Baseboards are an often overlooked design detail that makes rooms feel polished and balanced. Whether you call them skirting board, skirting, mopboard, floor molding, or base molding, a baseboard is usually a wooden or vinyl board covering the joint between the wall surface and the floor.
Baseboards are installed partly for aesthetic reasons, just as crown molding hides the area where walls meet the ceiling.. But baseboards also serve a very necessary function in protecting plaster walls from getting kicked or scuffed by shoes, boots, and vacuum attachments. (Vacuum cleaners are murder on baseboards.)
Look For Clues
Sometimes water damage is obvious; you’ll see watermarks and stains after a major leak. Often when you have a leak, you know it right away.
Sometimes the signs are more subtle than slowly develop over time: a crack, bubbling, swelling, If there have not been any major leaks in your home, the next most likely answer is a leak in the walls. Problematic pipes leak inside your home, building up moisture where you can’t see it. That moisture pools over time and affects the drywall, particularly on the ground where the baseboards are.
Solutions
If you see suspicious signs on your baseboards, call our team of water damage repair experts to check it out. Using moisture meters, infrared sensors and good old fashioned detective work, they will find the cause and then repair the damage.
Swelling baseboards and water damage can be fixed and repaired, as long as the source of the leak has been completely fixed. If the water damage is discovered early enough, it is possible to salvage your baseboards during the water damage repair process.
The baseboards and the wall need to be completely dried out before reinstalling the baseboards, swelling of the wall needs to have receded, peeled paint needs to be removed and reapplied, and in some cases sanding of the boards needs to be done to account for minor warping. Whenever possible, our water damage repair experts strive to reuse existing material to save you money.
Though repairing is resourceful and cheaper, it may not fix all the damage– sometimes replacement is a better solution. Many baseboards are made of layers of sawdust and resin (a perfect recipe for soaking up water from an unwanted leak). Solid wood baseboards, which are much more water-resistant and long-lasting, will stand up against water damage better.
Southeast Restoration Group repairs after unexpected water damage of all kinds, ranging from minor plumbing leaks to major plumbing bursts, even bathtub overflows. By contracting with a full service water damage repair team, your home can emerge from the water damage even better and more eco friendly.
When the 24-hour contact center receives your call, the emergency response teams move into action within hours. SRG also provides professional deodorization, complete sanitizing, air ducts cleaning, odor removal, and structural repairs. Southeast Restoration Group serves not only Macon but also is licensed in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee. For more information please contact our water damage repair experts at the first sign of water damage in your home.
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