Soaked solid wood flooring

[Marc]

I'm helping my brother tear down a small pier house built in the 50's that has extensive fire damage. The floor is 1X2 pine center-match, mostly undamaged by the fire. There's nothing else between interior and crawl - subfloor and finish in one, very solid. It's nicely stained but he doesn't want to bother saving it, so once the walls are gone, I'll do it myself for my use.

The roof and ceiling were gone and we were progressing on the walls yesterday when a rainstorm paid a visit, flooding the rooms with 1/2" of water. The floors were already buckled and cupped badly before I had a chance to get in there and drill some holes along the perimeter.

Will this wood straighten out once it dries or is it gone for good?

Give me some good news. It's about a thousand board feet of prized flooring currently selling here for between 20 and 30 bucks a square yard.

Marc

[Bill Kibbel]

Probably won't flatten out without help.

Try laying the boards on the grass on a sunny day with the bulging side up.

Click to Enlarge

2.74?KB

The sun dries and shrinks the top side while moisture from the ground expands the bottom. Check on them regularly. When boards look right, sticker stack in a conditioned area and allow to dry thoroughly. It's worked for me probably several thousand times.

[Marc]

Probably won't flatten out without help.

Try laying the boards on the grass on a sunny day with the bulging side up.

Click to Enlarge

2.74?KB

The sun dries and shrinks the top side while moisture from the ground expands the bottom. Check on them regularly. When boards look right, sticker stack in a conditioned area and allow to dry thoroughly. It's worked for me probably several thousand times.

Thanks Bill. I'll try it. What's meant by 'sticker' stack?

I don't have conditioned space for it, just a dry enclosed area. It'll just take longer to dry.

Marc

[kurt]

Stacking the wood with spacers so air can circulate freely around each piece.

[Jim Katen]

A neighbor got a deal on maple gym flooring from a local school that had flooded. The gym had been underwater for days. The flooring had been pulled up and tossed in a pile, where it sat for a year. We stacked it in his house until the moisture content was stable and we nailed it down as you would a new floor, tossing the worst pieces, and straightening out the rest as we went. After sanding and finishing it looked great. That was about 17 years ago and it's been fine.