New engineered wood floor soaked with water overnight

Onmyway2market

Hi

Our builders laid our engineered wood flooring and did a lovely job. Unfortunately, due to their poor planning and a series of other poor decisions, a substantial portion of the flooring got soak yesterday, including overnight, because of the heavy rain. The area affected is about 9mx4m. That area was not made watertight (that's a long story in itself).

My first option is that the rip the entire flooring up, which is very expansive as it runs throughout the ground floor of the house as there are no more batches in the wood we ordered. Replacing individual strips would not match the rest of the flooring. 

What are the chances that the area affected would not be permanently damaged? They think that the water only sat on the surface and there will not be permanent damage but how can I tell? Replacing the entire floor will be a huge hassle but equally, this is not the floor I paid for.

I guess, I want to understand whether the engineered wood flooring is likely to have been damaged given the water sat on top of it through out the entire night and up to this morning at around 10am.

I am so gutted!!!

Keep_pedalling

You will soon find out if the water has penetrated below the surface and has damaged the flooring as it will start to seriously warp quite quickly.

Onmyway2market

Should I get someone out to assess the damage at the builders expense?

sammyjammy

What has builder said?  As keep_pedalling says it'll soon show itself if its damaged beyond repair.

Nobbie1967

If it’s just been rained on overnight, I doubt any lasting damage has been done. Presumably this flooring is in the kitchen area as well so it would be specced for some water spillage. Let it dry out and see if there is any damage to the surface finish.

ThisIsWeird

What are you doing to dry it out? Every drop mopped up, and full through-ventilation?
Worth keeping a good record of what happened - photos (did you take any with it wet?), date, time, clean-up procedure, and then daily photos of the floor. It may take quite a few days - when it's all, including the underside - completely dry before you know.
If you have LegProt on your insurance, then call them up for advice on how to handle this. They should guide you.

Eldi_Dos

Engineered wood flooring is not normally spec'd for kitchen areas.

My instinct would be to dry it out slowly, mopping with dry towels and good ventilation rather than de-humidifiers or industrial dryers.

Are you able to access information about how much rainfall fell last night, Met Office or EPA sites.

Onmyway2market

Thanks. Why ventilation rather than dehumidifier?

The floors have been surface dried using a combination of mops and towels. 

Is it reasonable to assume that my wood flooring has been compromised? That is, it would have sustained damage and isn't the same regardless of how much it is dried, etc?

ThisIsWeird

Onmyway2market said:

Thanks. Why ventilation rather than dehumidifier?

The floors have been surface dried using a combination of mops and towels. 

Is it reasonable to assume that my wood flooring has been compromised? That is, it would have sustained damage and isn't the same regardless of how much it is dried, etc?

In this weather, natural through ventilation is likely to work better than a dehumidifier, but you can use the latter if you prefer - in which case, close all the doors and windows!
Mind you, if this could result in a claim, then you may need proper guidance as to the best method, and show that you've followed it.
Is the floor likely to have been compromised? No idea. It may, or may not. You won't know until it's fully dry.
You know the make? I'd contact them to ask their opinion.

Eldi_Dos

My "guess" is it would be less likely to distort drying by ventilation, think of a wool garment, it is more likely to keep its shape when dried slowly than if put on a radiator or in a tumble dryer.

Onmyway2market

Thanks for the useful insights. On the surface it looks dry but it is not knowing what is happening underneath. I went into the crawl space and looked up at the subfloor which feels dry to the touch (that's however just the side exposed in the crawl space). So it is a case of what is happening between the underside of the engineered wood floor and the inside of the top of the subfloor.