I installed 3/4" prefinished hardwood in a bedroom--beautiful work if I must say so myself. Then I proceeded to destroy it!

I was sliding two bookcases out of the way to size baseboard, forgetting that some idiot flooring installer had removed the shelving from one of the cases and placed them on top. You can imagine what happened.

Actually, I was quite fortunate. All three shelves fell together, and the floor proved harder than the shelving (a good sign), but neither came out a winner (but by the bell).

I have two massive gouges in two flooring planks. One of the gouges took wax treatment quite well, and I think I'll be able to handle the damage repair. The other is in nastier shape, being lighter wood with too much grain to cover without a wax artist.

Thank God the plank is near the wall, the baseboard is not yet installed, and the plank is only about 18". On the other hand, I have never cut out a plank before, and am not even sure that prefinished flooring can be fixed this way since it is so tightly installed in the first place.

By the way, I read in a flooring book a small writeup on fixing natural oak floors by drilling holes across the plank, sawing lengthwise, then chiseling out the board. I'm not sure how this applies to prefinished wood, however, nor am I sure that it will be easy to leave the tongue on and get the board in place.

Do you have to cut off the tongue as well as the bottom of the grooves on the replacement board? How do you get the cleats out of the floor without damaging the next plank over? Finally, how do you glue the replacement board; will yellow glue alone be sufficient, or do I need to break out the flooring adhesive?

Thanks for the help in advance!

cut 2 saw marks the as long as the board, but doing it in the middle about 1" apart. pop out the groove side (that’s easy) get a chisel and chisel away until you get to the nails remove nails. get the new board and cut off the end tong and cut the back of BOTH grooves pop it in. Me I’ll put 3 18 ga nails in the back and 2 up front. But don't for get the glue you must glue the tong and groove side. if you don't want to use nails use a 2 part epoxy
Jeff

First thing you want to do is measure both boards . width and length .
No sense cutting a hole in the floor if the replacement board is to narrow .

Cut the end tongue , and grooves like DH says . Carbide tip blades cut through the nails , So i cut the length on both sides as close to the end joint as you can .

Then make a angle cut from one length cut to the other . the middle will come right out . then you can work the length pieces .

One word of caution , Place a length of fishing line in the hole across the width before you put the board in .
If you didn't cut it enough to be flat with the rest of the floor you will be able to get it back out and trim a little more off .

I put a bead of resin glue on the tongue , remove any felt in the hole and serpentine a bead of PL 400 in the hole . tap it down . and place weight on it over night .
I don't like to face nail in the middle of a floor .

nick
I like that
with the fishing line.
we drill a hole in the subfloor (1/2" or so) to pop a swrew driver up to knock out the board if we have to
but i like the fishing line trick
jeff

It works DH . We were told years ago at the NWFA school to use Dental Floss .First time i tried it the floss broke .

That's what happens when you buy the generic stuff at WalMart.
Johnson and Johnson has much stronger floss. So strong in fact, you could use it as fishing line.

Well at least give me credit for flossing .

These are some great ideas, gentlemen. Thanks!

Now, I stumbled across http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/hardwoodinstaller/diy-floor-tools-repair-kits.htm, which got me to thinking. Even though my wife refused to allow me to pay the price for this cool repair kit (:roll:), the video provides a lot of great ideas even for the user of the soft-wax, $30 repair kits.

One of the coolest ideas from this video is using melted wax (why didn't I think about this? ). Not only can you blend the right color, the wax will tend to self-level and fill the entire blemish. You can also shave the wax perfectly level while it is still warm. Also, the concept of applying the stain before pouring the wax is a great idea (they don't tell you these things in the $30-repair-kit instructions).

Being that the damage is so close to the wall, it is likely that the repair option would be less labor intensive. OTOH, there is no better time than now to replace the board than now, if necessary. Yikes, what to do?

Hey thanx for the fishing line tip, Nick. just proves that I am not so old that I cant learn a thing or two yet.
BTW, we use a 23 gauge headless pin when it is necessary to top nail a board in the body of a floor. The hole left by this fastener is so small that it is completely invisible for all intents and purposes. I do recommend filling the hole anyway, to protect the raw wood within this microscopic hole, from moisture damage over a period of time during cleaning processes.

You're welcome .
You never stop learning .
I have a little jar of duralux from Bruce that has a little brush in the cap . when i have to putty a hole i even put a dab of finish on it .
thats just me .

Yup, we have little markers like felt tip pens, filled with urethane in three gloss levels, they seem to work really well for us with no fear of over-drips. One of our local finish suppliers makes them up for us, as well as an array of stain colours in the same type of marker.

Does he have a web site Dennis ?

They sure do Nick: www.torcancoatings.com Tell 'em Dennis sent ya, lol

Thanks .