Repairing water damage to hardwood floors
I have hardwood floors in my kitchen, which is located on ground floor in the back of the house facing the backyard. The ground floor is lower than the backyard in the typical Italianate style. During two violent rainstorms over the past few years, I have had two incidents where inadequate drainage in the backyard…
I have hardwood floors in my kitchen, which is located on ground floor in the back of the house facing the backyard. The ground floor is lower than the backyard in the typical Italianate style. During two violent rainstorms over the past few years, I have had two incidents where inadequate drainage in the backyard resulted in water coming onto my wood kitchen floors. I am getting a French drain installed to remedy the drainage issue but I am left with a section of kitchen flooring near the door which has been water damaged.
Where many of the boards meet, there are black lines where the water completely penetrated the finish, seeping into the wood and leaving lined black stains at the end of the floor boards. I am wondering if any of you brownstoners have any experience with removing these stains. I read that it was possible to remove the finish, apply a solution of oxalic acid and hot water and that would remove the stains. Floors would have to then be resanded and finished but that stains can be removed.
Does anyone have experience with doing this? I would hate to have to completely remove the boards and replace. The wood is red oak, a nice select grade. They USED to be beautiful.
also, FWIW, I have been considering getting one of those “oil cloth” rugs for my kitchen, sized to cover most of the open floorspace. It looks like an old fashioned linoleum rug and is easier to clean than the unglazed tile floor I have. It might help protect your wood floors from wear and tear, and would also cover any lingering discoloration in the boards.
I had some water damage on the parquet oak floors in my house a had some wood replaced, the whole surface screened, and then a fairly dark brown stain applied, and then non-glossy poly. The stain doesn’t hide 100% of the color difference in the water-stained parts but I think it’s enough that most people would never notice the damage. And the stain color we used isn’t anywhere near black, it’s just a medium-dark brown.
Thanks Arkady and grand army.
I saw an illlustration on the web, showing how one would put masking tape around the board, scrape off the poly, apply the oxalyic acid solution on the area. Then the wood gets “raised” so you have to sand it down and re-poly. Maybe I will experiment on one sort of hidden area near the door. In the end if it doesn’t work, I’ll have to replace the boards anyway.
I’ve had oxalic do a terrific job but it sometimes takes several applications.
I’ve had success removing a black water stain from a piece of furniture using oxalic acid. But I had to refinish the entire surface so not sure if it would work for an isolated area of flooring.
Bruce, thanks. I suspected that I would be replacing these boards and there a quite a few near the back. I just figured it was worth a shot. Re the tiles, you live and learn. This particular area gets such wear and tear (from backyard) that it really should have been tile. Aesthetically, it is awkward in this space to tile just one part, but if I were to do this again, I would have designed it differently.
Just a thought, depending on where the damage is, would you consider a ceramic tile inlay, with a mitered border? To look as if it was the original design? Backerboard and 1/4″ tile might be same depth??
Coming from a marine background, I don’t believe that once oak is water stained, that you can bleach it out. In the past I’ve tried sanding down, but the damage wicks into the interior, so no dice.
It’s not that hard to replace the section, and as the first board is the ionly hard one to remove, you may as well replace all boards that have any damage.
Rip a few cuts down the middle of the board, with the saw set deep enough to completely cut. Stay away from edge where flooring nails are. Collapse board to center and remove. Ultimately to get last new board back in, you’ll need to doctor the bottom of the groove, but construction adhesive and a few finish nails to hold it down, and you’ll be good.