How to Repair Water Damaged Wood Veneer

Although wooden furniture is certainly something that gives an incredibly beautiful appearance, it is true that more often, various items destroy it. Moreover, water is one of those things.

If your wooden veneer has suffered, the repair of water damage becomes extremely important after one point to ensure that the wooden part doesn't only have an old and beautiful look behind but remains protected from any damage to water in the future.

Now the question is how to repair water damaged wood veneer? I am here to tell you all about how you can restore anywhere and whenever you like water-damaged wood veneer. Moreover, this isn't as difficult as it seems. Just a few things to remember.

Table of Contents

What is Wood Veneer?

Wood veneers are usually less than 1/40" thin slices of natural wood in the simplest sense. They are the piece of pressed wood. Most people use veneers to form structural panels for heavier hardwood timber products, such as splaying, particleboards, and MDF.

Is Veneer Real Wood?

This is real wood, but machines and technology allow materials to be cut into thick plates without waste. It can be sawn plain, sawn quarter, cut rift, or rotating as thick boards, producing a wide variety of grain patterns for each cut.

Alongside natural hard and softwood veneers, wood veneers have been reconstituted or manufactured but remain natural wood cellulose fibers. They are constructed of renewable and highly sustainable forests, frequently to resemble exotic timbers, which are either endangered, scarce, or incredibly expensive.

How Does Wood Veneer Get Damaged?

Water, as it's for many other items, isn't a good wood veneer companion. If it sprinkles on the surface or under trapped water, the veneer does not respond well for long periods in contact with the water. This creates a few problems, such as white spots over the furnace and blushed haze.

However, if any of this happens, it is certainly time to remedy it. Moreover, fortunately, the renovation of a wooden furnace destroyed by water can be done at home without any skilled assistance. You all need equipment and strategies, and you will do well.

What are the Signs of Water Damage on Wood?

Stains & Discoloration

This can be done with wooden floors, walls, and furnishings. The stains are darker than the initial color. Typically, these stains are dark brown, dark yellow, orange, or green. The salt and minerals left behind during water evaporations cause these unsightly discolorations. White discoloration on wooden furnishings can also be seen when the finish reacts with water.

Change in shape or texture

Water damage on floors will make it warp, sluggish, or sink. Boards can start to rise like a tent. Any irregularity that was not there before is an indication of the damage to the water. The walls can be soft and discolored. You can also start to feel like a sponge in extreme cases. For wooden furniture, apart from swelling, sagging, and other texture changes, the glue or binding that holds the furniture together may also be ruined and caused to break up.

Mould Growth

Excess moisture can be found anywhere mold grows. If you find mold in any wooden portion of the house without any other water damage signs, it is badly damaged veneer wood.

Can water damaged wood be repaired?

Wood veneers damaged caused by water may normally be repaired without specialist refinery services. Water damage generally only damages the surface of the veneer when caught early. However, for a while, the water will reach the finish and damage the furnace. Caught early, you can rescue wood furnace cabinets with little knowledge and much patience.

Repair Water Damaged Wood Veneer (6 Steps)

Step 1: Cleaning

Do you know how to clean wood veneer?

Firstly, you need to put on gloves and check mold and mildew furniture. Then you can take out the furniture for cleaning.

For making, the solvent mixes two caps of bleach with half a warm water bucket. Next, apply three caps of mild soap and blend the mixture. You can use a scrub brush to scrub the furniture properly.

Then rinse the soap with water and repeat the steps when needed. Then wait until the furniture gets air-dried.

Step 2: Removing the Stains

On a soft white sheet, apply a wood furniture cleaner. You can add a few drops of orange oil to this. You should rub it on the furniture stains with circular motions before the stain lifts.

Note: Alternatively, if the above blend doesn't fit, you should try mayonnaise or salad oil dressing. If neither of these functions in the removal of deep shadings, it will be sanding and stripping.

Step 3: Sanding and Stripping

In this step, you need to put on a dust mask to prevent the dust from being inhaled. Sanding the furniture in the direction of the grain with a sander with 220-grit sandpaper. First, remember to sand the areas eroded by water. You should continue to sand the rest of the furniture to create a layer also.

Then use a clean paintbrush to remove the wood dust. Next, add a clean paintbrush to the wood with a chemical stripper.

You can wait for the oxidizing or bubbling chemical agent. You should take a knife to scrape the furniture board.

Step 4: Gluing Loose Joints

You can use 150-grit sandpaper to remove the old glue from damaged joints. You need to use a new paintbrush to remove the wood dust. Then place wood glue to join the loose joints again.

Set the joint in place and let it rest overnight.

Step 5: Painting

Are you searching for how to paint wood veneer for returning glow to it?

You can add the first coat of paint using even strokes with a latex enamel paint of your desired color.

After that, add a second coat to it when the first coat is dry.

Step 6: Applying Varnish

For protecting wood veneers from further damage, it is important to know how to refinish wood veneers.

Then you can select a waterproof and insect repellent varnish form. If the paint is dry, add the first coat of varnish to your wooden furniture. Apply a second and allow it to dry until the first coat of varnish has dried.

See how to repair water-damaged wood veneer in the video below:

How to Get Rid of White Spots?

Are you badly need to know how to fix water damage on wood veneer?

Following these measures would help remove white spots that are causing serious damage to your furniture in no time.

You would like to begin by buffing the furnace with liquid furniture polish, which normally removes the white spots by itself.

If not, a clean rag dipped into denatured alcohol is a healthy option for removing the stains. However, be careful not to harm the existing polish on the furniture, because at times, long exposure to polished furniture with some form of alcohol causes its problems.

Even if alcohol does not work, it should run over the surface a mixture of rottenstone and linseed oil to the grain with the aid of a soft, smooth rag.

Until there are no more white spots, one must be sure to wax the wooden waxing surface at least twice before being finished again.

How to Get Rid of Blushing?

Blushed surfaces are very close to the issue of the white spot. You may need to know how to restore water damaged wood veneer that is caused by blushing. You need to follow some easy steps.

Step 1: Firstly, apply linseed oil to the wood surface.

Step 2: You should buff the whole surface gently and uniformly, matching the wood grain. Then wipe the clean surface with a clean cloth. Buff wood furniture cabinets to a bright shine after adding two coats of rough wax furniture.

Step 3: Try to restore the finish if the finish is already blushed. First, measure a small, unexpected region of the finish to see what is being used: when denatured alcohol dissolves, the finish is shellac; if it dissolves lacquer thinner, then the finish is lacquered.

Step 4: Then, you can use the right solvent to dissolve the finish to reshape the finish.

Step 5: Then, you can use a bristle brush and rub the wood veneer thoroughly by using it.

Step 6: You should feather the edges of the repaired area with a natural bristle brush, applying in the direction of the grain with soft, long pins. Allow to dry surface for 24 hours.

Step 7: Then, you can apply two coats of wax paste and clean rag buff.

Can you use wood filler on veneer?

You can use your wood filler to fill the area where the furnace is lacking. Try to fill the wood around the edges as smooth and clean as possible to fix water damaged wood veneer.

You may need to use your medium grated sandpaper, once it is dry, to sand the filler level with the surrounding veneer. Press the sandpaper grain into the filler just a little to imitate its texture and direction.

Final Words

Whether you have recently experienced indoor flooding or something smaller like a pipe leak, moisture or direct contact with the water will affect your homes on wooden objects like furniture, floors, and other accessories. We hope you found our guide fruitful for fixing damaged wood veneer.

By keeping in mind the tips we have shared with you, we are confident that you would be able to refinish badly damaged veneer wood at any time. You can call an expert for fast and easy finishing instructions when you are not an experienced wood finisher.