How To Level A Wood Floor Repair From Underneath

Researching how to repair wooden floors? Original wooden floorboards are a desirable feature in an former belongings, adding grapheme and a unique feel. They tin can deteriorate over time, however, significant that maintenance, intendance and repair are of import to deport in listen.

Our handy guide is hither to offering advice on recognising damage, before providing tips on tackling everything from damp and protrude infestation to loose and squeaking floorboards. While many of these issues can exist tackled by an experienced DIY-er, it'due south worth consulting a good carpenter if you demand advice or guidance.

This characteristic is an edited extract from the Victorian & Edwardian House Manual by Ian Stone, published by Haynes. Ian Stone is a chartered surveyor and director of survey price comparing website rightsurvey.co.united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland

If you are repairing floorboards as part of a larger home renovation project, notice out how to renovate a house in our proficient guide.

Types of wooden floorboards

Before you get started repairing wooden floorboards, it's important that you know what you're working with. Generally there are three chief varieties of floorboard:

Tongue-and-groove wooden floorboards: Boards with a slot (groove) on one edge and a ridge (natural language) on the other, enabling them to exist slotted together. The boards are sometimes nailed at an angle through the natural language then the fixing is hidden.

Foursquare edged boards: Floorboards that are not tongue-and-groove; these are the most likely type of floorboards to be establish in a menses home, such as a Victorian house.

Parquet: Hardwood blocks, glued to a subfloor, which are laid to form geometric patterns. Oftentimes institute in homes built after the turn of the last century.

iron bed with white bedlinen and gold pillows in bedroom with cream walls and wooden flooring

Repairing wooden floors: warning signs

In addition to full general wear and tear, wooden floorboards are vulnerable to damp, rot, protrude infestation and harm caused when they are lifted past electricians and plumbers. Problems are often hidden under carpets or furniture.

What to look for:

Croaky, separate or damaged boards;
Beetle infestation revealed by modest holes and fine powder;
Damp and rot;
Loose boards and creaking or 'springy' floors;
Gaps betwixt floorboards;
Scratches, marks or surface damage.

General care for wooden floors

Wooden floorboards are vulnerable to scratching and softwood boards can speedily become dented, so protecting and caring for the floor is essential. Sanding or rigorously scrubbing floorboards can destroy the surface character and, where woodworm is nowadays, may reveal worm-ridden timber that is difficult to consolidate.

To prevent this from happening, nosotros would recommend that you:

Sweep or vacuum regularly to remove dust.
Think before cleaning, sanding or polishing equally this may destroy the flooring's grapheme. Information technology is besides e'er worth carrying out tests on a small inconspicuous area offset.
Use acceptable mats at exterior doors and shake them out regularly.
Put felt pads on chair legs or furniture that is moved to avoid them scratching the flooring.
Protect floors with hardboard or plywood sheets during building work.
Where necessary, apply a suitable finish. Beeswax is traditional for wooden floors simply information technology can be high maintenance. Difficult wax oils are an alternative and may be reapplied when required.

dining room with original wooden floor boards, wooden table and red wardrobe

Identifying and tackling damp and beetle infestation

Timber that becomes damp is probable to rot and suffer beetle attack, somewhen causing boards to become soft or riddled with boreholes. In serious cases this can result in structural problems.

In bathrooms or kitchens with suspended timber floors, leakage from pipes, showers or sinks, likewise every bit condensation, tin crusade rot to develop unseen. Similarly a leaking water supply may go unnoticed for years, causing the earth below the business firm to go saturated.

Therefore, in most erstwhile houses at that place will exist a number of sometime boreholes from past wood beetle activity. Although very common, this is commonly superficial with only the odd brusque length of board sufficiently weakened to demand replacing.

Where the originals cannot be reused, reclaimed wooden boards are widely available, or you tin can have matching new ones fabricated from seasoned timber.

Rather than using chemic treatments, always identify the cause of the problem and treat it at source.

How to identify and tackle damp and beetle infestation

Expect for places where the wood comes into directly contact with sources of moisture and create some separation between them.
Where the pointing in walls is eroded or hard modern cement mortar has trapped clammy, repoint the walls with lime, which allows moisture to escape.
Where joist ends resting in damp walls have been eaten away, steel joist extenders can reconnect them with the wall. Alternatively, yous can tie joists back in by inserting stainless-steel 'helibars' sleeved through the wall from outside and embedded in resin to form a tight new connection
With suspended floors, check air vents are not blocked or damaged and ensure there is acceptable ventilation underneath.
Where the problem appears serious, lift boards to enable the joists below to be inspected.
Remove droppings under suspended floors that is creating a bridge for moisture.
Repair or supervene upon any floorboards and timber joists that are rotten.

Repairing damaged wooden floorboards

Wherever possible, repair rather than supplant original floorboards. When refixing boards information technology is advisable to use brass screws rather than nails in order to protect sometime lath and plaster ceilings beneath from hammer vibration.

Follow these steps to repair damaged floorboards:

Mucilage and cramp split boards dorsum together, where necessary using screws drilled into the edges of the boards.
Repair cleaved ends, corners or edges of boards past using the appropriate species of forest and matching the grain design.
Weakened floorboards tin can be strengthened by fixing a length of new board to the underside, or running new battens underneath for back up.
Permit new timber to acclimatise before use and so that shrinkage is minimised after laying.

living room with original floor, gallery wall comprised of an eclectoce combination of images and bright blue sofa

Adding insulation to erstwhile wooden floors

Victorian floors weren't congenital with whatsoever grade of insulation to reduce rut loss, meaning that rooms downstairs can be a bit draughty if there are gaps at skirtings and between boards.

These can exist sealed with a bitumen-based mastic; past cutting small timber wedges to fit the gaps; or using special foam rubber strips that are easy to wedge in identify, and once inserted expand to fully seal gaps.

It is likewise possible to insulate ground floors from underneath by lifting a few boards to gain access to the subfloor void and and then placing rigid polyurethane or quilt insulation between the joists, supported on battens.

Use our guide to find out how to fix draughty floorboards. And, notice out more than about how to insulate your home.

bedroom with deep purple scheme, gallery wall and original wooden flooring in herringbone layout. a bed that is low to the floor

Fixing loose and squeaking floorboards

While floorboards can become loose for a variety of reasons, frequently it is simply that the fixing is no longer holding the board tight. This said, it is important to investigate the matter fully. Take great care where lifting boards is unavoidable.

Follow these steps to set up a loose or squeaking floorboard:

Boom the lath dorsum into place using special 'cutting' floorboard nails to minimise whatever squeaks, outset ensuring that no cables or pipes are immediately underneath where you will nail.
Strengthen from below by screwing battens back on to the joists.
Where boards might take to exist taken up in the future, or there are fragile ceilings beneath that may be damaged by hammering, brass screws are preferable to nails for fixing.
Squeaks are sometimes silenced by puffing powdered graphite or talc between boards that rub together.

Sapphire Geometric Panel Parquetry engineered oak wood flooring — *Early floorboards were quite wide but over time became progressively narrower*

Should y'all be concerned nigh bouncy floorboards?

A small amount of 'springiness' is not normally a problem in timber floors. However, if furniture in the room vibrates when the floor is walked on, consider appointing a surveyor to judge whether this is acceptable.

Although builders sometimes skimped with thinner joists spaced besides far autonomously, weak floors are generally the result of notches later on cut in them to lay pipes and cables, with boards oftentimes left loose or broken.

What to do if you demand to tackle bouncy floorboards:

Flooring joists can be stiffened past wedging blocks of wood between them, or strengthened with fresh joists bolted aslope.
Where holes and notches have been cut, attaching metal plates alongside can stiffen joists.

bedroom with colour blocked paint scheme and bed with original wooden flooring

Tackling gaps and draughts

Added together, the gaps betwixt floorboards in a typically sized room can be equivalent to leaving a small window open. With this in mind, information technology's important to tackle the trouble if you want to increment the warmth of a infinite (and subtract your heating bill).

We'd recommend taking the following action:

Fill gaps with sparse slivers of matching timber, proprietary draught strip systems or lengths of string pushed and glued into place – these can be stained to lucifer the color of the timber.
Wipe off the glue immediately to preclude information technology marking.
Seal the gap between the skirting board and the floor in a like way.

room with wooden flooring, small chair and gallery wall

Replacing old wooden floorboards

It might be possible to retain and cover onetime boards beyond repair but where this is unrealistic, replacement will be required. New boards may exist needed where earlier floorboards have been substituted with a less advisable material.

Replacement boards should incorporate seasoned timber of a suitable species, dimension and stop. Utilise cut floorboard nails to lay the boards. Butt them as closely as possible beforehand with temporary wedges to reduce gaps.

mezzanine house with living room, staircase, sofa and wood burning stove

Reviving old wooden floorboards

In one case you've undertaken a thorough inspection of your wooden floorboards, ensuring that any damage identified is repaired, you can offset thinking well-nigh taking steps to give them a new lease of life. Use our guide to painting floorboards to give yours a smart new look. Or follow the instructions below.

To reach this, you will demand:

Floor cleaner
Sander
Wood stain
Aquacoat Hard disk and white bristle castor
abrasive paper and sanding block
Lint-free cloths

MORE FROM PERIOD LIVING

Period Living is the UK's best-selling menstruum homes magazine. Become inspiration, ideas and advice direct to your door every calendar month with a subscription.

Using hot water and plenty of elbow grease, thoroughly clean the floor with a heavy-duty floor cleaner. Don't allow h2o to pool on the boards, instead mop upwards the surplus as you work so it doesn't trickle downwards betwixt them. Wipe over with clean water to remove dirt and lather residues, then let to dry thoroughly.
Use a sander to remove night stains, but don't have off more wood than necessary – start off with a medium-grade abrasive paper and only utilize the coarsest form if the stain has penetrated deeply.
Thoroughly vacuum the floor to remove escaped sawdust, wiping down any remainders with a tack fabric or damp link-free cloth.
If the original floor was treated with wood stain, information technology'due south fourth dimension to re-stain the blank wood. Use off-cuts to ensure that you choose a matching colour – call back to wait until they have dried.
Dilute Aquacoat with x% tap water and apply with a castor before rubbing into the wood with a lint-gratuitous cloth until none remains on the surface. Follow the grain of the woods along a single board – don't overlap and risk an uneven cease.
Leave to dry out for two to 3 hours.
Wrap some 240-course Lubrasil paper around a sanding cake and gently rub over the area to create a mechanical too as a chemical bond. Utilise a tack fabric or damp rag to pick up sawdust.
Apply a 2d coat of Aquacoat, this time full strength, shaking the bottle before employ and stirring during application. Once dry, lightly rub again with the Lubrasil newspaper. Remember to wipe away all traces of dust with a clammy rag.
Utilize your third layer of Aquacoat, noting that it can have upward to a week to fully cure.
Sweep or vacuum every day to remove dirt and grit, wipe occasionally with a clammy mop, and clean up spills every bit they occur.

How to set up domestic dog scratches in hardwood floors

Prevention is always better than cure, and high-quality polyurethane woods sealer should protect your wooden floors, at least upward to a indicate. Nonetheless, if the dog scratches are already in your wooden floor, the best solution is a wood filler, which should be applied after sanding downwardly your floorboards. A wood repair mark or scratch repair stick will do for shallow scratches.

In many means, dog urine is a bigger trouble for your wooden floors than scratch marks. Discover out more about cleaning up afterward dogs in our guide.

More than communication on maintaining one-time floors:

How to maintain and repair quondam stone floors
How to maintain terracotta floor tiles
How to restore and make clean encaustic floor tiles

Source: https://www.realhomes.com/advice/how-to-repair-wooden-floors

Posted by: sullivandeards.blogspot.com