Hi All,

Our new 7" wide floor was installed with some small, 12" pieces in the field. They look silly, especially the ones that are three in almost a line, on alternate rows. I've got it into my head that taking out the middle 12" piece, and also cutting approx 6" off the boards on either end of it (to make a two foot gap) would be a good way to make the floor look better. The ends of the two cut boards could be bevelled slightly (this is a handscraped, four sided bevel board floor), and then a new 2 ft piece (with all its bevels still intact) could be dropped into the space, and glued down. I could then touch up the raw bevels with a tint and sealer.

Is this insanity to even try it?

And, if I do ask the installer to try it, what's the best way to get that glued board up?

And, how would one cut neatly, perfectly straight, and all the way across, the other two boards that are still in the floor, surrounded by other boards?

It is fairly difficult to do, but can be done.

I would use the Fein Multimaster or SuperCut saw to create new butt joints. Or, one can also score the new butt joint with a razor knife several times, then use a sharp chisel, cutting back ever so slight. Your floorguy should know how to do this.

Jerry,

Thanks for the reply. Much appreciated. I'd never heard of those tools, so went to look them up on the internet. They look like wonderful tools - pricey, but so useful.

If I were to get the installer to do what I suggested, I'm thinking he'd have to cut off all the tongues in the hole/space, to get the new board to fit in place.

So then, I'm wondering, how well does glue hold a board when there aren't tongues to help keep it down? Would you have to put in a few diagonal nails through into the adjacent boards after laying, to make sure it couldn't work it's way up? Or does the glue hold it down well enough?

- Michelle

Using the right glue along with some weight on top for a day will hold the new boards down good. He/she could also shoot a brads in the face and then putty over the small nail holes.

I forgot to mention that the install is over concrete. So the brads would be shot diagonally into the adjacent boards?

I am assuming your guy knows how to rip the bottom off of the groove for board replacement ... all he/she need to do is glue the new board(s) down and weight it. No brads.

Hi Jerry,

Thanks for the tip on removing the bottom of the groove. I hadn't thought of doing that.

My apologies, I just assumed your floorguy was going to be doing the actual work part , If you more help here, just ask

Thanks Jerry. I'll be taking you up on that.

The flooring guy was pretty unhelpful. Said it would count as a repair if he did that, and I'd have to pay for 3 or 4 hours of his time to do it. I'm still so ticked that he put 12" starter boards in the field, between boards that were 5 to 6 ft long. It looks silly, especially since the wood is 7" wide.

Michelle, I think your impression that these 12" boards are starter boards is incorrect. If you were using these boards only for starter boards then every time they were used your seams would line up in the same occurrence across the room. This would result in a pattern on your floor that would most definitely be distracting.

Correct. They are part of the random lendth you purchased. It does bite, when the majority of the wood is shorts.

I usually have a stack or two of shorts, when I'm done. I try to fill closets with them, and the homeowner usually agrees 100% with me on that suggestion. Still have some shorts out in the installation, but not as many as they have in each carton.