Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - Question about water damage.

Can a floor with water damage(bubbling up about 2 to 3 inches) be sanded and refinished or do those floor boards need to be replaced altogether? The damaged section(from a roof leak) is about 6 inches wide by about 10 feet long in and in the middle of the floor. Thanks for any help!!!!

If the wood is solid it can be sanded but it really depends on how deep the stain is whether or not the stain can be removed.

So do you think the best thing to do is to try and sand down the damaged boards first then just replace the boards afterwards if they need to be?

Yep
Sanding should be easier to do than replacing, surface stains can always be sanded out. The only time a stain can't be sanded out is when it is deep into the wood.

not sure what you mean by (bubbling up about 2 to 3 inches)

do you mean that the wood has warped and is 2-3 inches higher than
the undamaged flooring?

Yes, the area that is damaged is uneven with the rest of the floor. I was hoping sanding it would even it out and hopefully fix the problem. Thanks again for the help!!!

After further inspection I now realize the damage is probably underneath between the subfloor and the floor boards because the boards I believe have buckled upwards and are probably warped due to the damage coming from under the boards. Is the best thing to do just pull up and replace the damaged boards because sanding them down probably will not level them out with the rest of the floor.

If the wood is warped it would be best to replace it. Even if you can sand it level, the wood will be thinner with an air pocket under it.



BTW thanks leewaytoo for asking the right question - I wrongly assumed it was just the finish that was bad.

yw mark.

my girlfriends home had a similar prob with yrs of water running out into the
hallway from the bathroom.

i had to use a skill saw and rip one board down the middle length wise inorder
to have a place to start removing all the oak boards that i needed to remove.

then i had to replace the plywood subfloor then put in new oak boards.

i was refinishing all the floors, hallway, living room and dinning room after repairs.
they all ran together.

the problem is that, i could not think of any other way to do it than the way i
ended up doing it. meaning that, where do you stop pulling up the oak boards.

and i ended up ripping the tongue off my last board in order to get it to fit in place.

i am not sure what to tell you in regards to how the oak pattern will look when you
are done. except to say that you have to plan it out beforehand.

i also had the advantage of knowing that we were having carpet installed over the
newly repaired/refinished floors.

I have a few more questions. First one is, How do I fix the part of the subfloor that may be damaged (if possible) without replacing the entire subfloor and also where can I find replacement boards for the ones I will be pulling up. The floor is old and the boards are only 1 1/2 inches wide. Thanks again everyone for the info.

you have to remove the existing oak floor boards to where you
expose all of the damaged sub floor. then you cut out the damaged area
using a skill saw set to the depth of the subfloor's thickness.
you want to cut over the middle of a floor joist so you can nail
down your new plywood.
draw three lines on a paper, pretend that the lines are 1 and a half inches wide
and the lines are your floor joists 16 inches apart.

1 _______________

2 _______________

3 _______________

the area between line 1 and line 3 is where your damaged subfloor is.

cut out the area between the middle of line one and the middle of line 3
remove nails before cutting.

you probably wont be able to get right up to the wall with your skill saw
so you use what ever tools will get it out for you. i used a chisel.

cut a new piece of plywood to fit. nail down.

i filled any gaps with two part minwax putty, which is basically bondo.

if you are carefull when removing your oak boards, you might not have to
buy any more than one to replace the one you ripped at the beginning.
home depot sells bundles of oak flooring although they are wider than 1 1/2 inches.
so you would have to rip one to size.

Thanks for the help. I appreciate all the info. I'll give it a shot, hopefully it will come out ok.