Water. It’s crucial for us to have when working out. Unfortunately, it’s extremely detrimental to your wood fitness floors, and this is the season that sees more floors damaged by water than any other time of the year. That’s because, in the north, snow accumulates on roofs and then subsequently melts, and this melting on your roof finds its way into even the tiniest cracks in your roof that you never knew existed. Combine that with the heavy rains in the southern parts of the country, and it makes for a season where water is fighting to get into your facility.
Damage occurs when wood is exposed to too much water or humidity, and wood floors act like sponges when introduced to water. If enough water is present, it will even cause a floor to hump up and even buckle as the boards expand against an unmovable wall. That’s because for every 2 ¼-inches board, just a 1 percent change in the moisture in a room will cause an expansion of 1/128-inches. Doesn’t sound like much, but remember that a water leak is causing a massive influx of humidity to these boards. Further, if you multiply 1/128-inches times the number of 2 ¼-inch boards in your room, you can see that it causes a large cumulative expansion across the total floor. This can easily add up to several inches across the width of your floor, after even a small water leak.
But, if you deal with this water as quickly as possible, there’s a good chance that you can save your wood floors. We all know that it’s important to remove the water from the surface as quickly as possible, either through mopping it, or soaking it up with towels, but it is equally important to get the water out of the wood itself. The best way to do this is to bring in dehumidifiers as soon as you can, not only to remove the moisture from the wood, but to ensure that it is not continuing to absorb water that you can’t see, that may be trapped underneath the floor.
Be aware that, depending on how much water has been allowed to get on the floor and for how long, the dehumidification process will take several days. While water gets into wood rather quickly, wood is somewhat stingy about giving it up, so it’s better to have a dehumidifier working longer rather than shorter, to ensure that the wood is absolutely dry and will contract back to its previous size. If this is done properly, you may have no lasting damage to your floor.
But the best step at this time of year is to be vigilant about any water that might have worked its way into your facility and getting that issue addressed as quickly as possible.
Steve Chase is the owner of Fitness Flooring. For more information, visit www.fitnessfloors.com.
