The Flooring Expert

Q: We purchased a new home in August 2006. The builder installed pine flooring throughout out house. We realize that pine is quite soft and expected to have many scratches. Overall, we were satisfied with the way it came out, and it seems to be holding up quite well. However, we've been having a few issues with certain areas.

Sincerely,
Deb

A: A very important thing to keep in mind is that wood is a natural product and movement (expansion and contraction) from heat/cold and moisture in a home is most common in solid products like your Pine flooring. The questions I would ask is what temperature is your house kept at throughout the year? Does it remain the same or does it change based on season? Also, you might want to look into having the relative humidity of the air in your home. If it is too dry this can cause gapping and the solution is to get a humidifier to bring the moisture level of your home up to around 35-40%. Normally wood floors are best in the same environment best for your average person, around 63-65 degrees Fahrenheit and around 40% moisture in the air.

With your second issue in regards to the finish, the most important things to keep in mind is to use furniture cups on all of your furniture. You should be able to find cups similar to your plastic one, but with felt pads for the chairs. Beyond that it could be that the site finished used is not as tough as some as the others available. The finish is the only thing to put in question here, as the hardness of the floor won't help/hurt the durability of the finish. The number of coats can help here, but the actual finish used is very important. The rule of thumb for site finishing is to lay multiple thinner coats because this will allow for a stronger finish in the end.

What you might want to look into is getting your floor re-screened. This process involves buffing the top layer of the finish (roughing it up mildly) then applying new layers of finish. Should you choose to go this route, I would use either Bona's Traffic finish or Glitsa's Infinity II.

In regards to the cracking noise you are hearing, this is usually caused when the boards of your subfloor is not fully anchored to the joists below. This movement will cause creaks etc. Your only options to repair this would be to either remove the flooring then screw the subfloor area down to the joist, or to work from under the joist where the ceiling is finished. Either of these will be a pain because your removing finished areas.

You could try hiring a third party inspector to come out and view you floor to determine if there is anything that can be done or determine if your builder needs to fix things because they were done improperly.

Q: We have 12 inch tile stone flooring and when someone was here working in the attic, their ladder leg made a gouge in one tile. How can I fill that in to make it look good, without replacing it?

Thanks.
Jerry

A: With most stone floors there is really no true way to repair deep gouges or chips into the stone. For granite, slate and similar stone usually the best way to "repair" unsightly problems like this would be to replace the individual tile with a replacement tile.

There is a method for repairing travertine tile which you could try out on your floor, but there is not guarantee this will be an effective long term fix for real stone floors.

You will need some color matching, high quality, unsanded grout to do the repair as well as some paper towels, a pointed tool (nails or small screw drivers work well) and a flat surface to work the material with (Styrofoam, wood or cardboard blocks work well as long as the working surface is flat). Also have a flat tool such as a pocket knife or putty knife on hand as this will be a big help.

First clear any debris from the gouge using your tool, the blow into the gouge to remove any dust. Canned air for cleaning computers can be very helpful here. Once this is done, fill the gouge with some tap water. Make sure enough water is poured into the gouge so that it will remain for a few seconds. Now take a paper towel and towel dry the water so the gouge is left lightly moist as this will help set the grout. Make sure you also dry the finished surface around the gouge as well.

Now that the gouge is prepped, spread a mound of grout over the gouge using a flat tool (a putty knife will be a massive help here). Make sure that you spread enough grout to cover the entire area of the gouge, then take you Styrofoam or other flat surface and press directly down onto the mound of grout. Use smaller circular motions and pack the grout into the gouge. Once you have finished make sure enough grout has been packed into the gouge so that it sits level with the finish surface of the tile. If you need to, add more grout and repeat the circular packing motions with your flat surface tool. The moisture remaining in the gouge and on some of the surrounding surface will help to set the grout. Once this is done, clean any remaining grout away from the gouge then allow the grout plenty of time to dry. Typically 8 hours is enough time to allow the grout to dry and harden.

This fix will be noticeable in natural stone if you are looking for it, but at a glance is rarely recognized in travertine. Again I mention that this is only a fix meant for travertine and is not guaranteed to work on real stone such as slate or granite.

Q: About 10 years ago I had installed "Cherry Blocked" Pergo laminate in my kitchen. I am in the midst of redoing my kitchen and need to patch the floor in several places. Can you tell me what color replaces Cherry Blocked, or something similar. I do not need to replace the entire floor, just a few small areas.

A: Pergo no longer has a cherry blocked floor available. Its important to note that over this much time, it will be virtually impossible to find a Pergo laminate which will marry up to your old floor properly. Depending on the damage done to your current floor, it may be possible to repair some planks by using a color-fill type product, but actually replacing a single plank or two in the floor and keep it floating over this much time is impossible.

Should you find a product which looks similar to your current floor, it is likely that the sheen from the finish will be different as well, which can stick out like a sore thumb. Your best bet here might be to take your time and look for a product with similar appearance and then compare a physical sample to your current floor, side-by-side.

Another option, although it is a long shot, would to be try places like Ebay and Craigslist to see if anyone who previously bought the same floor and is now selling off left overs.

Q: Help! About 7 years ago my wife and I installed Columbia Click flooring in our Condo. IT has been great - up until about two weeks ago. In our dining area, which is about 100sq ft in size, right about in the middle it started to buckle and warp upwards.

There are no water pipes or anything of that nature in the dining area, and we haven't spilled anything on it. Only two things in the house have changed but I can't imagine this is it:

1. We had air conditioning installed last year and also started using forced air heat to warm our condo in the winter (we live in San Diego and frankly never used the heater until we upgraded to whole HVAC system). We have one output vent in the dinign area, but not near where it is buckling. We haven't even really used the A/C this year. Could the heat/ac combination have caused this? The floor now expands and contracts more often than it did before????

2. We have a three year old daughter. Last year we bought her a small play kitchen. It is the only other thing in the dining room besides the dining room table. It weighs about 45 pounds. It is up against one of the walls. Could it be causing the floor to not float as freely?

Finally - how do we stop it and/or repair it without redoing the entire dining area? The warp is now about 1/4' inch high. Enough to notice while walking thru and even catching a foot on when walking by.

We do have some planks left over from the initial install, but I would even want to try cutting out and repairing the warped area without understanding the cause first.

I did some follow up to get a bit more information on the room and a few pictures:

Follow-up: Did the best I could on pics and I hope this gives you a good idea. Attached are 3 pics:

Regarding the other 3 sides of the room and expansion gaps, I can tell you this. The side I am standing on when taking the pic is where my daughters play kitchen is. I pulled off that moulding easily and there is a half inch of expansion space. So that covers 2 of the 4 sides of the room.

Unfortunately the other two sides the moulding a nailed on pretty good and I didn't want to wreck it. But from my memory I was super worried about that aspect when installing and left 1/2' at least everywhere. If after reviewing the info on 2 sides of the room you think I should pull the moulding to be sure of the expansion gaps, let me know.

After looking at this myself, my theory is the HVAC vent routes underneath here and is causing condensation and the subfloor is warping. I just don't know how to proof it. One thing that causes me to go against that theory is that the condensation should drop downwards and not upwards. I would also think that I'd get drips thru the drywall ceiling in the basement and I don't see that. There is also one other room where the vent routes underneath the floor just like in the dining area and there are no problems in that room.

Anyway, open to ideas and how to start in fixing this. I have a horrible feeling of replacing the entire floor in the dining area.

- Steve

A: I had a chat with Gene D., iFLOOR's commercial contract specialist to bounce a few ideas around. Our suggestion would be to first remove those last few base molds to make sure the expansion gap is in place. If the gap is gone, then removing the molding should establish some room and help your floor relax back into place.

If they are still there and the floor has not expanded to remove the entire gap, then you are more than likely looking at some moisture issue. I would suggest picking up a moisture meter from a local home store (should run you around $20-$25) and test the moisture content at the raised area versus an edge of the floor. If there is a difference, there is your culprit, if not, then its most likely an issue in your subfloor.

If this is the case, you could try weighing down that portion of the floor, sand bag or some such. You could also apply a bit of heat to the boards to help remove some moisture, then weigh it down with sand bags and it should relax the boards back down. One method of heating would be to wrap a steam iron with a towel, shoot a bit of hot steam into the towel and iron the boards, but use this as a last resort.

Q: I have a real problem. My hallway is laminate and some type of acid was spilled right in the middle and caused a blemish about 2'X2'. I found someone who would remove that portion of the floor if I could find the same color. I did. Wilson Art Heather Ash. The problem that after 5 years of cleaning and using glo, the color has changed and I cannot find anything to substitute. I was thinking in terms of having a 2'X2' square cut out and putting in a wood medallion. However, I cannot find anyone in Las Vegas who will do the work. I can get the medallion, but of course cannot do the cutting.

Any ideas?
Bud

A: Quite the dilemma you have here and there are some options so let's dig into what can be done.

One potential fix would be to take up more of the hall and place older plank so that they replace the damaged area, then install the newer planks in areas where they are less visible, such as against the wall. If you don't have a less visible are to install into, you could look into something like a medallion, but keep in mind that this is a floating floor. Typically medallions are not built to float, which is probably why you are having trouble finding someone willing to do the work.

In order to put a medallion in, you would likely need to remove the flooring from the surrounding area, install the medallion, then cut the planks to surround it. Also, its like that the floor would need to be set up with transitions to allow for an expansion gap between the laminate planks and the medallion. This work can be done and I would look for an installer who is accustomed to inlay work as they are far more likely to be able and willing to do this type of fix for you. It is possible to install the medallion without a transition for the gap, but that would take some time and someone who is very familiar with this type of work.

Q: I have a large dog who has put scratches and some poke holes in my hardwood floor.

Thanks,
CP

A: More than likely you have a fairly soft species of wood if you are running into denting from your dog's nails, but there are a few things you can do to repair this damage and some methods to prevent it in the future.

Let's first look into preventative care for scratches and denting. When it comes to pets, there are a few important things to do to help extend the time your floor remains beautiful, the most important being to regularly trim your dog's nails. When the nails are kept trimmed, they also remain duller and are less likely to dig as strongly into your floor. Also, if your dog has longer fur, make sure that any fur covering the pads of the paws is trimmed away. Dogs will begin to rely on their nails for grip when moving when their paws are no longer providing as much aid, typically this happens when longer fur covers the pads of their paws.

Also, make sure you regularly sweep and clean the floor to prevent dirt and grit from getting on the floor. Most scratching is cause by larger grit which is dragged around the house by pets and normal walking.

Now as far as repairs goes, you can repair the dents by getting a color-matching floor putty, which is typically used to fill in holes from face nailing, then just rub a bit of the putty into each dent and it should fill well. Scratches on the other hand are typically only at the finish layer, and not damage to the wood itself. Most scratches will just fade a bit over time and the brighter white appearance will darker and become harder to see over time. It helps to have a regular cleaning schedule to speed this process along and prevent further scratches. Now if you are really worried about the appearance of scratches you can screen the floor.

Screen is a process where the top-most layer of finish is roughed up or buffed with high-grit sand paper, typically 220 grit, then new layers of finish are applied over the top of the buffed finish surface.

The most extreme option for repairing your floor, rather than replacing it, would be to have the floor refinished, but I would not suggest this unless you are massively displeased with the appearance of the floor as it can be somewhat expensive. This would involve getting a finisher to come out, sand down the floor to lessen the dents, then apply entirely new finish layers to the newly sanded wood surface. Honestly I would leave this option as a final resort because of the time needed and cost for the work.

Q: I just installed a laminate floor in the living room and it has a scratch. Is there anything I can apply to hide the scratch???

Marge

A: There are a few products out there which can help to hide scratches. Several companies make an acrylic color fill type product which is built to repair dents and is color matched to many of their floors. You could use a small amount of this applied with a rubber spatula or putty knife to color in the scratch.

Another option would be some of the crayon or pen like coloring item which are built to color in scratches to help hide them some. Now a cheaper solution along these lines would be to go out and find some regular crayons, typically the 64 packs have enough colors to cover you, then use a color which is closest to your floor, then lightly use it to color the area of the scratch.

Your best bet would be a color fill type product to match the floor, but there are several other options out there to help hide scratches, but keep in mind if you are looking for the scratch, you will still see it, it is just more likely to be missed by those who walk in or only glance at the floor.