The top photo is a hardwood floor after a water leak. Look at the finish. It is blistered and the boards are starting to lift. The bottom photo is the same kind of floor with a moisture meter on it, reading far above what dry wood should.
Here is the part most people miss: the floor in the bottom photo looks fine. Wood soaks up water from underneath long before the surface shows it. By the time boards cup, crown or turn dark, the subfloor has been wet for days.
Signs of water damage in a hardwood floor:
• Boards that are raised at the edges (cupping)
• A blistered, cloudy or peeling finish
• Dark stains along the seams
• Soft or spongy spots when you walk
• A musty smell you cannot track down
The good news is that hardwood can often be dried and saved if the drying starts quickly. That matters in Niles, where so many homes near downtown and along the river still have their original oak and maple floors. Replacing a century-old floor is expensive, and it never matches.
BlueRed Restoration provides water damage restoration in Niles, MI (49120). We use moisture meters to find how far the water went, then dry the floor and the subfloor with professional air movers and dehumidifiers and track the readings until the wood is back to normal.
We serve Niles and the towns around it on both sides of the state line: Buchanan, Edwardsburg, Berrien Springs, Dowagiac and Cassopolis in Michigan, and South Bend, Granger and Mishawaka in Indiana. Our services:
• Emergency water removal
