Can My Water-Damaged Furnishings Be Saved?

7/10/2020 (Permalink)

SERVPRO professionals are trained to handle all types of water damage.

Some Water Damage Restoration Services in Carol Stream, Like SERVPRO, Can Save Your Water-Damaged Furnishings. 

Many times when a water leak impacts your home, your furniture, and other household items are affected. These items are often expensive, irreplaceable, or both. Water-damaged chairs, tables, and other furnishings could be valuable antiques that are nearly impossible to replace. They may also be priceless family heirlooms that have been passed down through generations of your family. It is equally possible that these objects might have little-to-no monetary worth at all and simply possess great sentimental value because they remind you of a deceased loved one. Whatever value your furnishings hold for you, rest assured that there are Carol Stream restoration services that can help you save them.

What Happens to Wooden Furniture Exposed to Water?

SERVPRO, a Carol Stream water damage remediation service, is highly experienced in restoring both wooden and upholstered household contents that have been damaged by water. As a result, our technicians understand the unique challenges water-damaged wooden furniture presents. Furniture made of wood and wood products does not react so well to water and excess moisture. These furnishings are affected by liquids in different ways, depending on what type of wooden materials they are made of and how they are constructed. In general, hardwood products tend to react more favorably to water than those made of engineered woods like particleboard. With that said, here are some common ways water impacts wooden furniture:

Water spotting on finishes

Swelling and cracking of wood

Joint weakening and separation

Dry rot from fungal growths

Warping of particleboard products

How Does Water Damage Upholstered Items?

Water can also harm your upholstered furnishings in numerous ways. It affects the fabric coverings, internal fillings, and wooden structures of these household objects. The damage this excess moisture does can appear over the short-term or develop in the future due to improper or ineffective remediation efforts. Some of the various effects water has on your upholstered possessions are:

Water Staining

Color bleeding and transfers between fabrics

Rusting of cover zippers

The promotion of 

Persistent and difficult to eliminate musty odors

Wooden frame damage, including swelling, cracking, and joint deterioration  

It is, therefore, important to find a water damage remediation service with the right training and experience to effectively handle your particular issue. Otherwise, your furniture could be irreparably harmed or even become a total loss. Also, improperly addressed damage might spread to other materials over time and make future repairs even more costly.

What Can SERVPRO Do to Save My Furnishings?

Trained SERVPRO specialists can do many things to restore your water-damaged furniture. They are knowledgeable in various methods of returning your cherished wooden and upholstered furnishings to their original condition. However, before employing these methods, our workers remove your furniture from water-impacted flooring and put it on blocks. Afterward, they restore these possessions by:

Drying wooden chairs, tables, and other items with wet vacs, air movers, and dehumidifiers

Sanding and refinishing affected wood surfaces

Regluing and reassembling impacted and separated joints

Extracting water from upholstered furnishings with heated extractors and wands that also clean affected materials with detergents

Placing waxed paper between different impacted cover fabrics and metal zippers/buttons to prevent rusting and color bleeding

Leaning couch/sofa cushions upright against each other (tenting) to facilitate drying   

Using injection devices and foggers to treat water-damaged upholstery with antifungals and deodorants

All of the aforementioned measures help SERVPRO mitigate, repair, and prevent future damage from your water leak. In this way, our experienced technicians save you time, money, and unnecessary headaches.

Water damage results from a myriad of different causes and can occur at any time without much warning. It may be caused by a catastrophic pipe failure, an appliance malfunction, a rusted-out water container, or a slow pipe or roof leak. Anyone of these issues could harm wooden and upholstered furnishings in your home. They can affect objects in every part of your home, including basements, living rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, and attics. The time it takes to discover and repair a leak depends on its location and severity. Which is an important consideration because, generally, the faster water damage is located, the easier and cheaper it is to remediate.

While clean, or unused, water is usually easier to clean up than contaminated waters, it also can be quite damaging to your furnishings. The longer clean water is allowed to remain on your furniture, the more microbes can grow, and the more water-related issues it can cause. If it is not quickly and effectively cleaned up, this water can cause unpleasant odors, foster bacterial and fungal growths, and irreparably damage your household possessions. Luckily, water damage restoration companies like SERVPRO know how to best save such impacted wooden and upholstered furnishings.

If you ever need help saving water-damaged furniture, contact SERVPRO of Carol Stream/East Bloomingdale at (630) 830-6236 for professional assistance.