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wood floor of shed got soaked by de-icing salt, now never gets dry

 
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I had a bag of de-icing salt stored in my shed with unfinished wood floor.
The bag apparently had a hole in it, and the salt melted and has "pickled" part of my shed floor.
I live in a damp area, so now that part of the floor attracts moisture and stays wet nearly constantly this time of year.
This is NOT due to a leak. It's the salt in the wood that is apparently doing this.
Anyone know how to flush the salt out of that wood?
I'm worried that it will cause rot in the wood, by keeping it damp.
 
pollinator
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Location: Bendigo , Australia
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I did a search and found, baking soda and water, another mrthod is water and vinegar.
There seems to be a number of choices, try a search yourself and find the one best suited.
good luck.
 
steward
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If that was my shed floor, I would use the methods suggested by John to get as much of the salt removed.

Then I would get some box fans, at least two to force air onto the floor from top to bottom to try to dry the floor out.

I feel once you get the floor completely dry, I bet that you will no longer have a problem.
 
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Location: 55 deg. N. Central B.C. Zone 3a S. Nevada. Hot and dry zone
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Your deicer salt is likely potassium chloride. Potassium chloride draws moisture from the air, why it always feels damp.
Scrape it up, wash it down a bit with clear water. Soak up the salt saturated water with portland cement, shop floor dry, sawdust, cat litter, depending on availability or aesthetic tolerance.
Good part is salt saturated wood is unlikey to rot. Not something to spend any energy worrying about.
 
Kit Collins
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Thanks all. I tried once with vinegar but didn't seem to make any diff. I'll try again with hot water and vinegar, and perhaps later w baking soda. Somewhat comforting to know that "pickled" wood like this might not rot. Still, it is an eyesore and perhaps a slip hazard. Nice thing about this situation is that there is no floor under the wood, and the vinegar/water/salt just drips down onto the ground below. That should make eventually drying easier.
 
Kit Collins
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Hi All--
Just wanted to update and "resolve" this issue, in a bit of an unexpected way. Might be useful to someone at some point.
I never succeeded in getting the damp spot removed, but I figured out a workaround.

Tried a couple more times to remove the spot with vinegar and hot water, but never seemed to make a difference. The de-icing salt just seems to have embedded itself too much in the bare wood. Didn't try the baking soda idea, though, so that may work.

I quickly "resolved" the problem of the unsightly dark wet patch by essentially making the rest of the bare wood shed floor also look dark and wet. I found that rubbing dark oil stain into the still-dry areas of the wood floor basically matches the look of the wet patch. Didn't take long to do, and I had some oil stain on hand already, so no expense either. The bare wood, of course, soaks the oil in, so it is not slippery.


 
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