The hardwood floor in our bedroom suffered some water damage recently so I decided to repair it. I thought I'd post up the process here for anyone else that might have to go through it.

My wife, daughter and I installed the flooring in our house a couple of years ago. The flooring is Armstrong Bruce pre-finished, 3/8" thick engineered hardwood.

The tools needed for the job are as follows:
Circular Saw
Flooring Nailer
Brad Nailer
Hammer
Pry Bar
Chisels
Visegrips or Pliers
Flooring repair color sticks.
Miter Saw, Table Saw or Radial Arm saw
Router Table
Masking Tape



First, here's a picture of the damage. We had a leaky humidifier that messed up a bunch of boards.

http://www.explorerforum.com/photopost/data/3598/P3100085.JPG

I began by marking all the boards that I needed to replace. To do the job properly, some good boards around the edges also needed to be sacrificed in order to more easily remove and install other boards. Here are the boards marked with grease pencil.

http://www.explorerforum.com/photopost/data/3598/P3100086.JPG

I then began cutting in the damaged area of the boards with a circular saw. The saw is set to the same depth as the boards, in this case 3/8". I cut a square area out to get started. The main reason to cut the square out is to check the blade depth and get an open edge to work with.


http://www.explorerforum.com/photopost/data/3598/P3170088.JPG




I then marked around the whole area of the cutout with paint masking tape (easier to remove than regular masking tape) so I could keep a clear vision of what boards I needed to remove, and also protect the surrounding boards from damage when I used the circular saw.

http://www.explorerforum.com/photopost/data/3598/P3170090.JPG

I then made cuts along the edges of the damaged boards about 1/2" in from each edge. Since this is a nailed down floor, it makes it far easier to pull up 90% of each board by cutting out the center, and the last 10% using a chisel, pry bar and hammer. This also lessens the chance of damaging the surrounding boards as you pry out the old boards.

Apologies for the blurry shot, but I AIN'T gonna go back and make new cuts :p:.

http://www.explorerforum.com/photopost/data/3598/medium/P3170092.JPG

Here are some pix of the deconstruction continuing.

http://www.explorerforum.com/photopost/data/3598/P3170093.JPG


http://www.explorerforum.com/photopost/data/3598/P3170094.JPG

After all the boards have been removed, use visegrips or other pliers to pull any nails or staples left over, thoroughly vacuum the area, and make sure there are no bumps or raised areas that might cause a problem installing the new flooring. If there are any nails that cannot be removed, hammer them flush with the sub-floor.

We then began installing the new flooring. Before installing the flooring, you should put the new boards in the same room as the repair for at least several days to equalize the humidity in the new and old wood.

Before installation, we all drew pix on the flooring paper...:D

http://www.explorerforum.com/photopost/data/3598/P3170097.JPG

Here are several shots of the flooring going in. I use 1" crown staples in a flooring nailer to do the install. Make sure you use a scrap piece of flooring as protection when tapping the flooring in with a hammer so you don't bugger up the edges of the new flooring. Work from the groove side to the tongue side, stapling through the tongues of the flooring. To drive new boards in between two old boards, you may need to soap the edges of the boards to help them slide in. I had to soap two boards because of the difference between the flooring I put down over a year ago, and the new boards.

http://www.explorerforum.com/photopost/data/3598/P3170099.JPG

http://www.explorerforum.com/photopost/data/3598/P3170101.JPG

Here we are with all the boards in except the last row.

http://www.explorerforum.com/photopost/data/3598/P3170102.JPG

Installing the last row is tricky. The gap may not be large enough to fit the new boards in, or it may be too large. You hope it's just right, but in my case, the gap was too small. In any event, you will have to either cut the tongue or the bottom of the groove off the boards to get them in. I chose the bottom of the groove. Here is a picture of the standard board on the right and the board modified with the groove cut off on the left.

http://www.explorerforum.com/photopost/data/3598/P3170104.JPG

Getting the last row in took me almost 1.5 hours. I repeatedly had to router off the edge of the two boards to get them to fit perfectly. I didn't want to take too much off, so I set my table to remove about 0.050" at a time.

After you get the boards in properly, you need to go back and face nail the edges of the boards that you could not nail through the tongues. Don't worry about the holes you leave, most flooring manufacturers have touch up sticks to fill holes in so they're not noticeable. I used my brad nailer with 1.5" nails to finish the job.

Here is the finished floor....:D

http://www.explorerforum.com/photopost/data/3598/P3170105.JPG

http://www.explorerforum.com/photopost/data/3598/P3170106.JPG

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact me or post here.

I should note that the job was made easier because it is pre-finished hardwood. If this had been regular hardwood, I would have needed to sand the repair area down with a floor sander and feather it into the existing floor, then finish that area of the floor again.

I should note that the job was made easier because it is pre-finished hardwood. If this had been regular hardwood, I would have needed to sand the repair area down with a floor sander and feather it into the existing floor, then finish that area of the floor again.

Actually you would have never been able to "feather" it in without it looking like ass. The whole floor would need to be sanded. I wouldnt sand that type of floor anyway. Good job on the repair.:thumbsup:
Oh and another easy way to pull out the old boards is to use a plunge router and run it down the center of the board to be replaced. then just pull out the sides.
Again , good job
JIGA

Your tongue and grove flooring is not a "floating" floor? You actually attach the planks to the subfloor?

Your repair looks great! Can't even tell it has been done!

-Rich

Your tongue and grove flooring is not a "floating" floor? You actually attach the planks to the subfloor?

Your repair looks great! Can't even tell it has been done!

-Rich

Nope..floor is nailed down..not a floater. I'm not a fan of floating floors.

Thanks...It was a royal PITA to do, but the result was well worth it.

True hardwood floors are nailed or glued down.... laminates are what are installed as floating floors.

Jeff, I've done a LOT of hardwood floors in the past three years (I've filled in part-time income by working and heading a professional flooring crew) and we've always used 3/8" engineered hardwood as a gluedown application.... I don't think I can remember a time we've nailed 3/8" down. Usually we install 3/4" hardwood naildown on wood subflooring and use 3/8" engineered hardwood for gluedown applications over concrete slab subflooring. Is there any particular reason you went with the 3/8" nailed down over wood subfloor or was it just economics or clearance issues (oftentimes 3/4" raises the floor level enough to cause fit problems with doors and casings, kitchen appliances, etc).

BTW, very good job. Yeah that last row is a real pain in the butt to mess with when you have to do a repair like that.

It was clearance issues. The house was built with wall-to wall carpeting, and I would have had to cut down almost every door in the place if I had gone with 3/4" I also would have had issues with all my baseboard hot water heaters being too close to the flooring, and all the heater endcaps not fitting correctly.

The 3/8" nails down very nicely. I have what is effectively a crown stapler with a 45° shoe that you shoot 1" crown staples with. Works very well on flooring from 3/8" to 3/4" with a small adjustment to the shoe location. The head of the nailer is shaped to fit nicely into the tongue of the wood.

I've also done the full hardwood route. We had it in our old house and we did a complete re-furbish of all the floors, including sanding and sealing (what a PITA!!).

I've also done the full hardwood route. We had it in our old house and we did a complete re-furbish of all the floors, including sanding and sealing (what a PITA!!).
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You aint kidding. Its what I do every day of my life. Not alot of fun, But it pays the bills.