Hardwood Repair
Summary: Repairing hardwood floors can be very frustrating. Each hardwood floor piece has a shape that interlocks with the others in the hardwood flooring. Restoring hardwood floors ranks as one of the hardest repair jobs. Once the hardwood pieces have been repaired, there is still the hardwood floor refinishing.
DEAR TIM: I'm faced with a hardwood floor repair. Water seeped under my front door and caused the floor to warp. What's involved in a hardwood-floor-repair job like this? I'm usually not too timid when it comes to home repair issues, but I'm feeling out of my comfort zone. I realize the hardwood floor is made up of interlocking pieces, and for the life of me I can't figure out how to remove single pieces much less install new ones. Dan B., San Jose, CA
DEAR DAN: I'll tell you what's involved in a hardwood repair like this, lot's of frustration and pain. This is a task that's often best left to a hardwood-flooring professional. You can probably work your way through the job, but a professional will probably be able to complete the task and be on the road to the next job while you are still futzing around with the wood chisel.
Hardwood-floor repair is difficult because of the shape of each piece of hardwood flooring. Full-size pieces of hardwood flooring are typically three-quarter-inch thick and they have either a tongue or groove profile on each of the four side edges. The tongue interlocks into the corresponding groove on an adjacent piece of hardwood flooring. This means you can't just pry up a piece of flooring as you might pull up a board on your outdoor deck.
You will become extremely frustrated early in the hardwood-repair process. You'll probably use a circular saw to start the process of removing the center of the damaged piece of hardwood flooring. Carefully set the depth of the blade so it cuts the hardwood flooring only and not into the subfloor beneath the hardwood.
Because the saw blade is circular, it will not be able to cut full depth to the outer edges of the hardwood strip flooring. You'll have to finish that task carefully with a router or a wood chisel. This operation will require extreme patience, skill and precision as you can't touch the adjacent pieces of finished hardwood flooring with the tools. If you do, then you'll be replacing multiple pieces of hardwood flooring.
Once you've got the old piece of ruined flooring out, it's time to conjure up every ounce of master-finish-carpentry skill you have. You have to produce a piece of new hardwood flooring that is the exact size of the one you removed. Your tolerance for error is perhaps the thickness of a piece of paper.
But note that you have to get the new piece of flooring into a rectangle that has two tongues and two grooves. The only way you can do this is to cut off the tongue on the short edge and cut off the bottoms of the two grooves on your replacement piece of hardwood flooring.
Even with these advantages, it can be a tremendous challenge to insert the new piece of hardwood flooring without damaging the tender edges of the new piece as well as the adjacent pieces you are working against. This stage of the project will require every bit of patience and skill you possess.
Once you have the new piece of hardwood flooring nested into position, it needs to be face nailed. Because you've worked so hard to get to this point, don't ruin the wood by splitting it. I recommend drilling pilot holes that are slightly smaller than the diameter of the special blunt point finish nails you need to use.
Don't use regular finish nails. There are special finish nails that have a tip that is fairly blunt. You can get these from a real hardware store or from a professional that regularly installs hardwood flooring. While you are picking them up from the pro, be sure to ask him if he has an opening in his schedule to bail you out. My money says you will be calling him to finish what you start.
Hardwood floor repair ranks as one of the hardest repair jobs I know of in the typical house. It's so technically challenging, you simply can't believe it until you try it. The margin for error is razor thin.
Even if you succeed at getting the new piece of hardwood flooring in, you now have to get the stain and finish to match the adjacent pieces. This is sometimes even harder to do than getting the wood strip into place! It's a true gift the talents a pro finisher has in matching the stain color and level of sheen on the floor finish. If you succeed at doing this yourself, you either have great skills or you should immediately go purchase a lottery ticket.
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Comments:
Pam Smith 08 Oct 2008, 08:28
My hardwood floor problem is the home builder used hardwood from a previous
house.Instead of finishing it he glued carpet down on it. Now 2 carpets
later I want to refinish the floor. HOw do I remove the glue left behind?
If I take my shoe and rub the floor vigoriously the glue rolls off. Is
there a safe solvent I can use? Also the floor is sort of creaky but that
part I can live with.
Shawn Segars 10 Oct 2008, 19:36
I just wanted to say that as a hardwood flooring professional of 17 years I
really appreciated this article. Many people don't understand the expertise
involved in repairing a hardwood floor and this article explained the
challenges very well. In regard to the question about the glue, it
generally just gets sanded off during a refinish.
erin 16 Oct 2008, 22:23
I just want to say, as an avid and intrepid DIY'er, I really appreciate
this article, too. Tim, you are so encouraging of DIY projects that I know
if you recommend not to DIY, it really isn't a DIY project. Thank you for
your honest and detailed explanation of what a PITA hardwood repair can be.
Rebecca Zubis 17 Oct 2008, 08:01
Hi Tim. I really thought you were a bit negative, or maybe I've just been
lucky. I've done this 8-10 times for myself and friends. First I mask the
area around with real duct tape(because I'm kind of a klutz).I use a drill
with a 1 1/2 inch bit to remove a lot of stock (sometimes I do go a bit
into the sub floor, but not much). I use a rotary cutter to get the extra
bits out. To replace the piece I drill the pilot holes and start the face
nails and use them as handles to replace the piece. I practiced on a mock
up the first time. If you don't have a matching piece test stains,
indelible markers on the reverse. I use at least 5 coats of varathane
sanding lightly between each with 000 steel wool & don't forget the tack
cloth. Carefully set nails & fill, don't forget the varathane over fills or
you can see the difference in sheen.
artur 21 Oct 2008, 13:23
Don't nail this darn new piece of hardwood. Glue it in with PL400.
Nails look really ugly so avoid them. Don't use any other glue, has to be PL400 as it keeps flexibility and if floor has to move PL400 will give in a little bit.
Marc 30 Oct 2008, 12:38
Hello,
I've recently had my hardwoods refinished. The house is only three years old, but the previous owner didn't care for them very well. I got a few estimates, and went with one I felt comfortable that had the right balance of price and experience. Dust, odor and timeliness is a concern of mine, because my wife is 6.5 months pregnant. I was told that all that was needed was a 'light sanding' and one thick coat of poly. We scheduled the job for a friday and stayed at a hotel for two nights so the house could ventilate. They used a floor buffer attached to an industrial vaccum (no dust, which was good). The buffer used pads that I can only describe as screen-like. They kept binding, and little rolls of some substance kept collecting underneith. He had to change these pads 5 times (on 500ish sqft). Saying that it must've been wax buildup. They did a quick vaccuming of the surfaces (causing some concern). Then slapped down a thick layer of poly. Everything seemed fine. When we returned two days later, it still looked wet. To my surprise, it wasn't wet, but it was HIGH gloss. Upon further inspection, there were dozens of spots where the poly seemed repelled by the old surface (either wax, or an unclean area). Unhappy, I contacted him to fix the spots, figuring that I'd live with the sheen. He arrived a few days later, sanded each 'spot' and applied poly by brush to each spot. It looks worse than before, because the gloss makes these patches painfully obvious. Long story short, I have an upset pregnant wife and no time to do it over again. Of course, it's the most traveled, most visible part of the house (entrance hall), so i'll be reminded of it every day. Can a second coat of Semi gloss or Satin be applied over a high gloss coat? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, both in contractor evaluation, job execution and where to go from here. I'm in Attleboro MA if you have any referrals. Thanks in advance, Marc View all comments |
