How to Fix a Warped Floor

What is a Warped Wood Floor?

Warped wood floors are a sore sight, and can be a great pain when you are confronted with one. You may notice your wood floor looking less immaculate, the boards may buckle, splinters break across the surface of the wood, causing minor hazards to anyone walking without footwear. The edges of the floorboards aren’t even any more, sprouting up from the subfloor without order.

Similar, more minor types of damage are also known as cupping, which occur when moisture accumulates in the middle of the plank. Over time the plank will move, expand and contract with temperature changes, and the board will end up having a sunken look.

Most warping damage will require specialist help or the boards will have to be replaced if the damage is too expensive.

What Causes Warped Floors?

Before knowing how to fix a warped floor, it is helpful to understand the root cause of warping. The culprit in this case, as for most flooring problems, is water. It will occur if there is a lot of moisture in the room, if anything leaks, like a pipe, or if there is a lot of spillage that is not cleaned up quickly. When the moisture seeps into the wood, it creates an unbalance, as in there is more water in certain areas of the board than another.

Wood is always moving with environmental factors such as temperature or moisture. So when there is a moisture imbalance, one area of the wood will dry faster than the other, causing that area to move in different ways to less affected areas, which makes the wood board warp and look uneven.

As well as spillages or leaks, a humid environment will also cause the floor to warp if there is enough moisture in the air, this is a problem with both engineered and solid woods, though engineered may hold out a little better due to its construction. It is for this reason that real wood floors (or even laminate) are not recommended in bathrooms. There are waterproof flooring solutions like our Aquacore range.

How bad the damage is will depend on what type of wood the floor is made from. Redwood, for example, will not warp as badly because of its straight grain patterns and certain chemicals inside the wood which protect against moisture.

Changes in temperature can also cause wood to move, and this is sometimes linked with moisture as well, because during the summer months the air can be dryer, which makes wood wood expand or contract. Additionally, if a wood floor has not been properly acclimated, you may get problems like warping after it has been installed. This is a pitfall a DIY’er could fall into, as it is a mistake to buy a real wood floor and install it on the same day. This is because the wood has been sitting in a shop or warehouse, where the temperature and humidity is different to that of an average residential property, so the wood will have adapted to that environment. If it is then moved into a warmer or more humid environment and installed straight away, the boards will move and warp. The boards must be allowed to sit in the room for a few days so that the wood can expand naturally with the new temperature and humidity levels, then it will be suitable for installation.

How to Fix a Warped Floor

Usually the services of a professional refinisher will be required if the damage is extensive, as they will sand the floor down properly to get rid of any damage (this will remove a layer of the wood, reducing the thickness of the board), and then refinish the wood. An important consideration if you have engineered boards is that they can only be refinished once or twice. Solid wood boards can be refinished many times over.

For major damage, the warped flooring may be beyond repair, in which case the floorboards would have to be replaced. In rare events some product lines stop running, and you may end up hard pressed to find the exact same product as your floor in any shop (especially if the floor is old). This is why it's good to keep any spare floorboards you may have from installation, so you can use them for repair.

If the damage is minor, and the boards are only curling at the edges, you can try drying the floor boards out and restoring a humidity balance in your room. The boards will contract back to their original state. You can dehumidify a room with a dehumidifier.

How to Prevent a Warped Floor

Preventing warped flooring is far easier and more efficient than having to fix it.

To prevent warping, moisture or water must be prevented from seeping into the wood floor boards. So if anything like a drink is spilled over the floor, it should be cleaned as soon as possible. If the floor is near any doors or windows, check they are not left open in the damper seasons and ensure they are watertight. Any wet shoes, boots, or clothes (like a raincoat) should be removed before walking over the wood floor to avoid spillage. Ensure that the humidity is controlled in the rooms with dehumidifiers. Finishes like oil or lacquer may protect the colour of the wood, but they won’t stop water seeping into the gaps if it is left uncleaned.

Summary

To avoid the headache of a warped wood floor:

• Make sure boards are acclimated

• Clean up any spills on your wood floor immediately

• Ensure rooms don’t get too humid

• Regularly check areas that could leak like a radiator pipe

• Keep spare boards safe in case you need them for repairs