Hardwood Floors December 2019/January 2020

AT THE SITE

working with restoration companies (Continued)

Based on the great relationships we’ve enjoyed with fellow NWFA members, we know that we all share a common goal in helping hardwood flooring remain as a top material selection. Hardwood flooring is a natural, sustainable material that can last for decades and longer. We’re very proud that ACR provides value by supporting product longevity, adding years of use through restorative drying.

restorative drying is a rather obvious advantage. Several situations can prevent restorative drying from succeeding. When the wood floor buckles away from the substrate, or if it remains wet for too long, the wood will lose the resiliency needed to return to equilibriummoisture content. We call that being beyond the restoration threshold. Plus, we’ve discovered that a number of hardwood gym floor installations don’t follow installation guidelines. Others were installed long before standards were commonly followed. So, while conditions don’t need to be perfect to allow for a successful restoration, there are limitations. Many major insurance carriers, adjusters and claims people, facility operations managers, and others count on this technology to bring their loss back for all the reasons mentioned. Even now, drying water damaged hardwood flooring in- place is still not very well known as a possible solution. It's still not a common skillset for restoration companies, as it takes years to become skilled in applying these techniques. Plus the education needed as a basis is very expensive.

When an average high school gym floor is “damaged” by a water loss, and tear-out/replacement is ordered, a 7,000 square feet floor costs upward to (and often beyond) $250,000 to replace. Applying restorative drying can reduce the cost to regain use to about 15 percent to 20 percent of the replacement cost. This cost savings is shocking, but we learned that the real win for the client is reduced loss of use. Tearing out the damaged boards, repairing and drying the subfloor system and substrate, weeks of acclimation for the new flooring boards…three months can easily be lost. However, it’s not only gym classes that are affected, it’s intramural sports, assemblies, even third-party rentals. Revenue is lost, expensive extra workload to reschedule all that can be, tournaments cancelled – it’s a cascading nightmare of complications and expensive alternate locations. It’s actually loss of use that the client truly fears. Today, with our skill level rising every time we save a floor, we can dry that same, typical gym floor and return it to full use in two weeks – often less. With cost lowered by 80 percent and operational loss of use reduced by 85 percent,

All photos courtesy of ACR Inc.

TOP: The final set-up photo displaying dehumidifiers set on a closed-loop system to remove any evaporated moisture. MIDDLE: An overview photo of the final drying chamber set-up over the affected area. BOTTOM: An example of a non-restorable floor due to carpet cushion being used as underlayment.

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