5 ways to prevent water damaged floors

Okay, enough about what water can do to a wood floor.  What’s more important is how can we prevent this from happening? 

So, here are the top five things that you can do to make sure that your floor isn’t damaged by water:

1)      Water bottles can be a huge source of damage to the floor.  After classes, inspect the floor quickly and make sure there haven’t been any spills.  If there are, wipe them up and you shouldn’t see damage if it’s addressed quickly;

2)      Make sure that when you or your maintenance staff are cleaning the floor, that wet mops are not used.  Damp mopping is fine, but make sure that most of the water is wrung out of the mop before touching the floor with it;

3)      If there is a water source, such as a drinking fountain, in the room, put down rubber matting underneath and around the source, and make sure that water isn’t being to exposed to the floor beyond the mat;

4)      If you’re finding water on the floor in the same place every day, it may be time to look for leaks in pipes, the roof, or guttering.  Obviously, you’ll want to get those repaired as soon as possible;

5)      If the humidity is high in a room – which it can be right after a class concludes – it’s not a bad idea to install a room dehumidifier in a corner. The target range for humidity levels in the room should be between 35-50%. Make sure to put a rubber mat under the dehumidifier and empty it regularly to insure that it’s doing its job.

Of course, if there’s something major, like a pipe bursting, or a large roof leak, there’s little that can be done.  Hopefully, the damage can be isolated to just a portion of the floor and the rest can still be salvaged.

Believe us – there’s little that gives us less joy than knowing we have a customer with a water damaged wood floor, so please let us know if you have any concerns.

3 thoughts on “5 ways to prevent water damaged floors

  1. Are there certain shoes that should be worn on the flooring. I understand they should probably be soft-soled, but are black soft-soled problematic or should we restrict our clients to white soled shoes?

    1. It is certain that you wouldn’t have any problems on the floor with shoes that have light-colored soles on them. But you may be able to allow participants to wear black-soled shoes if you choose. It won’t hurt the flooring in any way, but it may leave black streaks that you will have to remove. These black streaks are actually parts of the sole of the shoes that is being worn off onto the finish and can be very easily removed. Either rub the area with a rag that is damp with mineral spirits or paint thinner, and they will come right off. Also, a tennis ball on the end of a broom handle works well too. Simply rub the tennis ball on the floor and it will take up the black marks very easily.

      We don’t worry about black marks from dark soft-soled shoes as much as we do from hard-soled shoes. Athletic shoes are made to flex and so are less likely to leave marks than a hard-soled shoe would.

  2. Those are all great tips. This type of flooring is normally installed over a concrete slab. There are many times that ground water can seep up through the concrete and “attack” the wood floors from below. When you install your wood flooring make sure that a good water barrier is put down first. That way if there is a problem with the slab it wont affect your lovely floors.

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