Replace or polish damaged wooden floor?

Author: McL Flooring

Wooden flooring is one of the best floorings that is used to keep the house beautiful. Not only it makes the house look lavish, but also it is durable, warm, and less prone to attracting dust than other flooring types. But it doesn’t mean that wooden flooring cannot be deteriorated. If you are not taking care of the wooden flooring, wood can get scratches, gouges, and dents, and can stain or warp. Luckily there are pretty good ways available to choose for repairing the damaged wooden floor.

1. Why wooden Floor Damages

Plenty of things are responsible for making your flooring weak and damaged. The most common reason is displacing heavy things such as furniture, without safety pads beneath their legs.

Excess moisture can also damage the wooden flooring. If you’ve got dogs or kids or just forget to take off your stilettos, your floors will likely end up with scratches or gouges. Dropping a heavy element on the wood flooring can break its board pieces. The same as moisture, excessive heat (Unwanted temperature for long term) can also damage the flooring and cause gaps to occur.

2. The solution of damaged wooden flooring

(i) Refinishing and (ii) Repolishing is the only available option to get the wood floor shine back. You should not get confused with refinishing and repolishing. Both are two different things and cannot be used interchangeably. Refinishing is replacing each board of wooden floors one by one, whereas repolishing is done to repair minor scratches to remove the ugly look of the floor and get the charm back.

3. How to replace damaged wooden floor

Replacement of damaged floor is done only when the floor is older than 1-2 decade and completely lost It’s look and have major scratches and dents on it. The replacement of the wooden floor is done partially as well as fully.

Full refinishing is done only when the homeowner wants a complete renovation of the house or a room. The owner also can demand full replacement in order to use new high-quality wood to make the flooring long-lasting.

Partial replace is done when some major dent appears on a particular part of the wooden floor. These types of dents often occur due to falling of some heavy things, breaking the wood of the floor.

Requirements to replace the wood flooring (Partial)

  1. Saw
  2. Nails
  3. Plier
  4. Chisel
  5. Flathead screwdriver
  6. Measurement tape
  7. Replacement wood
  8. Vacuum cleaner
  9. Wood glue

Steps to repair the damaged wooden floor

  1. Cutting with saw: Before starting the entire process, make sure you have all the equipment needed for this repair. Start with cutting the wood board with the saw. Cut the board (from between) leaving the edges of it. Make two cuts on the board parallel to each other. After doing this make the third cut in perpendicular direction. Do this carefully. If you cut the edges of the board, the new replacement wood will not fit into it and you will need to remove another board too.
  1. Removing the wood: After cutting the board, remove this part with the help of a flat head screwdriver. Penetrate the screwdriver in the cut mark and lift the wood up. Remove all the wood by doing the process again. Now, use a chisel to remove wood on the edges (adjacent to the board). Remove all the board completely without leaving anything in it. You may see some nails after removing the board. Remove these nails with the help of plier.
  1. Cleaning the dirt: The third step is to clean the dirt and debris that occurred during the usage of the saw on the wooden floor. Always use a vacuum cleaner for this. Clean all the wood powder and dirt from the void place that is made during the removal of the part of the board. Don’t leave any nail in this void area.
  2. Replacing the wooden board: Take the appropriate replacement wood with the same shape and size that is needed to fit in the hollow space. Place it in the void first without any glue on it. If replacement wood fits properly, take it out and apply glue on It’s back. Now again place it in the void and leave as it is. Apply nails on the opposite side of the replacement wood to make it permanently stick to the board.
  3. Polishing it: The last step is to polish the place where you have done this repair to make it completely look like the remaining floor.
4. Polishing the Damaged wooden floor
  1. Minor shallow scratches: For small shallow scratch use a stain pen of the same color with the existing floor. Just apply the stain pen on the floor and you are done.
  1. Deeper scratch: If your wooden floor has some deeper scratches, you can use the melted wax to fill it. Melted wax does not cost too much and can be found easily on the shop. Use a heat gun to melt the wax and apply it on the scratch. Leave it for some time. Wipe off the dust and you are done repairing your wooden floor.

Wide and deep Scratches: For larger and deep scratch you can use wood filler, stain pen, matching to your floor color. You will also need Painter tape, wipe on poly, putty knife and sandpaper to do this repair.

    1. Apply some painter tape around the area
    2. Apply wood filler in the scratch
    3. Sand the area when dry
    4. Apply stain to the patch area
    5. If luster on it, apply a small amount of Polly on it
    6. 5. Choosing between Replacing and Polishing

When you need replacing the wooden floor: Replacement of the wooden flooring is done only when it’s damaged too much and lost its charm over time. Partial replacement is done when a part of the floor is broken badly and cannot be polished.

When you need polishing of floor: Polishing of the damaged wooden floor is done when the floor has some minor dents, scratches, etc.

6. Conclusion

Wooden floors are proven beautiful and durable till date, but they need good care in order to stay shiny and beautiful for a long time. Replacement and Polishing of wooden flooring, both are done to make the flooring look new. The homeowner can choose anything between replacement and polishing with his due diligence. Please visit MCL Flooring for more articles on wooden floors, wooden floor repair and wooden doors.