
Water damage can be a homeowner’s worst nightmare, causing not only structural issues but also aesthetic and functional problems. Whether you have carpets, laminate flooring, or sheet vinyl flooring, understanding how to deal with water damage is crucial to maintaining the integrity of your home.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the causes of water damage for these flooring types and provide valuable insights into prevention and repair. By the end of this post, you’ll be better equipped to tackle water damage issues, ensuring your floors stay beautiful and functional.
Carpets bring warmth, comfort, and style to our homes. Their plush texture and wide variety of designs make them a popular choice for bedrooms, living rooms, and cosy spaces.
We offer Carpets on our Pay Weekly Carpet plans, where you can replace your old flooring from as little as £10 Per Week!
Carpets typically make a great addition to the home. However, their absorbent nature can make them vulnerable to water damage.
Water damage for carpets can result from various sources, such as leaks, floods, or spills. Because of Carpets absorbent nature it’s much more susceptible to damage from everyday spills or even living in a damp home. If you’ve got damaged walls in a room with carpet, and the walls start to let either rising damp or penetrating damp in, you’ll have to repair more than just the walls.
Left unchecked, it can lead to mould growth in your carpets, foul odours, and structural damage. Prevention involves regular maintenance, swift action upon spills, and addressing any leaks or flooding promptly.
In the event of water damage, quick action is essential. First, remove excess water using towels or a wet vacuum. Thoroughly dry the affected area and use fans or dehumidifiers to prevent mould growth.
If you’ve had a large spill or a particularly odorous spill (such as a puppy accident or spilling an alcoholic beverage), then it may seep into your underlay before you have chance to wet-vac the flooring. If this happens, no amount of wet vacuuming will fix the smell and it’s likely to cause mould growth in the underlay.
In this event it’s a lot more effort to repair. Clean the carpet first, then you’ll need to lift it up to get to the underlay. If the spill isn’t huge you can likely press paper towels or an actual towel into the underlay to squeeze out the liquid and soak it up.
If there’s a large spill, you’ll likely have to replace that section of underlay. If the spill is on stairs or close to the middle of the room you’ll likely have to call in a professional for help.
Laminate flooring offers the look of hardwood or stone with added durability and affordability. Its popularity lies in its resistance to wear and tear. However, water damage can pose a significant threat to this flooring type particularly in the grooves between boards, and it isn’t a quick or easy job to fix.
Laminate flooring can suffer water damage due to plumbing issues, appliance leaks, or high humidity levels. Also spilled drinks or water likely in rooms such as the kitchen can damage laminate flooring if left undealt with. This can result in warping, swelling, and discoloration.
To prevent such damage, it’s essential to address any water-related issues promptly and maintain ideal indoor humidity levels. You can also use a sealer placed carefully into the joints of the laminate to offer some extra water protection.
Repairing water-damaged laminate flooring is difficult and involves removing the affected planks and replacing them. Laminate flooring is what’s called a “floating floor”. It isn’t adhered down to the subfloor, it’s help in place by the joints that connect the laminate planks and then beading is installed around the edges of the room.
You’ll have to remove the beading at the edge of the room closest to the impacted boards. Then disconnect the boards at the edge one by one until you get to the damaged boards.
Remove the damaged boards and make sure the subfloor is completely dry. Then install the new boards one by one until you get back to the edge of the room, then reinstall the beading.
It’s a lot of work and a lot of effort, and most people would be better off calling in a professional to help with this.
Sheet vinyl flooring is prized for its practicality, affordability, and versatility. It’s a favourite choice for kitchens and bathrooms due to its resistance to moisture and ease of maintenance. However, water damage can still occur.
Sheet vinyl can experience water damage from plumbing leaks, appliance malfunctions, or flooding. Prolonged exposure to water can result in bubbling, curling, or discoloration. Regular checks for leaks and swift action are essential to mitigate this risk.
Repairing water-damaged vinyl flooring may involve removing the affected section or the entire floor, depending on the extent of the damage. If you have wood-effect or tile-effect vinyl, such as pictured above, and you’ve kept any of the offcuts or spare flooring from when it was installed it may be easier to fix. You can typically get away with using a sharp knife to slice out the “planks” of the affected area, and cutting out the same “planks” from the pattern in the offcuts or leftover flooring, then using a strong spray adhesive to stick the new flooring into place.
You can watch a video on how to repair patterned sheet vinyl here.
If you’ve got bubbled vinyl where a patch is lifting up, you can also repair this fairly easily with a few tools and materials.
You’ll need a large syringe with a metal needle, some pliers, some floor glue (Gorilla Glue is great) and a hard roller. You can typically find large enough ones on amazon made for BBQing referred to as a “meat syringe injector”.
Use some pliers to gently bend the needle so that it forms a gentle curve for ease down the line. Pick a spot where the bubble is, ideally between planks for wood effect, or between tiles on tile effect flooring.
Before filling the syringe, poke a hole into the flooring ideally in the middle of the bubble and make sure the needle of the syringe can get into the spot needed.
Fill the syringe with the glue, then simply inject the glue under the flooring.
Scrape the glue away from the injection spot to spread it around under the flooring, then use the hard roller around a wider area to make the flooring contact the subfloor. Keep rolling it for a few minutes to make sure it’s contacted while the glue starts to grip.
Edit: we found a video explaining pretty much this exact process here, if you want a video walk through.
In conclusion, understanding how to deal with water damage is crucial for homeowners with various types of flooring. Carpets, laminate, and sheet vinyl all have their unique characteristics, but they share the vulnerability to water-related issues. By taking preventive measures and addressing damage promptly, you can ensure your floors remain both beautiful and functional for years to come.
If you need to replace your flooring, how about spreading the payment over several months completely interest free to make it easier on the bank account? Easipay Carpets offers Pay Weekly Flooring Plans for Carpets, Laminate and Vinyl flooring where from as little as £10 per week you can split the cost of the flooring over time into smaller, regular payments. The plans are interest free, there’s no credit checks and we can schedule a home appointment where you can see all of our samples up close and personal to match them to your current décor, as well as get a bespoke, free quote. We’ve got thousands of 5 star reviews online from our happy customers. If you want to join them or simple get a quote, reach out using the form below.
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