The proper restoration can prolong the service life of your parquet flooring for several decades – so, here are some pro tips on how to restore parquet flooring.
Even the highest quality parquet wood floors will inevitably lose its original appearance within the years. Different defect types will appear: dents, scratches, creak strips, gaps, irregularities, etc. Below there are the useful tips on the correct ways of restoration of the most common defects of the old parquet flooring and on how to restore parquet flooring with your own hands in a proper way.
Dents and scratches
They can appear for the most simple everyday reasons: you may drop something heavy or fail to push a massive chair, etc. Such relatively minor reasons may lead to small, but the “eye piercing” damage. Of course, it is unpleasant, but it is not particularly necessary to be upset. If the scratches are not so great, they eliminate retouch with a pencil produced specifically for this purpose. For greater effect, it is best to cover the damaged places with a thin layer of lacquer.
Large scratches and dents are restored in a different way.
You will need:
- putty
- sandpaper
- varnish.
Choosing putty is referred to its color, drying speed and durability.
The order of works
- Defects are covered with putty. If it had been chosen with a perfect color matching, then the repaired places will be completely invisible.
- After putty dries, these areas are polished with sandpaper.
- Clean the dust thoroughly.
- Apply a thin layer of varnish.
Creak strips
The creaking of the floor on which we usually do not pay much attention first, eventually brings the annoying vibe in the room atmosphere. Any creak, unfortunately, is associated with either impaired or stacking technology with the once widespread stacking technology on bituminous mastics. We say “unfortunately”, because the simple methods can not work here. Such a defect requires a leveling bases or relaying. And this is a very thorough work.
Gaps in the coating
Planks eventually deform which increases the distance between them – so, the gaps are formed. Most often, they are quite easy to be avoided.
If you have some thin gaps between the parquet bars (middle floor), you should perform he following operations:
- clean the gap with a thin wire or a knife;
- the remaining dust and debris are removed with a vacuum cleaner;
- the cavity is filled with putty (matching the floor color) and well leveled;
- remove the excess putty;
- sand the surface;
- cover the surface with varnish (or parquet mastic).
You shouldn’t use a screwdriver for pre-cleaning – the deformation of the surface may only increase after that.
Small voids around baseboards
The slots which are located near the baseboards, are probably the most unpleasant defect type dealing with parquet flooring. Start with cleaning baseboards. Between the wall and the board the arching wedge is usually inserted – if it is cranky, just reinforce it. Use expander wedge foam, press on the bar – in the resulting space set the appropriate wedge.
Wide holes
Treat the deformation of more than 5 mm with putty does not make sense at all. Deal with such strains is performed on the principle of “the contrary” – first you should deepen (!) them. If the edges are uneven, they should be cleaned and trimmed with the chisel. Cut a suitable wood strip and hammer it in between the slats. The they can be moved to previous positions. Cover the parquet with lacquer (after being pre-cleaned and sanded).
Cracks in the floor are formed mainly due to significant fluctuations of humidity throughout the years. They can be prevented in winter by maintaining a relative humidity of about 20%. For these purposes use air humidifier.
Restoring parquet flooring which is very worn
The whole process can be divided into three stages.
Step 1
First, the scraping machine roughly treats the floor removing the top layer of a parquet lacquer and old timber and aligning the floor surface.
Step 2
Treat the surface by hand using putty mixed with sawdust (it is better to match the color of putty and flooring).
Step 3
The floor surface finally aligned by fine grinding, then varnish is applied. Remember that the last layer of varnish dries for at least three days.
We hope that the information on parquet flooring restoration was quite useful for you and will help you to perform your works in a more pleasant way. But you should always remember that it is better to avoid defects than to repair them. So, always be careful to your parquet flooring.
