as this spill.... I am worried about warping. Cupping is fine and should sand out since we are getting the floors re-finished in a few months anyways but if the boards bow up thats another story I have to explain to the hubby! I don't think he will belive I just splashed water on the floor doing dishes! :lol:
 
C'mon Angela, you know you can turn this around and make it his fault somehow...

I'm not trying to pour salt on a wound (and I don't know how you have your water making set-up), but float valves for RO/DI's are really cheap and very easy to put on and take off of the output hose (at least mine is). If you need a bucket for more temporary applications that you want to be able to fill directly from the RO/DI, you can always just take the hose in and out of the float switch as needed so the bucket can be moved wherever.

I try not to rely on these float valves all of the time because I don't necessarily trust them, but they have saved my butt a few times when I fell asleep or went to bed while walking past the bucket I put on the stairs to remind me to shut the filter off (and other acts of pure genius). I've never had one fail, but they just seem "rickety."
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9125155#post9125155 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DMBillies
C'mon Angela, you know you can turn this around and make it his fault somehow...
Click to expand...

:lol:
 
Angela - maybe call a flooring place or a lumber yard? They might have a good idea of what to do. There's a place not far from you called Crosslin Supply Co. on Eddy Lane in Franklin. The guys there were very helpful when I stopped in looking for something. Maybe try them? 6157948600
 
Sorry about this. I wish I had a dehumidifer you could borrow... It may or maynot warp.. How long was the water sitting? within 5 hours, you will have better luck. You will be able to tell within 3 weeks. Hardwood floors damage occurs within 3 weeks. Yes, it will probably be a long, long 3 weeks. If it doesnt warp within 3 weeks... golden! Things you can do to help..1.Dehumidifiers 2.space heaters and 3. fan... for 3 weeks..as recommended by hardwood flooring companies. I would use all 3. Borrow what you can, and if you have no luck. Go to wal-m and keep your receipt. Good luck!
 
Thanks guys. Doing reaserch right now on what to do. I was just filling a bucket to do a small batch of SW for a QT water change. Sad thing is I could have just set the jug in the sink and any overflow would have went down the drain! A 5 seconds of extra work mistake on my part! The sink was actually clean this time also is what makes this such a needless spill! Oh well.
 
I thought about the use it and return it on a dehumidifier... I know someone in the club that did that with a big spill on carpet. The floor under the harwood is soaked. I blew into a hole from a knot in the floor (cabin grade) and it bubbled! The water ran from about 11 to 1:30 so I figured about 5 gallons on the floor and under it.
 
other things to take into consideration... you might want to talk to a professional about this..

Some people say to allow wood to air dry gradually. Promote even drying through proper ventilation. In most cases, swelling and warping of the solid wood, flooring and framing, will be minimal and decrease as the wood drys. Laminate wood surfaces may experience separation and warping caused by the uneven drying of the layers. Forced drying through the use of dehumidifiers and heaters will cause uneven drying, resulting in the cupping, warping, and checking of the wood.
 
Is it solid wood floor or veneer? Dry...Dry...Dry I would hope for the best in this situation. The thicker the floor and the more nails that they used to place the floor, will determine how much cupping you end up with. I hate to tell you this but the truth hurts. W/o completely tearing up the floor there is no real good way to get the water out but up through the wood, i.e. dehumidification. If it is solid they were supposed to run a type of tar paper underneath it. With this being impregnated with tar it doesn't allow for water or moisture to come up and through; also water to drain down. If it is laminate they probably put down a Styrofoam mat stuff which doesn't allow for much water movement. Hopefully they allowed about a 3/4" gap around the edge of the floor to allow for motion in the floor and so it won't pop up.

Oh yeah, I might have a frag for you of that zoa that you were looking for. (Did that brighten your day?)

Rob
 
Would it help to open up the ceiling in the garage since it leaked into the garage to help drying, or would that make matters worse (wouldn't be a fun job, regardless).
 
Angela, when we had our counters done the ding dong installers did not reconnect the dishwasher correctly and when we ran it out it ran all over the floor!! So I have sympathy for ya. In your garage, do you have the ceiling tiles that are easily removed? I haven them in my finished basement and garage. You need to totally open these up....and get a commercial fan (yep buy and return if you need to) The big silver ones.....you need to point up to it directly and you need to do this asap. Our floor is still not perfect but I think this saved it quite a bit for us. You need to have this fan on 24/7 for about 5-7 days.
Been there, done that!!
 
I have found that pointing the air coming out of the dehumidifier over the wet area tends to dry it faster since it is blowing warm/dryer air over it. I don't know if that would be good for wood floors though. I have done it on my carpeted floors before and it dried it out much quicker.
 
I made a mess on some hardwood behind the bar that swelled...she hasn't noticed as she doesn't frequent behind the bar. I've been in the clear for at least 5 months now. ;) just keep him out of the kitchen.
 
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