How to repair the floorboard?

Parquet board - a beautiful natural and reliable flooring. But over time, and it can lose its original appearance under the influence of various environmental factors. And then you have to make some efforts to return the floor to its former attractiveness.

All damage to the floorboard laid in a house or apartment, conditionally divided into:

• resulting from improper processing of the board in production or improper installation;
• arising from the operation of the floorboard.

Despite the fact that the service life of the parquet floor is about half a century, wooden planks lose their attractiveness much earlier and require restoration. Scratches, chips, cracks can appear on parquet boards.Some panels begin to exfoliate, crack, rot. Gaps can occur between the parquet boards, resulting in the creaking of floors when walking, loosening and falling out of the planks.

The main causes of damage to the floorboard include:

• mechanical defects - occur in case of improper use of the flooring (walking on the parquet on sharp heels, moving heavy furniture, irregular cleaning, when accumulated sand and dirt begin to scratch the floor when walking on it, the absence of special equipment to protect the legs of furniture);
• high humidity or dry air in the room, as a result of which the floorboard begins to deform and crack;
• water hit under the floorboard with various leaks or excessively wet cleaning. From this floorboard can begin to rot and blacken;
• the appearance in the wood of various insects, mold, which gradually destroy the coating from the inside;
• long service life. Abrasion of the upper layer, dimming of the parquet can be a natural result of this.

Depending on the type and cause of the parquet floor defects, you may need different types of repair: current, partial and major:

• Current repair is usually performed every 3-5 years of operation of the floorboard. If you constantly maintain the wooden floor in good condition according to the manufacturer's recommendations, then the need for major repairs will disappear by itself;
• Partial repair of the coating is performed immediately after the detection of certain floor defects - chips, cracks, scratches, creaks. This repair does not require the assistance of a specialist;
• overhaul of the cover is resorted to in extreme cases, for example, after global leaks of the heating system and the like. In this case, you have to re-shift all the boards.

To repair the indiscriminately flooring resort in cases where there are defects in the upper layer of the floor. Consider each case separately.

The appearance of scratches is the simplest problem that is fairly easy to fix, especially if only the top layer of the floor is damaged. In order to remove scratches from the floor, there are many special tools in the form of retouching crayons of various colors and thicknesses. Thinner pencils are designed for those occasions when it is necessary to accurately trace the tree structure or mask the defect in a hard-to-reach place.

For the elimination of chips and dents on the surface of the parquet flooring there are various means. You can use the pre-melted putty-melt for recovery work. It is poured into a previously cleaned chip, and then, after solidification, all excess is removed and polished with fine emery paper.

Sometimes, when parquet boards crack, noticeable gaps form between them. For sealing of such gaps is used composition based on wood glue. For its preparation, heat the glue and water, combined in a ratio of 2 to 15. Then add 5 parts of cement and 5 parts of sawdust. All components are thoroughly mixed and the resulting mixture fill the gaps. Remove excess with a spatula. After 10 days, the composition finally dries.

If the parquet has faded, there are scuffed old lacquer coating in many places, then it must be restored. To update the top layer of wooden floor, you must first remove the remnants of old varnish or mastic, as well as partially remove the top layer of wood. For grinding and scraping the floor using special equipment. Before you start looping the floor, the entire floorboard must be securely fixed.

After the end of grazing, the appeared slots are smoothed with a putty and once again polished.Further, in order to finally restore the floor covering, it needs to be varnished.

One of the disadvantages of the parquet floor is the appearance of squeaks that occur when driving. If the floor squeaks, then there may be several reasons for this: either during installation, the individual slats were not sufficiently well fixed, or over time the slats were deformed and loosely attached to the base, and when they attack them, they produce an appropriate sound.

To quickly repair the creaking floor, you must first find the place that responds to movement with a creak. The easiest way to eliminate squeak - Screw a screw into the parquet panel to a depth of no more than 5 cm. If the parquet is attached to the base with mastic, then it is necessary to use a building dryer and heat the “creaky” place. After that the level of the parquet should be pressed down with something heavy.After cooling the floor squeaks should disappear.

If the basis for the floorboard is plywood, then the parquet panel should be attached to the base with the help of an air pistol. You can also drill a hole at an angle of 45 degrees between the parquet planks and insert a wooden pin dipped in wood glue into it.

If the floorboard is not regularly taken care of, then in the end it will become unusable ahead of schedule, especially if the room is too hot or there are frequent temperature fluctuations. In such conditions wooden elements quickly crack, deform and loosen.

If a small part of the floor has failed (it has loosened, one or several planks have split), then it can be restored with your own hands. To do this, you need to choose in the store matching parquet boards in color, texture and size. Old strips are removed with a chisel. The remaining paste or glue is also removed. With the help of putty level the base under the new slats.If one strap is to be replaced, then a comb is removed from it and a butt is trimmed with a plane. New strips are glued to glue or mastic.

When updating several adjacent slats is required, they first separately assemble a new section of the floor, and then insert it in place of the dismantled one. On the newly glued planks and at the same time on the old parquet put the load. Speaking at the edges of the new coating glue is immediately removed. When the strips are glued, the new area of ​​the floor covering is polished and coated with varnish or mastic.

Capital restoration of the parquet flooring may also be needed if it deteriorates under the influence of moisture. This process is quite laborious. Not dried wood panels lose their insulating properties. As a result, the entire parquet is deformed and becomes unpresentable.

To remedy the situation need to re-shift all the panels. And for this they must first be dismantled.Then remove the waterproofing film, detect defects, dry the parquet strips and the base of the floor if necessary, and then re-assemble the flooring.

For the parquet flooring to last for a long time, it is necessary to take care of it regularly and correctly:

• On the floor you should not walk in shoes with heels. If the parquet is laid in the hallway, then it is better to lay a mat on it. So he will be protected from heels and from sand and dirt.
• If the room uses furniture on wheels, the latter should be made of soft rubber.
• Parquet cleaning is carried out using a soft, slightly damp cloth or vacuum cleaner. Wet cleaning is best done using special tools for parquet. It is unacceptable to use for cleaning parquet other means (for example, solvents or dishware).
• The varnish layer of the parquet needs regular updating every five years. If the floors are covered with oil, then the coating must be renewed at least once a year.

For information on how to repair the floorboard, see the following video.