Wood products are always the top priority of almost all users thanks to its long lasting durability as well as attractive designs. However, during using these products, dealing with wood deformation is inevitable, which is fussing users a lot.
In fact, deformation of wood can be fixed and changed better in different ways. This article will tell you the core causes to this condition and how to unwarp wood plates in your house.
Table of Contents
Why Is Wood Deformed?
As usual, deformation happens to industrial wood and the most common condition is warping even though this type of wood have sophisticated appearance and is far easier to be processed than natural one. There are both subjective and objective causes as below.
- Faults during arranging/ moving and process wood plates: Plywood or some types of industrial wood are easy to be deformed with light movements or if the wood edges deviate from the tray or design frame, you can’t avoid wood warping.
- Wood is soaked with water or just steam: Letting steam or water soak into the wood fiber is the direct reason for the deformation. More specific, steam destroys every fiber and makes it collapse gradually. Eventually, the wood pieces are softened and logged.
- Insects intrude into wood fiber: carpenter-bees and ants are really into living in wood fiber and gnawing wood. Once there’s one carpenter-bee or ant there, the whole swarm will come to destroy the wood.
- Wood plates are affected by the weather condition: the weather condition changes unpredictably, leading to the sudden rise or decrease in the temperature. Hot weather can bend the wood and make it swollen while cold weather makes it shrink – two types of wood deformation.
- Low quality of wood type: Using wood of low quality, you will have to cope with warping condition regularly as the fiber connection is loose and it cannot resist the harsh weather.
In addition to these causes, whether the wood is deformed or warped depends on how you use wood products.
Unwarp Wood In 3 Ways
Causes are just causes if you understand the principles of unwarping wood. Look at the following instructions to unwarp wood floor, door or any plate in your house.
Way 1: Make use of heat
As usual, there’re types of wood warping: bowing, crook, kink, cupping, twist. For each type, we have one way to help come back to the original form. However, if you know to take advantage of heat, all types can be fixed.
• Use sunlight
Sunlight is hot so it helps the wood plates dilate, like metal. The steps are simple:
- Put all the warped wood pieces on a flat surface (on a table)
- Bring them to the light
- Leave them for a whole afternoon or more under the sun until the wood is unwarped
- Bring them inside and let them be cool gradually
Using sunlight helps save money and energy but it depends on the weather. On rainy days, there’s no sunlight to use.
• Use bulb/ iron
In case the weather is not as expected, use bulb or an iron to provide more heat for unwarping wood furniture, even unwarp a wood table. See the following steps:
- Use a dry, soft towel and wrap the wood; remember not to keep it too tight or too loose
- Plug the iron and adjust the temperature level; the more warping the wood is, the higher temperature it needs
- Or put the wood under the lighting bulb (it’s better to use yellow light as it’s warmer than white light)
- Iron the wrapped wood and keep it until the heat is enough to unwarp it/ leave the wood under the bulb until it is warmed up enough
- Enough heat will be able to unwarp wood plates
Making use of lighting bulb is advantageous to unwarp wood floor on the grounds that it’s impossible to move the floor. On rainy days, with changes in the air moisture, wood floor is usually warped. At that time, turn on the yellow – light bulb to warm the floor. Unwarping will be effective.
Way 2: Fix 2 ends of wood plates
Fixing 2 ends of a wood plate is also a good idea for unwarping. Fix it with nails. In this way, the wood can be unwarped right away but there are some points you may not like such as: removing the nails after unwarping, only applying for separate, small – sized plates and leaving nail – holes.
Also Read: The 5 Picked Best Contractor Table Saw (Review 2022)
This method is simple and requires just some nails and a small hammer. When you remove the nails, you need pliers, too. You may not prefer to fix ends of a wood plate but it’s fast and helps you save time.
Way 3: Put pressure on wood plates
Putting pressure on wood plates can unwarp them but it’s just effective when you use plywood or industrial wood due to its softness. Natural wood is hard and putting pressure on it will be invalid or will cause wood crushes.
This method requires a cylinder bar which is never sharp to result in scratches on the wood surface. Hold it and roll it through the warping wood. Put your arms’ force on it to unwarp.
Tips To Save Wood
Unwarping always happens, which we cannot avoid. Nonetheless, there’re ways to limit the warping level for the wood. It depends on how you use wood products. Now, let’s how you can save wood and prevent warping.
- Clean the wood on a regular basis to wipe dirt away
- Always use dry cloth or towel to clean the wood or utilize vacuum machine; never use wet cloth
- Avoid dropping water or any liquid on wood floor
- Locate all the wood products in spacy and dry corners
- Don’t keep food bowls without covering in wood cabinet
- Don’t store too heavy or too much luggage in or above wood wardrobes or wood shelves
Conclusion
Unwarping warped wood is like above. Knowing how to unwarp woodproducts, you will be able to keep their durability and values during their lifespan.
