PO Box 9 Kirkland, WA 98083 800.257.0797 Fax 425.822.4103 injectidry.com Combination Operating Manual Vac-It Pak Direct-It Vents Direct-It In Direct-It A clean setup courtesy Kevin Bowles, Total Kleen, Ada, OK
Drying Hardwoods and Other Hard Surfaces With the Vac-It-Pak & Direct-It Vents Caution: Jobs should be monitored daily. Some jobs can literally dry overnight, especially if finish is removed or perforations made. Beware of over-drying. Overview Please be aware that the Vac-It-Pak drying system is designed to dry the top layer of hard surface flooring such as hardwood, tile, stone and marble. It cannot, nor is it intended to be used to dry the subfloor beneath a vapor diffusion retarder (usually black construction paper). In all cases, these subfloor areas must be measured for moisture content and dried with air movement, and on most jobs, dehumidification. If there is a crawlspace and the subfloor is damp or wet, the insulation should come down, even if the insulation feels dry. This will allow you to pass dry air over the surface (in the crawl or basement) with airmovers. If the ceiling beneath the subfloor is sheetrocked, it will usually be wet. If wet, it should be dried using the Injectidry HP drying system. The Direct-It airmover attachments and Vents, will allow you to dry the underside of hardwood by moving air beneath the flutes and in the tongue and groove area of the boards. This manual will deal with both approaches. When drying sport courts, gymnasiums or any other complex flooring system, it is imperative that all layers be identified as to composition, thickness and moisture content. Unless dry air can be moved between or over these layers underneath, the top layer of wood will not dry properly even with the Vac- It-Pak. Each job will be different, and should be approached with the same mindset we have always used. UNLESS WE ARE ABLE IN SOME FASHION, TO MOVE DRY AIR ACROSS A WET SURFACE, THAT SURFACE WILL NOT DRY QUICKLY. The Vac-It-Pak system will accomplish its drying without as much air movement as you are used to with drying carpet. It will do this by reducing the barometric pressure (vacuum). The bottom line is that all layers of flooring must be dried. OSB Subfloor Be careful and inspect subfloor on all jobs. If floor in question has OSB flooring beneath the hardwood, and there is a high level of moisture present in the OSB itself, be aware that the drying project could take a lot longer than if the floor were plywood. Access and drying should optimally be done in a crawlspace or open ceiling if possible. If there is sheetrock blocking air movement such as a finished basement, the interiors of the ceiling cavities should be dried using a high pressure drying system and dehumidification. Failure to adequately dry the structural lumber in the substructure and the drywall, will keep the OSB from drying. Hardwood floors, when damaged by excess moisture, can be very difficult to dry and your dealings with the property owner equally challenging. Most homeowners are completely discouraged to see their floors commence to swell and cup. The floors only had water on them for 20 minutes! Now you are telling the customer that it may take 2, 3, 4, 6 months or longer before the floors are ready to be refinished. Over the years, there have been several time-honored methods of dealing with the problem. In all cases, alternative methods of handling the claim should be explored for cost, speed, efficacy, customer s wishes, etc. Insurance companies are interested in expeditiously closing claims and are not usually interested in the most expensive procedure.
The Vac-It Pak contains six, two foot Vac-U-Plates in the V-60 Pak. These are for use with the Vac-U- Grid. They are designed to go on top of the grid after the floor is prepared. They are best used in areas of approximately 50 square feet per plate. Many drying jobs have areas wet that would include a bathroom, closet, several sections of hall, etc. Each area may be taped off separately, a Vac-U-Plate used in that area and have as many as six different areas served by one high pressure drying system.. When setting up any area, consider the potential floor traffic and minimize trip hazards. For example, it is usually best to put the plates on the sides of a hall next to a wall. In a bathroom, you would not set up a plate in front of the wash basin or commode, but probably along a wall out of the way. An effort should be made to cover the bulk of the wet area. In many cases however, the effect of the vacuum will extend beyond the reach of the area you cover with grid and plastic sheeting. These areas might be the area beneath the stove and refrigerator. Once the vacuum is turned on, there is a pulling effect that will exert force beyond the grid. The grid shipped is 324 square feet in the 60 Pak. This grid is 48 inches wide. To make handling easier, one way to use it is to cut it into 3 foot long pieces. When covering an area with grid, simply put down enough pieces to cover the affected area to be dried. The grid is irregular enough to allow air and moisture to travel up vertically and then horizontally as there is not a perfect seal between the grid and the floor surface. Painter s tape is specified, as it will not damage the floor finish when removed. Three or four mil plastic sheeting is recommended for ease of handing and use. It is tough enough to allow foot traffic when system setup is completed. Floors that can be effectively dried include hardwood, plaster walls with wet door headers, quarry tile, marble, and other surfaces that include grout which can allow moisture to penetrate beneath the surface. Testing The first step when evaluating a floor should be an overall visual inspection. You will be looking for evidence of cupping. The first measuring may be accomplished using a non-destructive meter such as a Tramex Moisture Counter. This will give you a relative reading that can be compared with other readings as you go around the rooms. The first reading should be one taken in an undamaged area. This will give you a benchmark that should represent equilibrium. If the floor will have to be sanded, it is sometimes beneficial to take one initial reading using a pounding hammer type instrument with insulated probes. This will tell you the moisture content of the top layers and also the subfloor. If the area is open beneath in the crawlspace, it would help to take readings from beneath. Keep in mind that the act of pounding in front of a customer or adjuster can be unnerving to them and you. We recommend NOT pounding if you can obtain your information in another manner that is less invasive. Option #1: Total Replacement If the area damaged is a large percentage of the entire hardwood area, and the cupping heavy, the option of complete replacement may be appropriate. In some cases, this is the easiest and maybe the least expensive way to go. The full replacement is usually easy for the contractor to bid, with wet material removal and replacement fairly straightforward. Unless the contractor is careful and accustomed to repairing water damaged structures, hardwoods are sometimes re-installed over damp subfloors. Extreme care must be taken to equalize the structure and the new hardwood prior to
installation. Another item often overlooked is the area beneath cabinets. These should be thoroughly dried or the cabinets removed, subfloor dried & cabinets reset after drying. Advantages to this approach included a shorter time to complete the entire project. This assumes that the contractor is careful and equalizes the structure. Another advantage is the quicker closure of the claim file as the adjuster will quickly and readily cash-out the claim. A disadvantage is the total time the average home is unusable or substantially unusable. The average drying time even with equipment is 1-2 weeks just to dry the subfloor. Another disadvantage is the total cost of the claim including additional living expenses or loss of use. Option #2: Partial Replacement If the area damaged is a small percentage of the entire hardwood area, and the existing wood can be closely matched, removal of only the wet section can be an option. Again, the substrate must be dried to equilibrium. An advantage is that it is usually cheaper and a little less mess than total replacement. A disadvantage is that the total repair time is close to that of complete replacement. A further disadvantage is that sometimes the wood cannot be matched to the customer s satisfaction. Option #3: Let It Sit Adjusters and most hardwood mechanics are comfortable in most cases with just letting a floor slowly acclimate. This is probably most disturbing to deal with from the homeowner s standpoint. Many homeowners get concerned about the long wait and are constantly evaluating the floor for appearance and squeaks. Meanwhile, the nails holding the wood in place are usually rusting and the wood molding. The picture below is of white oak that was wet for only five weeks after a refrigerator line broke. When the flooring was removed, there was still standing water on top of the black paper. The boards are clearly supporting visible mold colonies and the nails are rusted. Option #4: Dry It Using Many restoration contractors attempt to dry hardwoods by one or a combination of the following: blowing air across the surface dehumidifying (or tenting & pumping in dehumidified air) forcing air from the side using drying vents. The first option of blowing air across the surface does almost no good. The finishes and sealers prevent the moisture from being released easily. Dehumidifying accompanied by tenting seems good on the face but never seems to work adequately enough of the time. Remember that moisture moves from high pressure to low pressure. The tarping produces an area of high pressure, moving the moisture away. Blowing hot dehumidified air from the wall has to be done carefully due to the extreme dryness of the air. The success rate of using just these methods is not good. Option #5: Dry It With Negative Pressure Using The Vac-It-Pak & Direct-It Vent Combination The newest approach recognizes the fundamentals of moisture and air movement within a structure. Air flows from high pressure to lower. Air molecules will move to a less crowded space if you will. In the atmosphere, weather systems exhibit this tendency when air (wind) moves from zones of high pressure to zones of low atmospheric (barometric) pressure. In a building, the same phenomenon occurs only on a much smaller scale. Soil filtration lines in carpeted areas are
evidence of this air movement. Contaminated air moves across the face fiber of carpeting and deposits its load. CFM in = CFM out. If air is moved into a space, an equal quantity has to come out in order to equalize pressure. The action happens at the surface. Assuming the surface material is wet, the movement of dry air over and by it, will cause the material s moisture to transfer to the air. This air activity will act to retard mold growth. (If the structure is not dried, the relative humidity will be elevated and mold will result, guaranteed). Moisture moves from high temperature to lower. This principle makes dehumidifiers work. To tarp floors and pump hot air on them drives the moisture toward the vapor diffusion retarder. During testing of various drying methods, it was discovered that drying could happen rapidly if high suction was applied to the surface of the wet flooring. The mechanics of this are fairly simple and steps are as follows: Apply special grid to the wet area. This is an irregular grid designed to let moisture and air travel vertically and horizontally between two sealing surfaces. The one surface obviously is the hardwood and the next covering layer will be 3-4 mil plastic sheeting. The next step will be to apply a special vacuum plate on top of the grid. On the top of the plate will be barbs that will penetrate the plastic sheeting. The perimeter will be sealed with 2 wide painter s tape. This type of tape is preferred as it will not harm the wood finish. If sanding is to be done, lesser expensive masking tape may be used. The next step will be to set up an Injectidry HP 60 or 90 set on the suction side. Next, connect the tubes from the standard Injectidry manifolds to the barbs on the vacuum plates. When the system is set up, turn on the HP drying system and the floor will be essentially shrink wrapped. Do not use the Injectidry Active Hoseline for this type of drying. The manifolds are best suited. As a preparation to the drying, some of the finish should be taken off using a 120 grit sanding screen or paper sanding disk beneath a buffer taking care to not take off more than just finish. If your local Injectidry dealer does not carry these, check with a janitorial supply company or hardwood supply store. No preparatory aggressive sanding should be done unless sanding and refinishing are to be done on completion. If you do not remove some of the finish, however, the drying may not occur very quickly. Remember that the subfloor must be dried. If there is a crawlspace, inspect, pull down wet insulation and dry using air movement and dehumidification. If moisture is not removed to equilibrium, the oak floor will most likely gain this excess moisture and cup. If the underside is a finished room, a second HP 60 or 90 can be set up to dry through the ceiling. This will dry the subfloor. Moisture readings of all surface material including subfloor will be the only way to determine dry. Laying Grid
Applying Tape Installing Vac-It-Plates Under Plastic (Puncture With Sharp Tool)
Vac-It-Plate Installed Attaching Tubes & Applying Vacuum Pressure
Vacuum drying in place Negative drying with vents along wall using a standard airmover or axial fan, in conjunction with Vac-It Pak and HP
Direct-It In, Direct-It & Direct-It Vent User Manual Components of the Direct-It In Your Direct-It In comes with: high density polyethylene gray universal airmover attachment, with 17 air outlet ports, bungee cords attached 17-1 ¼ Wall Penetrators 17 5/8 Wall Penetrators 17 hoses precut to various lengths, 2 ft to 12 ft with attached hose cuffs 10 - red plugs Carry bag Components of the Direct-It Your Direct-It comes with: high density polyethylene gray universal airmover attachment, with 17 air outlet ports, removable gasket, bungee cords attached 17-1 ¼ Wall Penetrators 17 5/8 Wall Penetrators 17 hoses precut to various lengths, 2 ft to 12 ft with attached hose cuffs 10 - red plugs Carry bag Components of the Direct-It Vents Your Direct-It Vent package ships with: 5 four foot vents with three 1 ½ hose barbed connection points 20 wood screws for attachment to the wall 15 hose cuffs for use with our Direct-It airmover attachment 10 triangular shaped foam end wedges Uses When drying a wet structure, sometimes contractors find areas beneath cabinets that need substantial air movement due to wet or suspected wet sub floor. An Injectidry High-Pressure (HP) system is not always needed or available. Therefore we created the Direct-It In so you can add it to your arsenal of tools. When drying cabinets, there is almost always a kick plate area to drill holes. Usually base will be reattached and the holes hidden. Larger holes in walls are not as easy to patch if they are above the baseboard line. This is not usually the case when drying cabinets. Additionally, there is less backpressure, enabling the contractor to use an air delivery system with less pressure than an HP system. A standard airmover with the Direct-It In adapter, can deliver all of the air needed, if the hole is made large enough, and if there is reduced backpressure.
The drying contractor can use these ports to dry beneath stairs, cabinets, in ceilings or walls all at the same time. Over 22 linear feet can be dried with a standard airmover. The holes in the walls can range from 1 ¼ down to 5/8, all with provided accessories. Naturally, the smaller the opening, the less air pressure, but sometimes the reduced airflow is still acceptable. Warehouse walls often have either no base or a wide base enabling the contractor to drill a larger hole. Setup of Direct-It In The Direct-It In itself, fits on the snout of any standard airmover. The snout rests against a gasket inside the gray housing. While holding the gray housing with one hand, attach the bungee cord to the hole in the side of the housing. The next step is to attach as many sections of hose to the front outlet ports as needed. Any unused ports can be plugged if desired, with the accompanying red plugs. It is not necessary to plug the unused ports, but the user may wish to avoid moving air in front of the airmover. The pressure is barely affected if some of the ports are left open, as most airmovers generate between 2,000-3,000 cfm of air and the Direct-It In will be using only a part of this potential flow. Provided in each adapter kit are (17) 1 ¼ Wall Penetrators. These are inserted into the end of a hose without a hose cuff. This Penetrator may be used by itself if you can drill a large hole. If a smaller hole is desired, the smaller diameter Wall Penetrator may be inserted into the larger as shown in the picture below. Remember, the smaller the hole, the less airflow there will be. The hoses provided may be cut to any length and of course, more hose can be purchased to provide even greater flexibility. Every effort has been made to provide maximum adaptability and usability.
Standard airmovers have less pressure than the high pressure drying systems (HP 60 & HP 90). Consequently, it is often necessary and important to drill relief holes in the stud cavities in order to facilitate drying. Usually one or two holes will be sufficient. The Direct-It The setup of the Direct-It is identical to the Direct-It In, with the exception of the placement of the adapter. The pictures below show two types of airmovers it can be adapted to. The first one pictured is an axial fan which can use the adapter either to blow air into hoses and walls or the reverse. Either end of the axial fan can be used equally effectively. The static pressure is on the order of 3. When drying negatively with Direct-It It is important to realize that negative airflow is not easily felt. We are used to feeling the high negative pressure of truckmount type vacuum. To easily see that the air is being moved through the tube, you can put the tube in water and see the water move up the tube. On the axial fan negative setup, the air moved will be just as great as the positive setup. When used with a standard airmover, the water lift is generally 1. The standard airmover does not have quite the suction as an axial, but still has pressure on the order of 1 of water lift. This can be very effective when drying sleepered floors such as a gymnasium, sport court or suspended flooring in a basement. When used in this manner, the Direct-It Vents should be used to maximize pressure and seal. There is a separate gasket shipped with the Direct-It that may be used or not depending on the type of airmover being used. Axial fans do not need a gasket but the standard airmover can benefit from using it. When not using the gasket, it should be attached to the three clips on the side of the vent. Setup of the Direct-It Wall Vents The Direct-It Vents allow the contractor to direct air beneath hardwood or into the airspace between sleepers in suspended floor systems. In some cases, all you need may be to move dry air beneath, into and through these areas. The Vents come in four foot pieces that may be cut to any length, or ganged together to cover an entire gymnasium wall. The installation is easy with standard wood screws. In most cases, the contractor would remove the base as necessary, to expose the expansion gap at the butt ends of the hardwood flooring. The plates are also used to bridge the gap between the
hardwood and the walls of sport courts and gymnasiums. The plates are attached securely with screws every foot. The resulting channel is enough to provide for the distribution of air along the wall with a minimum of backpressure. The plate fits flush with the wall and the flooring to provide a tight fit. Each run of vents should be blocked off at the end. Enclosed in the kit you buy are some end wedges cut out of Styrofoam. These may be duplicated easily by cutting up a furniture block, by your technicians. In situations where most of the wet wood is along a wall, the wall plates can either be enough by themselves, or used along with the Vac-It-Pak high pressure drying system. The combination of low pressure vacuum suction on one wall, dehumidified air being introduced along the other wall positively, and negative pressure through the top of the wood, often produces great results. For further information on the HP Vac-It-Pak drying system, contact Injectidry Systems, Inc. 800.257.0797, or the distributor you purchased your unit from. Ozone may also be introduced into the intake side of the airmover. This can be used to disperse ozonated air into walls, beneath cabinets and other rooms to eliminate unwanted odors such as from fires. Please call us at 800.257.0797 or your local Injectidry distributor for further information on availability and price.
Above axial fan providing negative pressure through vent against wall, drawing moisture laden air through the flutes. Vac-It grid is being vacuumed by an HP drying system to provide negative pressure.
The Direct-It attaches to HEPA filtration systems and 12 ducting Gymnasium drying using Vents and combination negative and positive pressure and air movement.