It will not go back flat. My dishwasher leaked and the floor eventually went to flat-ish. Not worth refinishing as its just a small area outside the powder room. Your floor looks worse now than mine did early on, so you may not get better. This looks like too much damage to sand out too. Obviously this is only based on photos...

Thanks for your quick reply Ellsworth-Hallett Home Professionals! It's pretty bad, but we were hoping that there was a chance the wood planks could flatten again.

Thanks, Sophie. The wood is nailed verses glued, so I guess it sounds like it may flatten in time, if we want to wait up to 9 months. What do you mean by crawl space?

Unfortunately, our deductible is high, so making a claim is not practical.

Joist over dirt. Or, further north, it can be joist over a basement. Replacing that, if it runs through the whole downstairs, can be 30K. Unless it is prefinished, and you have several boxes left that can patch the entire affected area. If it is site finished, you're going to have to refinish the whole floor, assuming that there is enough meat on the floors to stand being sanded.

if you don't need to decide to make a claim, i'd let it ride, wait til fall when the humidity goes down and see what happens. just make sure its not a tripping hazard or you'll have a medical deductible to consider as well.

Sophie, the floors are not pre-finished and the planks are not a standard size, so we would have to have them cut and refinished once in place. We are definitely trying to avoid re-doing the entire downstairs and only would do the dining room area if needed. Thanks so much for your helpful explanation!

nnigrt, good point about waiting to see what happens. It is definitely a tripping hazard, so I will not be able to entertain in the dining room until the floors have either flattened or have been repaired/ refinished.

I had the same problem in my house - water damage to the original wood floors. In my case, there was no realistic way to match to existing floor, short of buying antique salvage wood, so I ended up taking it out, in its entirety. It gave me a bit of heartburn to tear it out, but it soon became evident, even after it had dried out, that it would never again fit together with the same level of integrity (if that could have happened, I would have been able to just refinish it). I'm now considering LVP as an alternative due to it's ability to withstand water/damp and it's long wearing and acoustic properties as well. Good luck!

Same thing happened to us. We had solid wood over a crawl space. The wood was a continuous run throughout the first floor. The damaged wood was about 3 sq. feet in the hallway. The insurance company wanted to pay to replace the entire first floor! We said no to that. So the insurance people called in Serve Pro with their moisture readers and industrial fans. The fans ran for a week. The Serve Pro guys came every day. The floors dried out. Now every spring for about 2 weeks after furnace running and before air conditioning the floor bows slightly. Try Serve Pro to really dry things out. It may work for you, too.

My parents had a refrigerator leak which caused cupping on their 2 1/4" oak, site finished floor which has almost returned to flat after about 6 months. Their problem was discovered fairly quickly and their climate is fairly dry.

How wide are your boards? i would think the wider boards would be less likely to flatten.

Wow, thanks sandyandconnigardner! Sounds like Serve Pro really worked for you. We'll have to look into that option.

It must have been so hard pulling those antique floors out, Voyage Infini! Next time around, we may consider LVF! They make some beautiful floors these days. Good luck with your floors. Did you end up replacing them, yet?

Linda, great to know that your parent's floors returned to normal. Our planks are approx 4" wide. Like your parents, we also recognized the problem pretty quickly and have been using the dehumidifier every day to dry out. Feeling a bit more hopeful :-) Thanks!

The fans are needed here. You have nail down which means they are nailed to something (wood). That wood underneath needs to dry too. Be aware that if that subfloor underneath warps too much (for too long) it doesn't matter if the wood on top gets better...the subfloor will need redoing (big pain in the wallet).

Dehumidifiers won't be enough. You need the industrial fans if you have any shot at this. You need fans going from underneath and in the same room. That is some serious warping. I would be surprised if it reduces by half of what you are seeing. And be prepared to have those fans running day/night for weeks and weeks and weeks.

It's been "a few" weeks already...so I'm surprised that no one suggested fans (big, nasty, noisy $500 industrial fans). The dehumidifier is only doing 10% of what is needed. The fans do the other (more important) 90% of the work. You can rent the fans from remediation companies.

All of these rentals add up. If you need to have these floors refinished, you will need to do all of the floors attached to this room at the same time...at $5/sf as the average cost of this (it will cost more if you have to replace the planks and then refinish) the deductible may work out a bucks cheaper.

If you have to get at the subfloor to do some repairs at that level, the costs will be excessive and the deductible will look like peanuts. Please chat with a flooding/remediation company and start getting some firm numbers in place...and a plan to get fans going both from above and below. Get some numbers in front of you to see which is cheaper to pay: repairs costs vs. deductible costs. You would be surprised how quickly these costs go up.

Was hoping to hear from you, Cancork Floors. Thanks for your detailed explanation of what our options are.

It certainly sounds like at least part of the wood planks will need to be replaced and the wood in the entire dining room will need to be refinished in order to match the new wood.

Will find out about the industrial fans, first though. Again, thanks for stopping by to explain ;-)

Sorry that this has happened Karen. I think Cancork floor Inc has given you really great advice though. I would follow through with their recommendations. Keep us updated.

Thanks, Mark. It doesn't sound very promising. And this leak was caused by a pipe that burst from the hot water heater several weeks ago. We had other damages, but didn't notice the floors had started buckling until just last week when Susan was here measuring for a rug. Still plan to proceed with the chairs/banquette/etc., though. Perhaps we will wait on the rug until after we have resolved the floor issue!

You are right-Cancork Flooring always gives the best advice when it comes to hardwood floors. Going to find out about those commercial fans.

Unless you have a 20K deductible, you need your insurance in on this. Water damage remediation also means industrial dehumidifiers and mold remediation. You have mold under the subfloor and behind the walls because you waited so long. This is well beyond minor water damage.

Good point Sophie about the mold. Hadn't even thought of that. Just from all the helpful suggestions, I'm thinking we are going to have to pull those boards up sooner than later!

We had that experience remodeling a 1920's house in 1997. The floors are original. In those days they used narrow boards of mature wood. We waited for the floors to completely dry, and they did flatten out very nicely. Leave the windows open as much as possible to allow lots of fresh air in that area. It may take a few weeks depending upon how wet they got and the finish on the flooring. Insurance will generally cover floors ruined by a burst pipe, but then you have to go through the whole installation and staining process. Wait and see if they flatten. You may need to have them lightly sanded and restained anyway. We had already planned to refinish the floors in our house, and they look great.

Thanks, felizlady! Unfortunately, we can't leave the windows opened in this part of the country. We have a very humid and hot climate, but I have 2 fans running in the dining room. Glad to hear that your floors flattened out so nicely. Hoping for the same.

So sorry that happened Karen. So frustrating, I'm sure!

Oh Karen, what a nuisance!

The dehumidifier and fans you are running sound good, in a previous house (pre Danny) we had a situation where the builders and roofers didn't talk to each other and both parties left the house without a roof or tarpaulins over a long weekend with a fierce storm that started late Friday- it meant the joist to the extension were soaked and had to be dried out quickly before wallcoverings went on- and we didn't want them to warp. We had industrial fans and dehumidiers bought in because you need a mix of heat, low humidity and airflow to get the wood dry. They also had special meters to be able to read the moisture content. Do you have a service that could do that for you? Also did you have to make an insurance claim on the original pipe damage? If not maybe keep the receipts for the work you have already had done and speak to an insurance assessor.

Fingers crossed the floors dries well :)

Thanks, Ann! It is so frustrating, but at least the damage is only in a small area. Hoping we can repair a few of the boards, try to match the existing floors, and place a rug down to hide any imperfections in the color.

Hey Tracey, sounds like you had quite an experience! We are in the process of looking for a service that brings in industrial fans to help dry the space up. As far as the insurance claim, we didn't make one initially because we didn't realize the damage was as extensive as it turned out to be. We need to talk more to the insurance assessor about how to proceed. Thanks for your well-wishes ;-)

Both cancork and sophie are correct. The floors are toast, but thats the least of your worries. Mold starts fast, in areas you dont see. Save your pennies, pay your deductible and get it repaired correctly. Sure it's a pain, but its your home. The floors wont flatten. I once hit a post with my car and every mornng I would go outside and magically hope the dents were gone. After three months they were still there. I opened my wallet and took it to the pros. The floors can be sanded or custom width hardwood milled, but the mold is the issue. Have it done right and sleep better at night. At least call the insurance and find out what you are entitiled to.