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*Repairing a Hardwood Floor*

Just because there is a problem with a section of your Hardwood Floor does not mean that you need a new one. Odds are that you can repair your Hardwood floor yourself. Whether or not you need to replace a strip of flooring, fix a buckled board, or remove stains and scratches, most repairs are simple enough to do yourself.

Replacing a strip or plank of flooring

If a strip or plank of flooring is damaged and is beyond being saved by sanding and filling, you have to replace it. Most floors use a tongue-and-groove design for connecting adjacent strips. This design makes replacing a single strip or plank challenging, but not impossible.


1. Using a carpenter's square, mark a perpendicular line across the section of the board to be removed.


2. Using a wood chisel or a saw, split or cut the damaged board into two pieces.
This step will make the removal of the tongue and groove flooring much easier.




3. Pry out the damaged board. If you take a strip out of the middle, you can pry the remaining pieces away from the adjacent boards before prying them up. Remove any additional boards the same way but cut them so the end joints are staggered.


4. Cut a replacement strip to the same length as the one you removed. As needed, cut off the bottom side of the groove on the board and the tongue. Removing these pieces of the flooring makes the new piece fit in much easier.

5. Test-fit the strip to make sure that it fits. If it doesn't, recut the board.

6. Once the new piece is in place, nail the board with 1and a1/2" long ring-shank flooring nails and drive the heads just below.

Apply stain and sealer or whatever finish the strip needs to match the existing floor.

Repairing a buckled board in Your Hardwood Floor.

Occasionally, a hardwood floorboard buckles, due to humidity levels. When this happens, you need to fix it fast for two reasons: To avoid further damage to the floor. And most importantly to fix a possible tripping hazard.

The best way to fix a buckled floorboard is to access the floor from below. Install a 1-1/4- inch screw in the buckled flooring from below. Allow the screw to penetrate only halfway into the flooring, or it may come up through the finished surface. Driving the screw through the subfloor and into the flooring pulls the flooring down against the subfloor and gets rid of the buckled spot.

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