Fix Broken Hardwood Floor

Thre ways to fix a sagging or sloping floor.

Fix broken hardwood floor.

It doesn t happen often but moisture changes or excessive dryness in the environment of a wood floor can cause one of the boards to split. Squeaks in a floor usually mean that the subfloor has loosened from the joists. How to fix one hardwood floor board that is splitting. If your hardwood floor is in generally fine shape with only a damaged spot or two it is easy and economical to make small repairs by replacing a strip or plank of flooring.

You want the new butt joint to be staggered about 10 in. Plywood firmly fastened to the undersides of joists helps prevent this side to side bending and stiffens the floor. A reciprocating saw with a blade that will cut through nails is the easiest way to cut through nails. Most floors use a tongue and groove design.

See below for a shopping list tools and. You can also fix buckled areas of flooring and avoid having to completely refinish your floors. Depending upon the conditions it is possible to strengthen or repair existing framing members such as floor joists or roof rafters by adding reinforcing material sandwiching the member on either side with plywood is sometimes worthwhile but the plywood must be installed correctly for greatest strength. We replaced a couple of boards from a standard 3 4 in thick x 2 1 4 in wide oak strip floor using a drill circular saw and sharp chisel.

Draw a line for the cut then use a. The only option to repair hardwood floors at this point is to cut out the stained floorboards and install new ones. Use a hammer and a very sharp chisel to further define a clean edge. For this fix to work well the upper edges of the joists must be solidly fastened to the subfloor above.

If you re pulling up a piece of wood you ll have to cut through the nails to remove a strip. They are power nailed to the sub floor so there is no way you can pull the nails out by hand. To remove the broken boards use a utility knife and a carpenter s square to score a new end seam. Then to create separation angle the chisel and remove 1 8 of wood per pass.

A layer of 3 4 in. From the butt joints of any adjacent flooring courses. Contractor makes a straight cut on the hardwood floor to repair damage in the disaster house. Look at the damaged flooring plank and decide how much length to remove.

Ask this old house general contractor tom silva helps a homeowner patch a hardwood floor to make it look seamless.