Water damage repair to 3/4" T&G Red Oak flooring

[zzdodge]

I am asking this in wood, because this fits better into the properties of the cellular structure of wood, and is not about finishing.

Several years ago a 4" diameter of oak T&G flooring got wet and remained wet for several days. The manifestations are enlarged gaps between the boards, and raised grain and curled edges.

Years ago I heard of a guy who repairs these by soaking the wood with a spray bottle, and using cloths and a clothing iron to extract moisture from the wood, while restoring most of the original dimensions. Then the floor presumably gets putty, sanding and finishing.

My focus is on getting as much as the original cellular structure dimensioning as possible.

 

[smallboat]

I'm watching this thread as I have a similar situation- also with oak floor
With the addition of some discoloration to the wood. (dark stain where moisture seeped into end grain of wood)
Not to hijack the thread but I'm interested if there's any way to get rid of the stain other than ripping up and replacing that section of floor.

 

[zzdodge]

Mine had no stain, and the floor is 40 years old. Glitza finish. The area lightened somewhat, but I think that will come out with sanding.

 

[jlimey]

Smallboat,

take a look at this link. Try the oxalic acid.

https://www.popularwoodworking.com/projects/bleaching-wood

 

[smallboat]

Thanks I'll give that a try. Next challenge will be trying to match up the finish.

 

[danmart77]

I'm watching this thread as I have a similar situation- also with oak floor
With the addition of some discoloration to the wood. (dark stain where moisture seeped into end grain of wood)
Not to hijack the thread but I'm interested if there's any way to get rid of the stain other than ripping up and replacing that section of floor.

If the flooring is not buckled and gapped, I would use one of the bleach methods before I tore up a floor. I use the Oxalic acid quite often with walnut and mahogany and it will bleach out the color moderately. The 2 part solution is big horse power.

Using the first or second method they both need to be neutralized.

The wood MUST be bare wood-- no finish or stain at all.

In the photos below you'll see some nice quarter sawn oak. Everything was nice till I put some water to the surface to raise the grain. The wood had some minerals thru the entire board. I tried to plane it with a smoother back came the dots. I planed it in a power planer no good. I re-sawed a test piece dots just kept coming.

Finally I tried to bleach it out and get back to a white base. The oxalic did not do the job completely. After the oxalic, I went to the 2 part mixture. Boom dots are gone and so was all the color of oak.

No water based dyes to bring back the color or the dots would come back. I took some artists brown from the tube and mixed it with yellow and red till I got the tone I liked and mixed in some naptha. After it dried I used some shellac to seal it and then on to the varnish.

After all the head scratching, I gave up on the boards for this task. I have had this experience with white oak before and the dots and discoloration was not a problem. I was steaming parts for chairs. I got tons of advise telling me it was the tooling I was using that was leaving iron on the surface. OK I like a challenge and a good test. Maybe

I steamed 24 hoops and every single one had black stains. The only tool to touch that wood was a froe.

Dots won't bother the little guy below but it was a frustrating time.

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Bottom Line:

It is surely worth a try with bleaching as pulling up 3/4 T/G flooring is not fun.

Good luck