Among the benefits of the interlocking wood or laminate flooring is it is usually not ripped down, making repair less of a challenge compared to traditional hardwood or pasted flooring. Occasionally it’s important to mend an interlocking flooring if the timber suffers wear and tear over time, like warping in warmer, more humid temperatures, or splitting age. With the right tools you’ll be able to fix almost every problem that comes up with time, maintaining your flooring in high-quality condition for a long time to come.
Loose Planks
If you’re up against a laminate interlocking flooring installed in a floating format, the tongue-and-groove system utilized to lock the pieces together isn’t glued or nailed down. Instead, the pieces are stacked against each other and the snap-together components hold everything in position. Over time, there’s the possibility that these pieces may jar loose with heavy foot traffic. A rubber mallet is the only tool required to resolve this issue. Begin with the very first piece where you notice something loose, and tap the upcoming adjacent piece tight against the initial one using a rubber mallet. Work your way from that point, tapping each following piece tight using all the one at the row previous until you reach the wall. You might need to remove trim pieces on one end of the ground to access the ends of the laminatefloors A tough rubber tapping block using a sloping end helps prevent damage to the boards.
Wood Putty and Caulking
If your flooring have started to crack with age or drying out, then there’s an easier alternative than repairing a piece, provided the cracks are minimal — less than 1/8 inch wide and never growing with time. Locate a matching color of wood putty and use a putty knife or your finger to press wood putty down to the cracks. However, putty is only a temporary fix and isn’t helpful in cracks which are continually growing. The best choice is to wait at least six months after a new floor installation or after you first see the cracks appear to make sure they aren’t likely to grow anymore, which is a symptom of the underlying motion problem. Another option, and also a more flexible alternative, is a polyurethane caulk. Once you realize the cracks are not moving, use your preferred filler to topically fix the issue.
Removing Individual Pieces
Most flooring professionals speed replacing and removing individual pieces in an interlocking floor to be one of the most difficult facets of flooring repair, especially if you’re up against an interlocking hardwood flooring that is also nailed down. First, cut the center out of the slice you want to remove using a jigsaw or rotary tool, which gives you distance to disconnect the two halves in the rows on either side. After disconnected, then slide them into the center where you eliminated a section to generate space, then remove the pieces and clear from the person department.
Re-installing Individual Pieces
After removal, a replacement piece needs to be re-installed, and there’s very little margin for error because the smaller you cut the slice, the more of a difference there will be after it is installed, which may lead to loose pieces in the surrounding region. The replacement piece needs to be cut tight to fit, making getting it back in hopeless unless you cut off the tongue from one end of the slice, thus only interlocking with one border when you install the replacement piece. Alternatively, cut the slice slightly tight, remove the the tongue and groove from either side, and slip it into place using glue. You will find a variety of glues useful in this setting to help hold the piece in place, plus you are able to face nail it using finish nails for extra security and strength, countersinking and capping the nails using wood putty to hide the patch.
