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Green Hardwood

Repairs

Water damage: board replacement and blend refinish

Boards destroyed by a leak lifted and replaced, the floor dried to equilibrium, then blend-sanded so the repair disappears.

When this is the job

A dishwasher, a fridge line, a radiator or a basement event. The floor is cupped or crowned across a defined area and the owner has usually been told the whole floor needs replacing. It usually does not.

Also called: hardwood water damage repair · replacing damaged hardwood boards · dishwasher leak floor repair · cupped floor repair Toronto

Published band

From $650 minimum · $18–$35 / sq ft affected

HST extra. A range, not a quote — a firm number follows a moisture reading on site.

Worked example

$5,165 – $7,327

220 sq ft affected area, Etobicoke · 1–3 days plus finish cure

Typical specification

  • Moisture mapping before any board is cut — the wet area is always larger than the visible one
  • Dry to equilibrium with the surrounding floor before replacement, not before drying is complete
  • Replacement stock matched for species, grade, cut and width
  • Blend sand across the repair boundary so there is no visible edge

Sequence of work

  1. 1Map moisture across the whole room and find the true boundary of the wet area.
  2. 2Establish and fix the source. Replacing boards over a live leak is money set on fire.
  3. 3Dry to equilibrium, measured, not assumed from how it looks.
  4. 4Lift and replace the destroyed boards with matched stock.
  5. 5Blend sand across the boundary and refinish the affected field.

What goes wrong

The part of a hardwood job that costs money is rarely the part in the quote. These are the failures that produce a second invoice.

Replacing boards before the floor has dried to equilibrium

The new boards move as the surrounding floor releases moisture. Gaps or cupping appear at the repair edge within a season, and the work is done twice.

Avoided by: Metering to equilibrium and waiting for the number, not for the schedule.

A repair patched in without blending the sand

A visible rectangle in the middle of the floor, permanently. The repair is technically sound and cosmetically obvious.

Avoided by: Blend-sanding well past the repair boundary and refinishing the field.

Treating cupping as a sanding problem

Sanding a cupped floor flat while it is still wet produces a crowned floor when it dries — a worse and less reversible defect.

Avoided by: Drying first, then assessing. Cupping frequently relaxes on its own.

Related

Is this your job?

City, service and size gives you a 2026 GTA band in about twenty seconds. We lock a number only after a moisture reading.

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