Patch Wooden Flooring – Learn How to Do It Yourself

RON HAZELTON:
Well a few days ago I made this entryway into the dining room a little bit wider.  And in doing so, I exposed some flooring right down here that is in pretty rough shape compared to the flooring around it.  So I know I'm going to have to replace at least two boards.  Now before I start performing surgery on my hardwood floors right here, let's just take a look at how a typical flooring system like this works.

This is three quarter inch thick solid oak, tongue in groove. A groove has been milled on this side and a tongue on this side.  Now when this is put down, typically it's nailed right through  the base of the tongue. The nail goes through at an angle.

You can see it sticking out right down here. And then the groove of the next board just slips right over that tongue. The result is there are no nails visible on the surface which is great.  Gives you a good looking floor.

But it makes it a little tough to take one or two pieces out.  In fact, the only way I know to do it is to actually split pieces by cutting right down the center. And that's what I'm gonna do. 

I'm setting the blade depth on the circular saw just deep enough to cut through the flooring.  This is called a plunge cut and it should be done very cautiously.  With the saw running, I lower it slowly until the base plate is resting firmly on the floor.

Then push the saw forward.  To make the end cuts, I first score a line using a utility knife.  Then set the edge of a chisel into the hollow groove left by the knife blade. Using a series of straight and angled chisel cuts, I can slice quickly and neatly all the way through the plank.

With the end cuts made and the board cut down the middle, I can now begin prying it out. Once the first piece is removed, the rest comes more easily.  Well I've gotten those two boards out fairly cleanly. Very happy with the way that turned out. So that takes care of the hole right here because we'll replace those in a little bit.

Now though, I've gotta resurface this part of the floor that was up underneath the old wall. And I think the best tool for this is gonna be a belt sander.  Since my main objective right now is to remove material, I'm using a rather coarse belt.

60 grit in this case. This is cleaning up very nicely.  I've gotten to the point now where I can put in thnose 2 pieces of wood that were damaged and I had to remove.  Now you notice, the only way I'm gonna get this in because of this groove is to cut off the bottom half of this groove right here.

And that will allow this piece just to drop in.  I've set the table saw blade just high enough to make the cut I need.  Next I'll mark the length of the board.  And cut it to size on the miter saw.  Okay, see if we've got a fit going here.

I repeat the process for the second board. Give everything a few taps and - now that's what I call a good fit.  Even if I do say so myself. Now because of the way we put this down, it's not possible to edge nail it through the tongue.

The only choice is to  face nail it.  And that's what I'm doing right now.  Now one of the trickiest parts of the flooring repair job like this is touching up or matching the finish.  Now if you look over here at this section of the floor, you'll see that this an oak floor.

And that all the boards really are different colors and different grain patterns.  And I'm going to use that to my advantage.  Because if I can break the finish, that is the break between the old finish and the new finish, along the edge of a board like this or at the end of a board like this, the eye is really not gonna notice the difference,

Because there's so much natural variation. So I've taken the finish off this board, this one, this one and this done. Now this one I haven't you see.  I sanded back to here. What I want to do now is remove the finish back to this joint right here.

Now, there’s kind of an interesting history to floor scraping, actually.  Back in the 19th Century, this was about the only way to get a finish off the floor, as a matter of fact, there is a very famous Impressionist painting called “The Floor Scrapers.”  Thankfully for us, along came sandpaper and big machine sanders.  Otherwise, this would be pretty tough work, refinishing your floors.

Now that worked out pretty well over there.  I had a short board in here, joints on both ends.  On this board however, I really don't have a joint until way down here and I don't want to take that much finish off. So in this case, I'm going to create a joint.

Or at least the illusion of one by taking a straight edge like this.  Then I scrape off the finish right up to the line.  Now all I haVe to do is fill the nail holes, do a final hand sanding with a small block and fine paper.

Remove the dust with a tack cloth.  And I'm all set to apply a new finish to the boards. Now these floors were refinished not too long ago and they probably used a clear polyurethane. But I'm afraid if I  put a clear finish back on top of this, I won't get a really good match.

And why?  Because most finishes over time do tend to yellow. And I think this one has a little bit.  If I put the polyurethane on, I think they're gonna be too light. So I'm gonna adjust the color just slightly by taking some shellac and I've added a lot of alcohol to this so it's very dilute.

And I'm going to brush on kind of a tinting or a toning coat and I think it's gonna tie these boards in so that they'll match a little ,more closely.  The shellac dries quickly.  In just a few minutes, I can applying the polyurethane.

A foam brush works nicely when cutting in a small area like this.  Okay, I'll let this dry, give it a light sanding, put on one more coat and  nobody is gonna know that that patch was made right there.  Except of course for you and me.