How to Fix Water Damaged Swollen Wood Furniture

One of the worst things that can happen to any piece of wooden furniture is to get swollen or warped.

This effect often leaves the pieces in a pretty ugly state that’s hard to come back from. But still, with the proper care and following the right steps, even the most broken piece can be saved from becoming trash.

Here we are teaching you the eight steps to follow so you can repair, or least salvage part of any wooden furniture warped or swollen by water.

Ways to Fix Water Damaged Swollen Wood Furniture

Here’s what you should do:

Wear Protective Equipment

First of all, start by wearing the right equipment to protect yourself from any possible damage.

Wear some glasses, a dust mask, and protect your hands with leather gloves or similar.

Remember that you’ll be working with damaged moist wood, and that means lots of splinters, sawdust, and sometimes even mildew and other harmful factors.

Once you’re safe from any probable damage to either eyes, hands, or lungs – you can start fixing the piece.

Also Check: Good Quality Hardware Jig For Wood Cabinet

Let the Furniture Dry if Needed

If the furniture is still moist or soaked in water, you’ll have to let it dry before doing anything.

We recommend placing the piece inside a room with lots of air circulation. If you can pick a warm room, that would be even better.

To accelerate the drying process, you can turn on any heating appliance, fans, or even air conditioners, so the piece gets direct dry air and lets the humidity fall off.

If the weather outside is proper (sunny or windy with no rain), you can always let it dry out for a few hours. But don’t ever let it pass sunrise outside as dew tends to fall early in the morning and damage the piece further.

Just make sure the temperature on the drying place is not too hot or cold. Either one can damage the piece further, which you don’t want.

Clean Mildew or Black Spots

After letting the furniture dry, there will probably be some side effects to the moisture. This mostly happens after some days of the first contact with water of the piece. Sometimes, it may not happen at all, but you should still prevent it.

To do that you should mix some bleach with water and clean the surface with mildew or just everything that was previously soaked in water.

Sand the Surface

Once the mildew gets off the surface, you can then proceed to sand it. You can use a sander or sandpaper, whatever works best.

You should do this to get rid of any impurity and inconsistency in the surface. You may need several sandpapers or sanding disks. But you should always strive to get rid of everything.

This will leave the surface ready for the final restoration work.

Cure the Wood

After sanding, get rid of all the sawdust, and other impurities still left. For that, you should grab a bucket and pour some water and bleach. Then grab a scrub the whole surface with this solution with either a wet towel or a brush.

This will even out the whole surface and make sure the rest of the impurities on the wooden piece will all disappear. Eventually, the damaged area will be unrecognizable, meaning it will be almost like cured wood ready to be finished.

Apply Furniture Oil 

After you’ve sanded the whole surface and let it almost like new, then you can add furniture oil. This will give the wood the perfect touch so you could already say it is fixed.

To do this, we recommend using a scrub or rag to spread the oil around. You should add enough oil, so the wooden surface reaches the ideal color.

Use a Moisturizer

After adding the furniture oil, the wood is ready for some further maintenance. And here we recommend adding moisturizer.

The moisturizer will make sure the wood is ready to tackle some water if something happens. So, if any humidity reaches the wood, it won’t cause much damage.

Apart from that, it leaves the wood ready for the finish or veneer to stick more easily.

Add Veneer or a New Finish

You should let the wood dry after applying the moisturizer. Then you can either find veneer glue and a veneer laminate or else find a liquid finish to apply to the already fixed wood.

This will help to produce a more water-resistant piece of furniture.

Just spread the glue around the surface where the veneer goes and stick.

For the finish, just grab a brush and spread it all around. Make sure to cover all the crucial points on the furniture to make it reliable.

We recommend using water-resistant finishes and veneers for this.

Then finish this step by waiting for the glue or finish to dry.

Apply Furniture Polish 

To finish the whole piece and be ready to say that the entire part is free of any swelling or warping, you then need to apply furniture polish. You should do this the following day after gluing veneer or applying a finish coating.

Do this with a fine brush or cloth. Rub the polish around the surface of the furniture and let it dry.

Furniture polish will work well with the finish or veneer. This way, you’ll add the perfect effect and make the furniture more beautiful than ever.

Repair Your Swollen Furniture Now!

So, are you ready to fix your swollen wooden pieces? Just follow these previous steps, and you’ll be prepared to fix any kind of furniture.

Remember to be patient through every step. This could take several days to finish, but the result will be fantastic.

You just need to start now get rid of any water damage on your wooden pieces. After some time, you won’t believe the results.