What to do if the laminate gets wet. What to do if the laminate is flooded with water

Flooding of the laminate is not at all uncommon, for example, it often happens due to the fact that. Therefore, before many apartment owners, when such a nuisance nevertheless occurred, the question of how to dry the laminate after flooding is acute.

You should know that drying the laminate and its restoration after flooding is a very difficult process, which largely depends on the clarity and coordination of the actions of the owner of the apartment during the flooding of the laminate. So, for example, the restoration of a laminate is directly affected by how much it was in the water, the way it was fastened, and much more.

When wondering how to dry the laminate after flooding, first of all, of course, it is necessary to identify the cause and eliminate it as quickly as possible. If a warm floor has flowed, then it is necessary to turn off the taps on the heating comb. The same is done in case of leakage of heating radiators.

After the cause of flooding is identified and eliminated, the laminate flooring should be inspected. In this case, it is important to understand how much it has been affected by water, and how deeply it has penetrated under the laminate.

It is also important to know what structure the floors have, since the effective drying of the laminate largely depends on their design. If, for example, the laminate is laid on a wooden floor base, which in turn is fixed on the logs, then in this case it will be the fastest to dry the laminate after flooding.

Worse, when the laminate is laid directly on the cement screed. In this case, unfortunately, one cannot do without disassembling the laminate. About that, you can read in another article of the construction magazine "SAMASTROYKA" if you follow the link above.

You should know how to dry the laminate after flooding. To do this, remove all accumulated moisture from its surface. If there are no visible signs of laminate seam failure, then it may be possible to get rid of moisture under the laminate and the substrate on which it is laid.

It is also worth opening the windows in the room where the laminate has been flooded to increase air circulation. After some time, it will be necessary to inspect the laminate again for obvious signs of damage.

It often happens that the laminate is not damaged after flooding, but only in some areas. Then it will be necessary to disassemble the laminate in damaged areas and replace the damaged substrate under it.

The question of how to dry the laminate after flooding needs to be addressed quickly. Only in this case, there is a high probability to keep the laminate flooring safe and sound.

Imagine you come home from work, and the floor in the apartment is completely covered with ... water. This has happened to everyone at least once in their life. And, of course, the most important question for any landlord is the question of how to save precious flooring without damage and extra costs.

What if the laminate was laid on a concrete floor? Unfortunately, in this case, there is no way to do without disassembling the laminate. You will have to completely or at least partially remove the panels to dry the base, otherwise the water will have nowhere to go, and the drying process will be delayed, risking unpleasant consequences in the form of fungus and mold.

In most cases, these measures will be enough, and after complete drying, a high-quality laminate will look the same as before the “accident.” But, alas, this does not apply to cases where, due to prolonged exposure to water (especially if it is hot) the panels have time to deform. When re-laying, it is possible to use only canvases that have retained their original shape. Therefore, experienced craftsmen advise purchasing several spare boards during repairs, otherwise choosing the right tone for the coating can be quite a task, given that sometimes even the same batch contains boards that differ in shade. If it is important for you that your flooring be made strictly within the same shade, but it is impossible to find additional canvases, as an option, you can take the old layers from under the carpets and furniture - from those surfaces that are hidden from the eyes - and put new ones in their place.

Important! If you did not find the planks of the same model that were installed with you, and decided to purchase new ones for partial replacement of the coating, be sure to ensure that the new sheets do not differ in thickness from the old ones.

Fragmentary resuscitation - is it possible?

It often happens that the laminate swells in the middle of the room, and dismantling the entire floor covering for the sake of a small space in the center is very time-consuming and energy-intensive. Therefore, you can try to fix the problem at the place of its occurrence:

1. First, select one of the damaged boards and, stepping back from the edges of the plank five centimeters on each side, mark a rectangle on it.

3. After that, you can disassemble the damaged area to replace the deformed elements.

4. After the materials have dried thoroughly, re-lay undamaged or new elements of your flooring. When replacing the last blade, break off the lower part of the lock connection from the new lamella, then insert it into the remaining space, carefully gluing the joints, and put the load on for a day.

How to help and not harm your laminate

"Saving" the laminate from excessive moisture, use the secrets and subtleties that facilitate repair work and improve the result.Repair and Construction Laminate in the apartment: pros and cons, laminate classification

If the flooding was insignificant, but you still fear that the laminate will swell, remove the baseboards around the entire perimeter of the room while the materials dry to ensure that the coating can expand unhindered. If your laminate was installed correctly, there should have been a small amount of shrinkage between the wall and the flooring. After flooding in those places where the laminate rests closely against the wall, cut the extreme sheets by 5-10 mm with a cutter or chisel.
When dismantling the laminate, be sure to number the panels with chalk or a pencil so that you do not make a mistake in the sequence during assembly.

For rooms with high humidity, initially choose a moisture-resistant laminate.
Treat the joints between the lamellas with an ordinary wax pencil. This will help protect the floor from small accidents or wet cleaning. There are also specialized wax coatings for laminate flooring.
When wet cleaning floors, do not use abrasives and aggressive chemicals - they will remove the protective layer, opening the way for moisture.
Do not use household or building appliances to speed up the drying of materials - this will only harm them.

Thus, in many cases it is quite possible to save a wet laminate, the main thing is to do everything quickly and clearly know the sequence of actions. We, in turn, want the floor to serve you for many years and please more than one generation with its durability.

No one ever expects it, but sometimes it happens - a flood. And, gradually recovering from confusion, we begin to ask ourselves questions: is it possible to somehow save the precious floors, how to dry the laminate after the flood? Let's look for answers to these questions together. Let's try to find out if it is possible to save the flooring and how to dry the laminate after flooding? And let's try to determine our actions and their sequence: what should be done immediately and how to minimize the devastating consequences.

How to dry laminate flooring after flooding

Much is determined by the base material, whether under a laminate floor is a concrete base or a wooden floor. Primary action: to ensure the circulation of air currents inside the apartment, such as a draft. To do this, you need to open the windows, doors in the room, providing an influx of fresh air.

How to save laminate flooring after flooding

It is necessary to carefully remove the wetted boards, thoroughly wipe each with a dry cloth and put it on the sidewall, leaning against something to dry. If the slats are very wet, then it would be more correct to stack them in piles, laying newspaper sheets between them that can absorb moisture well. Place a weight on top of the stacks. This will help prevent the process of warping and deformation of the boards during drying.
Do not place wet panels on the ends to avoid their deformation.

Further, our actions depend on the material of the subfloor under the laminate. In the case when the laminate flooring is mounted on a wooden floor lying on logs, it is even possible to do without dismantling it: if the flooding is not very large, the water will soon seep into the floor, the substrate under the coating will not suffer significantly. A non-continuous (sheets or cork) substrate for a laminate dries quickly.

How to dry a laminate laid on a concrete floor after flooding?

In this case, dismantling the floor covering is indispensable.
Sequence of parsing and drying:

The subfloor under the laminate flooring must be wiped with a dry cloth and dried. If this is not done, water will remain and the drying time will be much longer, which can lead to unpleasant consequences, such as fungus or mold.

For the final drying of materials, it may take from 3 to 15 days.

Advice: to determine the drying of the base, it is necessary to cover it with a film of polyethylene, leaving it overnight. The absence of condensation on the surface of the film in the morning means that the base has dried. Usually the drying time of the slats and the base is the same.

Most likely, the measures taken will save the situation, and when completely dry, high-quality panels will take on their original appearance and will be ready to serve you, as if there was no such unpleasant event as a flood. Unfortunately, if the exposure to water was prolonged, or, even worse, the water was hot, then the panels have time to undergo deformation.

Only those panels that have retained their normal appearance and have not been deformed are suitable for laying. For this reason, experts recommend buying material for repairs with a margin of several panels for such an unforeseen event. If there is no stock, picking up several boards that exactly match in color and texture can be an impossible task.

In this case, use the panels from the old coating, lying under the furniture, lay them in prominent places instead of the damaged ones, and put the acquired, but not quite matching in shade, in their former places.
Tip: If you buy boards of a different brand for replacement, you need to ensure that the thickness of the new panels matches the thickness of the old planks.

How to dry laminate flooring without taking apart the entire floor?

In cases where the floor has swelled in places far from the walls, closer to the center of the room, you don’t want to disassemble the entire floor covering due to several panels in the center, since this is a rather laborious undertaking.
How to dry a laminate after flooding without dismantling the entire floor?

It is possible to try to get out of the situation in an easier way. For this:

Select one of the panels to be replaced. On its surface, you need to draw a rectangle, at a distance of about five centimeters from each edge of the board.
According to the drawn lines, you need to carefully cut a rectangle in the middle of the board. The remaining pieces of the panel must be removed without damaging the adjacent boards.
Now it is easy to disassemble the part of the coating to be replaced.
The removed boards should be dried well. Some of them may be suitable for re-laying, and some will have to be replaced with new ones.
Perform laying on the disassembled site.
Before laying the last panel, subject it to the following operation: cut off the bottom of the locking element, coat the joints with adjacent boards with glue, and only then insert it into place, putting a load on it for 24 hours.

When rescuing laminate flooring from moisture, here are some tips and tricks to make repairs easier and improve results:

In the event of a slight flood, to avoid swelling and deformation of the laminate, dismantle the skirting boards along all walls in the room for the entire drying period of the coating, thus ensuring that the laminate expands unhindered. If the floor covering has been installed correctly, then there is a small technological gap (about 1 cm wide) between the edge panels and the walls to allow the laminate to change dimensions with changes in climatic indications. If there is no such gap or it is smaller, it is necessary to cut them by 1 cm in places where the extreme panels are close to the wall.
When dismantling a laminated floor after a flood, it is imperative to number the lamellas, for example, with chalk, so as not to disturb their location during subsequent installation.
In rooms with high humidity, it is recommended to use a moisture-resistant PVC laminate for laying.
Interpanel joints are recommended to be processed using a regular wax pencil. This will to some extent protect the floors from a small amount of moisture. There are commercially available special products containing wax for the treatment of laminated coatings.
Do not use abrasive or aggressive substances to clean the laminate floor, as they will damage the surface protective film.
Do not use heaters to speed up the drying process of the panels, so as not to harm them.

We see that even after a flood it is possible to save the laminate in many situations, it is important to act quickly and correctly. To do this, you need to have an idea of \u200b\u200bwhat to do and in what sequence to perform certain actions. Let your laminate floor serve for a long time and give you only positive emotions.

Laminated board has taken its rightful place in the homes of Russians due to its ease of installation, long service life and high aesthetic characteristics. However, the cork structure can cause the laminate to swell from water. How to fix this, you need to find out after finding out the causes of the defect.

Reasons for the deformation of the laminate board

Laminate warping can occur due to a number of reasons, the most common among which are:

Low quality material. When buying, you should give preference only to well-known domestic and foreign brands. The buyer has the right to inquire if the seller has a certificate for the products;
The concrete floor surface was not properly prepared. The rough surface must be dry, clean and without prominent physical irregularities. You can not spare time for natural drying;
Errors during installation. Often families decide to save money on the services of professional floor installers. The consequences of such savings will make themselves felt in the first weeks of operation;
Entry into the gap between the plates of a large amount of liquid. One spilled cup will be enough to damage the porous coating;
Features of the design of the dwelling. The presence of decorative excesses in the form of moldings can adversely affect the laminated board. Future expansion of the lamellas must be taken into account during installation.

What to do if the laminate is swollen?

Failure to respect the buffer distance between the deck and the wall - the most common cause of deformity. On average, about 2 cm is enough, however, for modern flooring models, an indent of 1 cm is allowed.

The defect is corrected by the following sequence of actions:

Dismantle the entire skirting board in the room and check if the current distance between the laminate and the wall is within the allowable values.
If the coating has a locking mechanism, then it is necessary to raise one plate at an angle of 45 degrees, and then dismantle all the plates in a row;
Determine the missing indent to the wall and cut off the extra piece from the end plate (using a saw, jigsaw, etc.);
In the case of connecting the plates with glue, it will not be possible to disassemble the floor without causing major damage to it. In this case, you will need to cut off the protruding part with a grinder;
Applying force to the damaged panel is usually enough to eliminate the lift. If the action does not give any results, a bulkhead of the floor will be required;
After completing all the steps, you must re-check the distance to the wall.

Caring for your laminated board

You can avoid the lion's share of the problems associated with the operation of the floor covering, if you follow a number of simple advice:

Wet cleaning should be preferred to dry cleaning. Only expensive class 33 laminate is not afraid of prolonged exposure to moisture, but its cost is much higher than its counterparts;
Places near central heating pipes must be treated with sealant;
Laminate grades 21 to 23 can only be cleaned with a dry cloth or non-detergent vacuum cleaner. Currently, the production and sale of this class has been discontinued;
The areas of greatest traffic in the living room can be covered with a carpet;
Furniture legs should have rubber caps to prevent scratches. It is better to put a sheet of silicone under the chairs;
Remove drops of paraffin, chewing gum or other viscous mass only after hardening;
With traces of ingrained dirt, the composition of a spoonful of vinegar in a bucket of water with a volume of 5 liters does an excellent job;
For the most effective cleaning, it is recommended to purchase special floor care products (Mellerud, Bugs, etc.).

What to do if the laminate is bulging at the joints?

The following factors contribute to the rise of the laminate in the area of \u200b\u200bthe joints:

Sharply continental climate (characterized by temperature fluctuations at different times of the year);
Non-compliance with the temperature regime in the living room;
The humidity level is much higher than normal.

However, sometimes the true reason can be much more prosaic and lie in a poor-quality substrate. You need to select the latter based on the thickness of the board: sheets of 2 mm are suitable for thin models. More massive (up to 1.2 cm) boards should be laid on a substrate 1 mm thicker.

Insulating coating material also matters. The most high-quality and dense are:

Natural cork;
Polytyrol;
Wood fiber board.

If swelling already occurs, then it is necessary:

Remove plinth;
Dismantle the laminate to the row where the damaged area is located;
Replace the old substrate with a new and better one.

Hydrophobic floor protection

So that the coating under intense influence does not lose its original characteristics, special compositions are used - floor sealants.

The sequence of their application during the installation process:

Open the container with the substance and place the tube into the gap at an angle of 45 degrees;
Make a slight pressure on the bottom of the tube so that a small amount of substance comes out;
Squeeze out an even strip of sealant throughout the entire width of the joint;
The operation can be performed within 15 minutes - that is how much time on average it takes to solidify the composition;
Make sure that the paste does not go beyond the gap. If it was not possible to cope with this task, you need to quickly remove the excess mechanically;
Sealant stains are removed with gasoline and special tools. Finishing is done with a dry cloth.

Swollen laminate: how to fix without disassembly?

Sometimes the dismantling of the entire row of flooring is not possible. The defect correction algorithm in this case includes the following manipulations:

For accurate work with the least damage, you will need glass jack(vacuum suction cup for gripping smooth surfaces);
Fix the device on the damaged panel, closer to the lock. Carefully lift the lamella a short distance;
As soon as the connection opens, you need to lower the lamella until you hear a click.

If the panel has an irreparable defect, it will need to be dismantled:

Mark with a marker a rectangular area where the damaged piece falls;
Sawing the site is done using a manual grinder. Near the edge of the lamella, a cut is made along its entire width;
Take out the cut pieces with a hammer and chisel;
To remove the remaining parts, it is necessary to knock out a row of 1-1.5 cm to the wall;
The lock mechanism is subject to cutting;
Using a glass jack, lift the adjacent lamella and insert a new one in place of the damaged one (until it clicks);
In place of the "operation" put a weighty object.

In most cases, there is nothing fatal in the fact that the laminate is swollen from water. How to fix the damage depends on the level of training and the specific situation. In most cases, a bulkhead of the floor will be required to the row where the defect is localized. Repair without a bulkhead should be resorted to only when it is really necessary.

Video tutorial: how to fix the situation?

In this video, flooring repairman Artem Morozov will show what to do if the laminate is swollen because it rests on the wall, how to fix the defect:

Sometimes in our homes there is a disaster - the flooding of the premises. It is one thing if there is no final finish yet, another when the repair has already been done.

If the instructions below do not help you and the flooring needs to be partially replaced, please contact us - we will be happy to help.

Actions on a laminate or parquet board (as well as other options for interlocking coatings) depend on the base on which they are laid and the amount of water received.

Base - floor on logs

If the floor structure consists of wooden or other logs, the amount of water is not very large (2-4 buckets) and the concrete base is not primed below - that is, there are good chances to dry the laminate or parquet board without dismantling. This is a variant of a panel house with a "raised" floor, where the old floor and logs were not removed, and the laminate / parquet board was laid on top of the old coating.

In this case, the water is highly likely to go down, soak into the concrete (previously it was not primed with waterproofing compounds, so the concrete will quickly take the water). Or the water will go lower - to the neighbors.

As a result, the flooring will suffer little, the likelihood of mold is also small.

By the way, in this case there is an obvious advantage for "discontinuous" substrates (cork or sheet) - unlike a continuous roll, they will not keep water in close proximity to the board for a long time.

Foundation - concrete floor

With almost any other options, "low costs" will not be enough. Most of the technical solutions for floor installation (rough and final leveling of concrete; plywood for glue and / or self-tapping screws, sheets of "dry" construction, etc.) will require the dismantling of the laminate / parquet board.

What are the consequences of a leak?

Floor boards warp
- gaps appear between the boards,
- if the gaps do not allow expansion, then the entire canvas rises in waves,
- individual lamellas can be peeled off (for 2/3-strip parquet boards)
- The edges of the laminate boards will begin to bulge (this will practically not go away after drying)
Hydrophobic parts of the base are deformed (plywood, sheets of "dry" construction)
If excess moisture is not removed, mold may appear (most likely the floor is treated with a waterproofing primer that does not allow concrete to absorb water)

You can't do without dismantling the floor covering:

First you need to prepare the room - take out all the furniture that interferes with further work, release the coating
Then, you need to remove the baseboards and sills
After that, you need to carefully disassemble the floor covering.
Each row must be numbered on the back with a pencil. You can do this only for boards cut in a row, because. integers are suitable for any row
Store boards in a dry place
Get rid of the remaining moisture on the boards and the base (floor) as much as possible
Between the rows, it is desirable to lay strips of corrugated cardboard (from cardboard boxes) at intervals of 30-50 cm. They will give an air gap for drying. The strips must be changed every other day (once), because. they will accumulate moisture and give it back to the boards./li>
Leave the base (floor) to dry

Tips:

It is better to disassemble a laminate or parquet board from the edge that was last when laying, but this is not important.
It is better to store boards in one or two piles. Laminate or parquet boards should be pressed down as much as possible by the weight of the stack, or by additional weighting agents. You can tighten the boards in three places with ropes / straps (by placing cardboard inserts so as not to damage the boards). This minimizes their buckling as they dry.
Drying of the room and material depends on the scale of flooding - the more water, the longer it takes to dry the laminate or parquet board. From two days to two weeks (with a large amount of water and no heating)
The probability of reusing the entire volume of the affected material is extremely small. At best, 30% will have to be replaced.

If the manipulations listed above are difficult for you, contact our company and the master will perform all the necessary steps!