Hardwood Floor Repair

Hardwood floors are beautiful and very durable. They can, however, be damaged under certain circumstances. Because of the many factors involved in a floor repair, this work can be surprisingly difficult, sometimes costly, and met with limited success. Understanding the the process will help you decide on the best approach to fixing your floor, and will allow us to repair the floor in the most effective manner possible. Please take a few minutes to read and familiarize yourself with the information below.  It will answer many questions you may have.

Note: we only perform repairs if in conjunction with full refinishing.

Common types of floor damage:

Scratches - surface scratches that have penetrated into or through the finish. Deep scratches can penetrate through the finish and expose raw lumber. Common causes include dog nails and sliding furniture or appliances.

Gouges - are indentations in the wood but may not necessarily expose raw lumber. Common causes are dragging heavy objects such as appliances, heavy furniture, moving carts, and high heels.

Water damage - cupping, buckling, crowning, and gapping can all occur from exposure to water. If left wet over time (such as areas under a carpet), the wood can become stained and turn black. These types of stains may or may not sand out. Common causes are plumbing leaks such as dishwashers or refrigerator water lines, and toilets.

Moisture damage - occurs when the environment is too moist or dry for the floor. When too much humidity is present, floors can cup, crown, split or buckle. When too dry, floors can recede, shrink, and expose gaps or cracks. Common causes are flooded basements or wet installation or substrate conditions.

Pet stains - can cause the same damage as water or moisture, but are more likely to stain and cause odors.

Nail holes - often seen if a floor has been carpeted. Nails from the tackstrip can leave holes, and usually will oxidize in the wood, leaving black marks that do not sand out.

Common types of floors

Prefinished floors - are coated with an aluminum oxide, or ceramic finish, under high heat and pressure at the factory. They arrive at the home with finish applied and, once installed, require no additional sanding or coating. Both engineered and solid lumber floors can be prefinished.

Site finished floors - are installed raw and then sanded and coated after installation. The coatings used for site and prefinished floors are very different. Because of this, the only sanding option for prefinished repairs is a full refinish. Sanding and area of a prefinished floor will look very different than the rest of the floor.

Engineered floors - are layered lumber products with plywood as the base and a vanity lumber as the top, exposed, wear layer. The thickness of the wear layer varies with different products and many times, are too thin to sand. Any sanding might expose the plywood below.

Laminate floors - have little to no wood at all. Often times they’re made out of composites and have a sticker to give them the appearance of wood. Laminates cannot be sanded.

Types of installation:

Staple or cleat - each board is fastened to the substrate with staples or cleats. More often used with solid lumber.

Floating/click - are not fastened to the substrate at all. The individual boards click together creating a monolithic floor system. Floating floors are often laminates or engineered floors.

Glue down - are glued to the substrate and are generally used over cement slabs.

Methods of repair:

Sanding or board replacement are common approaches to repair floor. The method of repair will vary depending the type of floor and the type of damage. Site and job conditions will also affect the method. It is important to understand that floors change in appearance over time and, because of this, new lumber, coatings, or stains, may not match the existing floor. Small gaps and nail holes are often unavoidable during the repair process and clients should expect that fill and color putties will need to be used and are common practice.

Sanding
Generally used to repair scratches, gouges, and some staining.

Spot Sanding
Spot sanding affects a very small area of the floor at the point of damage. It is important to understand that spot sanding a floor is not often an option. Sanding one spot on a floor, while seemingly the logical choice for a small scratch, is rarely a viable option for repair. This is because the area sanded often remains visibly different from the existing floor. Although the scratch or gouge may be gone, evidence of the repair such as lighter spots along the sanding line “haloing”, lighter lines across the grain, elevation differences from the sanding and  “dish outs” may exist.

Spot sanding also can show areas where the new finish overlaps and dries on top of the old finish. These “lapmarks” are differences in color and sheen and can be physically higher than the existing finish. If spot sanding is the only option, we will generally sand along natural breaking points in the floor such as the joints between boards. The success of this method can be highly varied and we can not guarantee a match.

Room sanding
Another option when sanding is to sand the entire room where the damage occurred. Sanding an entire room allows a uniform appearance throughout the room, deliberately putting any seams in an area less obvious. Usually a stopping point is at a door between rooms. Although this method eliminates many problems of spot sanding, differences between the refinished room and the existing area may exist. This is the most common type of repair for scratches and gouges.

Full Refinish
To ensure that no evidence of the repair exists, the entire floor may need to be refinished. This may be a reasonable option if the floor is already in need of refinishing.

Board Replacement
Generally used to repair any damage to prefinished floors, very damaged wood, or deeply stained spots

Board replacement for site finished floors
Board replacement is required with un-sandable floors, or when the damage is so severe that sanding is not an option. This generally occurs when pet or water stains have permeated through the entire board. It can also be necessary with split, cracked, cupped, or warped boards. Because site finished floors have been sanded, the new lumber will be elevated higher than the existing, and will need to be sanded flush. It will also need to be coated. The pitfalls listed above under spot sanding all apply to this scenario and the ideal time to replace boards for a site finished floor is when the entire floor will be refinished. Fitting new lumber into an existing floor can be very difficult. Differing sizes of new & existing lumber may require the new boards to be custom fit into openings. Other times, especially if moisture was the cause, new boards may be narrower than the existing, leaving gaps that will have to be filled.

Board replacement for prefinished floors
Because of the different type of finish on site and prefinished floors, sanding out damage on a prefinished floor is only an option if the entire floor is being sanded. Replacing boards is the most common type of repair for a prefinished floor. As with a site finished floor, fitting new lumber into an existing floor can be very difficult. Differing sizes of new & existing lumber may require the new boards to be custom fit into openings. Other times, especially if moisture was the cause, new boards may be narrow the the existing leaving gaps that will have to be filled. It is important to have a supply of lumber that will match your floor. Product lines of lumber are notoriously fickle and, more often or not, are discontinued and impossible to find. If you don’t have any extra lumber or a source for matching lumber, the match of the repair will be limited by the ability to find an appropriate matching lumber. We will recommend suppliers but locating the lumber is the client’s responsibility. Prefinished floors also change color with exposure to light and even if you have the same product that was originally installed, the new and existing may look significantly different.

Board replacement for floating floors
Because floating floors are “clicked” together as they’re installed and  not fastened directly to the substrate, individual boards cannot be replaced. Removing one board in a floating floor ruins the continuity of the floor and the new lumber will not be able to be clicked in the the existing floor. The only way to replace boards in floating floor system, is to remove the floor from the point the install was completed, back to the damaged lumber, and re-installed. At times, as much as half the floor must be removed to replace one board. As with prefinished floors, the source of the new lumber must be considered.

Board replacement for glued floors
Removing and replacing boards that have been glued down can be very difficult because the entire board has been secured to the floor. Often times, when removing a glued down board, it will split, leaving splinters of lumber adhered to the substrate. Other times damage to the substrate may also occur. Sometimes each board must be chiseled out down to the substrate. It can be very time consuming and costly process.

Other issues that can increase the cost, difficulty, and success, of repairs

Unusual sizes of lumber - existing lumber that is an unconventional with or depth requiring new boards to  be individually milled or cut to size

Thin floors - that are near the end of their useful life. New lumber installed will tower over the existing lumber, requiring extra sanding to level it flush.

Difficult species - such as Maple, American Cherry, Doug Fir, or exotics, can all change color dramatically over time, making a color match very difficult or impossible.

Stained floors - new lumber will need to be stained to match an color of unknown formula. An exact match  may not be possible and mixing stains on site is billed hourly.

Floating floors - to replace boards, sometimes much of the room must be replaced

Discoloration over time - due to sunspots or throw rugs may make a match impossible.

No substrate - the existing floor is literally supported only by the joists. This requires longer, and specifically cut, flooring to be used. It also makes an appropriate stagger of the boards difficult because they must end at the joists.  It can also necessitate rough carpentry work to the joists.

Glue down floors - requiring additional labor to remove the existing floor.