Yes, they can dry and lay down again. I would want it in writing that after (specified time if the boards are not flat to your satisfaction he will then replace the boards & refinish.

How badly are they cupped? Can you feel it in bare feet? They can sand them down and refinish without pulling boards out, but you will want to wait until the wood is completely dry. "A bit" can mean months. They use moisture detectors to see if any moisture remains. Our washer overflowed onto our hardwoods for about 30 minutes, so I wouldn't think your hardwood is that damaged if they were able to clean it up quickly. Our insurance adjuster could see the cupping, but we couldn't, so we chose not to go through the disruption of refinishing. However, insurance paid for it anyway, along with all the other damage to carpet and sheetrock.

Yes I can feel it in bare feet and see it. It is an area of about 8 square feet. I will talk to the contractor about the amount of time and have a promise in writing. Thanks for the advice.

The repair was made today - it was a cracked drain pump. I asked the repair person if moving the washer could have cracked it or if it was a coincidence of timing. He told me they probably set it down too hard and cracked it; the pump is made of plastic.

This happened to me. My entire main floor is hardwood. I had it refinished (several 1000 dollars) and when the floor guy pushed the frig back into it's recess the valve body for the icemaker water cracked and leaked. Not really anyones fault. We noticed the floor damage several days later.

My homeowners paid to have the damaged area replaced and the entire floor refinished. I told ins. adjuster I didn't want a mismatch right after paying to have the floor redone and ins. company approved it.

Note: This kind of event is why I absolutely will not let my granite installers mess with any plumbing, even something as simple as disconnecting stuff for a tear out.

strayer:

The opinion of a repairperson does not proof make. It is coincidence until PROVEN otherwise. As we saw in another thread, things aren't always what they seem.

Same thing happened to me with a refrigerator water line that got crimped and started to leak. I had a parquet floor which got cupped . I was told to wait because it would eventually flatten out again and sure enough it did. After about three months.

The contractor and I agreed on a timeframe to wait and we will address it later if it doesn't flatten out. Thanks for your help.

Did you get a dehumidifier in there ASAP? If not, then do so.

He needs to turn it in to his insurance carrier. Hopefully he has liability insurance.

I would not take a wait and see approach. I would get a rep out to assess the damage. If you don't and you decide later that his insurance does need to "fix" the problem, they may say that you did not mitigate the damage and refuse to pay.

Seriously, I would not have hardwood in my laundry room. If you have to replace it...maybe consider tile.

Besides a dehumidifier, possibly the type of fan that the water restoration/carpet guys use. We have a floating wood floor in our basement & the pros used that and a dehumifier to dry it out, which worked. I'm not sure if a fan would be used on a site finished floor. Best to talk to the floor installer/refinisher.