Water Damage Chicago Northside

7/12/2019 (Permalink)

In this photo you will notice the crowning floor. Our technician is taping the area that will be pulled out during the demolition process.

When a hard wood floor starts to buckle without any sign of damage, it’s safe to assume that something is wrong.  This week we had such an incident occur at one of our local schools.  A gym floor began to buckle out of the blue.  Allow me to preface with a couple of definitions.  The term “buckle” usually refers to a wooden floor which is either crowning or cupping.  (And when I write wooden floor, I am speaking of hard wood, not engineered or vinyl flooring).

Cupping (too wet) – A condition that develops on wood plank flooring materials when the joints between planks absorb moisture and swell, causing expansion and raising of the edges of each plank.  The edges rise up higher than the center of the plank forming a cup appearance.

Crowning (too dry) – A condition that develops when wood flooring materials are sanded and refinished before they are fully dried.  As drying progresses, the edges of wood planks continue to shrink, dropping them below the center of the plank, creating a crown effect.

When we received the call from the engineer of the school this week, his concern was in regard to a hardwood gym floor that was “coming up along the edges”.  He was baffled about the cause of this, as there had not been any flood or any signs of water damage.  Of course our first instinct at SERVPRO of Ravenswood was that there must be an issue from under the gym floor.  We scheduled a free inspection immediately.  Timing is critical when it comes to wet wood floor, as the sooner we mitigate that water damage Chicago northside, the better the chances of saving those floors! 

When Eduardo arrived he quickly took measurements, performed his meter readings and located the wettest points on the floor.  Discussions of where the source of the moisture began.  Flooding was eliminated, nearby water fountains and bathrooms were eliminated, leaks from above where eliminated, leaving us with questioning “what is going on underneath the planks?”  SERVPRO of Ravenswood knows that is it not sensible to begin drying anything until we first finding the source and correcting the issue that is causing the floors to buckle.

Upon facility approval a plan was devised to pull up some planks – not all - in two spots; the area that had the most moisture and the area that had the least.  Again, our experience shows us that water travels from its sources and ends up in an entirely different area leaving the wettest spot.  Sure enough after a small demolition process it was discovered that the floor boards underneath were rotting due to concrete deterioration in the first area we worked.  Water was coming up from the foundation and damaging the gym floor above.  The resolution was to reseal the concrete areas and replace flooring to its proper home. 

In 1 day SERVPRO of Ravenswood was able to demo, discover, dry, decontaminate and essentially save the remaining gym floor.  The lesson here is to always call SERVPRO of Ravenswood, a reputable mitigation specialist who deals with such scenarios on a daily basis.  Time, money and stress will be lessened when appropriate protocols are followed. 

Call SERVPRO of Ravenswood for your water damage or mold remediation service today!

773-878-5200