Hardwood floors... anyone ever had that problem?

I have mostly hardwood floors in my new apartment.

On Friday, I left a bucket with a little bit of water in it lying around and during the night, the cats knocked it over. I probably got half a gallon of water on the floor at the most. I cleaned it up when I got up.
Now where the water was, there are two large bumps on the floor. Obviously some of the water got under the floor and is warping the floor.

I put boxes of books on top of the bumps for 2 days and it hasn't made any visible difference. I'll try keeping weight on it for longer... maybe it'll come back to normal eventually.
The bumps are less than a foot in diameter each and around 1 inch higher than the normal floor at their peak.

Has anyone here ever had a problem like that?
Any suggestion of things I could do to fix this? Will it just come back to normal once it dries out?

I feel really bad about damaging my apartment already.

I have hard wood floors as well and I'm sorry to say that once water has damaged the wood, it's damaged for good. We had a small leak in the kitchen and it went under the wall to the wooden floors in the dinning room over night and had to replace that section of the floor.

I wish I had better news for you but in my experiance, once wood has been wet, it's damaged for good.

oh... thats sad....Hope you can fix the problem..

We have hardwood floors here, and also had them at our old house. Right after we put the old hoseu on teh market, the washing machine hose burst. Part of our dining room floor was under water and soem boards had sort of "curled up". .

We were ridiculously stressed out over this because the realtor kept calling to show the house.

We ended up putting some weights on it, and had fans blowing air around them. It was November, so we also had the woodstove going occasionally to help dry things out.

They did settle down about 85% within a few weeks - just in time for the realtor to call to show the house again!

I've got hardwood (it's that refurbished or refabricated wood but still... wood) and it's starting to warp near my fridge. From 2 years worth of ice being dropped from the freaking ice maker... and us NOT picking up the ice in time.

There's a slight up-rising or something going on but before I sell the place I'll have it replaced around there or .... cover it with an area rug so the new owners won't see it... til moving-day...

Dunno what else to say but wood floors are beautiful, they clean up easy (and well hide furballs VERY well) and I love mine!

Is your hardwood floor like mine?. If so i really don't think they'll go back to the way they were, so it would be a case of replacing the warped boards with new

He have hardwood floors for over 10 year with no problems. I'll check with DH as he is a big woodworker and might have tips. Can you position a fan on that area to try to dry it out (I think heat and a fan) I know moisture level in a hardwood floor is under 10%. It's nailed down right and real wood pieces instead of that manufactured stuff???

Thanks everyone for the advice.

I am keeping weight on it and I have a fan blowing on it. If it doesn't help within a few weeks, I'll call the owner and see about having the section replaced. Hopefully that wouldn't be too hard since the floor is not made of large boards. It's all little squares of wood.

I'll have to remember that if I ever buy a place with hardwood floor, to have it well varnished or waxed.

We had some water damage in our foyer - a section actually buckled and even splintered a little where the grain in the wood was. We threw a rug over it and then in a few months we noticed it was back to normal. Hope this happens to you, too so you don't have to mess with getting it replaced

I don't know, our floors are marble so I haven't had to deal with that. I bet it is ruined though. Sorry.

Hey! Marie-P - how is your new apartment (aside from the water stain), how is school?

Sounds as if you've got that awful parquet flooring that every apartment in the world has (including mine.) Warps in the floor aren't necessarily permanent, though it's more trouble than it's worth getting it to go back the way it was. I would just tell the super that you woke up one night and it was like that -- they won't question you, parquet has a habit of warping if you look at it wrong (my roommate's room looks like they filmed the Sound of Music in there, so warped and hilly). I would say don't stress too much -- with time they'll settle out. The issue is that the wood has absorbed the moisture and transferred it beneath the 'squares.' The water has tried to evaporate and caused a bubble -- it's less a problem with the wood itself and more the space underneath it. (You can get the same thing on a plaster wall when too bright a light is on it for too long.) Good news is these things eventually (which is the key word) settle themselves out. Good luck!

We had that problem with our hardwood floors at our old house!

Originally Posted by journey

Hey! Marie-P - how is your new apartment (aside from the water stain), how is school?

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The apartment is great. It's fairly small but it feels very open. Aside from the floor, no problems so far.

School is awesome! All my classes seem very interesting. Especially one I started today that only has 7 students in it. I really think I'm doing the right thing going back to school.