When carrying out repairs, many people think about how to update the parquet without scraping. Over the years, even the most expensive material is subject to wear and tear, loses its presentable appearance and requires restoration.
The following defects appear:
- irregularities, potholes, cracks;
- loosening and peeling of individual planks;
- squeak when walking on the floor.
The most radical and costly way to renovate a parquet board is scrapping. What are the budget alternatives for renovating the floor and restoring its lost beauty?
Parquet renovation without scraping: elimination of scratches and irregularities
Sandpaper and hand-scrubbing can be used to remove minor scratches and smooth out roughness in wood. The first step in the restoration work is the removal of the old varnish in the area in need of repair. After that, putty must be applied to the restoration area.
To level the surface after the grout has dried, a sandpaper is used. To simulate seams, you need a metal ruler and an awl. The final stage is varnish application. You can use a wax crayon to remove minor scratches. To improve the appearance of the floor, you can cover the worn-out parquet with a special paint, varnish or protective compound.
How to renew the parquet if the boards are loose?
Loose planks can be fixed by driving nails into the end of the boards at an acute angle. If the problem affects a large area, then bamboo inserts around the area requiring restoration can be used to fix it. To drive in wedges, you will need to pre-drill a number of holes.
Fighting squeaky parquet
With aging of the parquet, a characteristic creak appears during walking. Measure the humidity level in the room. This value should be no more than 40%. Without resorting to replacing the boards, it is possible to partially eliminate the creak using the technology of "wedging" the parquet around the perimeter. To do this, you will need to dismantle the baseboards, wedges. After that, new spacers are clogged with an interval of 50 centimeters.
Within a few days after the restoration, it is necessary to check whether the floor creaks, and if there is a defect, tap the wedges. If it was not possible to eliminate the problem in this way, then you will be helped to eliminate the unpleasant sound by 100% observing all the technologies of construction and repair work. Our specialists are ready to replace obsolete coating at the highest professional level.
Parquet is probably the most "elite" option for flooring. It brings beauty and sophistication to any room, and at the same time is quite strong and durable. Although, over time, parquet still loses some of its attractiveness. This happens in most cases due to improper or untimely maintenance, but mechanical damage to the parquet or defects resulting from exposure to unfavorable external factors (for example, water) are not excluded. Of course, parquet, which has lost its attractiveness, can be replaced, but since “this pleasure is not cheap”, many people prefer to restore the old floor covering. The most "radical" way to restore the parquet is its scraping, followed by processing with mastics and varnishes. But often the damage to the parquet is not so significant to resort to such "radical measures". In these cases, you can restore the beauty of parquet using several quite affordable methods.
But before getting to know them, let's look at the "difficult cases" in which independent restoration of the parquet is not possible.
"Difficult cases" of parquet repair
There are several situations in which it makes no sense to undertake restoration of the parquet on your own - you will only waste your time and effort. The most common ones are:
- The parquet is badly worn out and has numerous defects and cracks. In this case, a complete replacement may not be necessary, but you certainly cannot do without scraping;
- The parquet was "swollen" after being heavily flooded with water. Since, in this case, some of the planks must have come off the base, it will be necessary to rebuild the parquet (and some elements, possibly, to replace), after which, again, resort to the scraping procedure;
- The parquet board has become dark and loose from time to time (it is easily pierced with an awl). This is, perhaps, the most "sad" option, since in this case you cannot even help the scrambling business - a complete replacement of the parquet is required.
In other cases, it is quite possible to restore the parquet on your own, you just need to be patient and familiarize yourself with the basic restoration technologies.
Restoration of the parquet appearance
This type of restoration work can be divided into several stages:
- Grinding. Depending on the general condition of the parquet, it will need to be partially or completely sanded. This can be done both with the help of a grinding machine, and "in manual" mode.
If you decide to use a sander, it is better to use fine sandpaper, as coarse abrasives can leave deep grooves on the surface of the parquet.
When using the sander, be careful not to "roll" it onto its side. The edge of sandpaper (even the smallest section) can leave a very noticeable scratch, which will be quite difficult to get rid of.
If you didn't have a sander at hand, it is quite possible to sand the parquet with your bare hands, or, to be more precise, with your feet. To do this, you will need a pair of "unnecessary shoes" and sandpaper 40 and 80.
With the help of glue we glue paper “coarser” on one sole, and “smaller” on the other, after which, putting on shoes, we simply shuffle our feet in those places that need to be sanded. Of course, this lesson is a little tedious and very comical, but believe me, it is much easier than manual grinding.
In those cases when "deep" grinding is necessary, we recommend first using only sandpaper number 40, and after removing all the dirt and old varnish, "walk" on the cleaned surface with a fine "eighty".
- Putty for scratches and chips. Defects and scratches formed in the parquet board are removed with a cosmetic parquet putty. This is done using a conventional spatula. Today, you can buy a lot of shades of this material, but if you could not find a cosmetic putty (also called restoration paste) of the shade you need, you can make it yourself. To do this, it is necessary to mix sawdust with epoxy varnish in a ratio of 1k 4 and add the required amount of dye to the resulting mixture. After the putty has dried, it is treated with fine sandpaper.
Defects and scratches can be removed with a cosmetic parquet putty In some cases, you can get rid of minor scratches using a wax "repair kit" for parquet.
Parquet filler video
You can learn more about the technology of parquet putty in the following video:
- Simulation of joints. After the parquet is putty, it may be necessary to create an imitation of joints in some places. This can be done using an ordinary awl and a metal ruler. To do this, after partial drying of the putty (it should not stretch and "take"), it is enough to slightly press the end of the metal ruler at the junction. End "false joints" are made using an awl, which draws a small line along the same ruler.
- Parquet coating with varnish. The final stage of the parquet restoration work is its varnishing. To do this, you can use almost any varnish - alkyd, epoxy, acrylic, as well as water-based varnishes. Detailed instructions for working with each type of varnish can be found in the instructions attached to it.
The final stage of the parquet restoration work is its varnishing. Please note that to create a smooth "mirror" surface of the parquet, it must be varnished at least 2-3 layers.
After the varnish is completely dry, it remains to rub the parquet with mastic and the restoration work can be considered complete.
In addition to the loss of visual appeal, other "troubles" can happen to the parquet, the most common of which is the creak and loosening of individual boards. Let's figure out how to get out of these unpleasant situations.
Loose plank repair
You can secure individual parquet boards with small nails driven into the end of each board at an angle of 45 degrees. This process is shown in more detail in the figure.
Fixing scheme for individual parquet boards using small nails In order to completely drive the nail into the end of the parquet board, you need to use a rod - "doboichik". This role can be played by the most common large nail. The “doboichik” hat is placed on the head of the nail being driven in and hit with a hammer on its opposite side.
If not individual boards are loosened, but whole "hearths" of the parquet, then you can use bamboo inserts to fix them. The fact is that bamboo has a structure different from wood, due to which, under the influence of moisture, it swells much more than any of the wood species. To fix a group of parquet boards, it is enough to drill a number of holes along the perimeter of the "hearth" and drive bamboo "blocks" into them. Excess bamboo is cut with an ordinary knife. After about a week, after the bamboo is swollen, the repaired piece of parquet can be putty and varnished.
Parquet creak
Squeaking is one of the most common problems with old parquet flooring. Unfortunately, in many cases it is possible to completely get rid of it only by a complete replacement of the coating in compliance with all the necessary technologies. However, in some situations, you can eliminate the squeak yourself, and, moreover, without special financial costs. For this it is necessary to try to "wedge" the parquet along its perimeter.
Before carrying out wedging work, it is recommended to check the humidity in the room. If it is higher than 40%, then the probability of a successful result after work is extremely small.
To prevent the parquet from creaking, it is necessary to "wedge" it around the perimeter The first step is to remove the skirting boards and remove the old wedges, which, most likely, no longer fulfill their function. In their place we drive in new wedges, at a distance of about half a meter from each other. During the week, we tap the wedges every day and check the floor for squeaks. If the creak has not disappeared within a week, then, alas, it will not be possible to eliminate it with this method.
As you can see, it is quite possible to carry out minor parquet repairs on your own, without seeking help from specialists. But if your parquet floor does not yet require repair, remember that the best way to maintain its attractive appearance for many years is timely and proper maintenance.
Successful renovation!
Such a very beautiful, warm and environmentally friendly flooring, like parquet, is liked by many owners. A few decades ago, such a floor was an item of luxury and prestige. Nowadays, almost everyone can afford this coverage.
Nevertheless, it sometimes happens that the floor starts to creak, deteriorates due to the ingress of excessive moisture or dirt. In this case, restoration of the old parquet may be required. How to perform this procedure yourself, without resorting to scraping and overcoating, we will describe in detail in this material with a photo.
The most difficult cases
Scraping old parquet and subsequent varnishing is always quite expensive, because they take time and labor. However, there are a number of cases where the condition of the coating leaves no other choice.
So, the most time-consuming do-it-yourself parquet restoration will be required in such cases:
- The parquet floor looks unkempt, trampled, with significant abrasions, grooves, cracks in the planks. In such a situation, the old parquet can still be preserved, however, you have to work hard. We recommend, however, that the restoration of the old parquet in this case be entrusted to the masters - both cheaper and faster.
- Due to flooding with water, the parquet flooring was swollen over the entire plane of the floor, in some places the planks fell behind the base. This problem can only be solved by completely replacing the parquet floor. However, some planks can still be reused after drying. However, sanding and varnishing is necessary.
- The parquet sheet has become loose, the wood has turned black, when pressed with an awl, it enters the plank by 5 mm. This indicates that the parquet floor has begun to rot and mold. In this situation, there can be no other options, except for the complete replacement of the parquet. In addition, the room must be thoroughly dried and the sub-floor must be renewed.
In all other situations, you can safely undertake the restoration of the parquet with your own hands. Such work will not require great skill and a lot of time from the owner. Note that in the case of simultaneous repairs in the apartment, you should take up the restoration of the parquet last.
Materials for restoration
To protect the parquet floor from external influences, it is opened with special varnishes.
There are 4 types of parquet varnishes:
- Alkyd and uralkyd varnishes. They are inexpensive, do not emit toxins, dry very quickly, so you can be indoors within an hour after varnishing. However, this varnish will last no more than 10 years. Uralkyd varnishes are somewhat more durable, although they are more expensive. As a rule, they are used for short-term repairs, followed by scraping and varnishing, as well as around the perimeter of the room.
- Based on epoxy resins. Such varnishes provide a durable and reliable coating for 30-40 years, although they are not cheap. As they cure, they emit toxic volatile substances, so you must not start work without personal protective equipment (gloves, respirator, goggles). The windows should be open, but the door to the adjacent rooms should be tightly closed. The epoxy varnish will harden and gain density for about a week. Only then can you be indoors.
- Acrylic varnish consists of a base and a hardener, which are mixed immediately before application. Such a composition is practically non-toxic, but much more expensive than epoxy. The service life of the coating with proper care will be 50 years or more.
- Water based. Rather, it is a finely dispersed suspension in water of any polymer, for example, PVA. Such varnish dries up in a day, while it is non-toxic and inexpensive. Provides long-term protection of the tree by penetrating deep into its structure. Mastic can be applied over the coating. The treated surface becomes less sensitive to minor mechanical damage. However, such varnishes slightly change the color of the wood and quickly fade in direct sunlight.
Varieties of work
Before you can restore the parquet with your own hands, you need to master a few simple manipulations. We will tell you more about each of them.
Putty
On sale there are ready-made putty pastes and mixtures that can be used to fill cracks and crevices (more details: ""). However, in some cases, you can make such a mixture yourself. To do this, you will need the remnants of the old parquet, remaining in reserve. They need to be cut into small sawdust and mixed with parquet varnish to a pasty state, or with epoxy varnish in a ratio of 4: 1. This grout is ideal if you want to match the exact tone of the wood.
Simulation of joints
You can disguise the putty by simulating joints, which can be done using a ruler and an awl:
- First you need to wait a bit until the putty hardens to a gelatin state, that is, it will be plastic, but not sticky. Alkyd and uralkyd varnish hardens within a few minutes after application and crystallizes quickly.
- For straight lines of joints, the grooves are drawn with an awl under the ruler.
- Wavy lines are pressed through with a metal ruler.
- If the putty is already frozen, then to create false joints it will have to be scratched with an awl.
Hand cycling
For sanding small areas of parquet flooring, you can use a hand scrubber, available from your specialist dealer. If desired, a hand loop can be made from a planer blade.
Sanding with your feet
You can sand small pieces of parquet with two types of emery glued to the soles of old shoes. Paper # 40 is suitable for roughing and # 80 for finishing. Sanding with your feet is faster than by hand, and the processing is more delicate than, for example, a bar.
Parquet restoration
Removing adhered gum
The parquet floor must not be treated with a solvent to avoid the appearance of ugly stains. Place an ice pack on plasticine or chewing gum and leave for 20 minutes. The dirt itself will lag behind or begin to rise along with the bag, so that there will be no traces left.
Repair of minor surface defects
In this case, we mean cracks, chips or dents on the parquet planks. Before you remove the varnish from the parquet with your own hands, you do not need to take out the furniture if it does not interfere. Manual cycles and emery need to scrape off the old varnish and putty on the defects. After applying the putty, when it hardens to the desired state, false joints are cut on it and left to harden. Next, apply parquet varnish of the desired shade, preferably in 2 layers. You can apply the second layer after the first one dries. You can also paint the parquet if that suits you.
Sealing cracks
The appearance of gaps between the parquet is a consequence of the natural drying of the wood. Often they do not interfere with the full use of the parquet in the future. If the gap is narrow and single, it can be closed in the same way as other minor defects - remove the old varnish, putty, apply a false joint, and then varnish.
Here's how to restore your parquet floor if the gaps are more than 5 mm wide:
- Parquet with parallel planks must first be heated with a building hair dryer for 10-20 minutes. As soon as the smell of mastic appears, you can stop.
- All planks are pulled together with a laminate hook and a rubber mallet until one large gap forms.
- A wide gap is filled with riveting with putty, driving it flush with the parquet.
- As the putty hardens, you can proceed to further sanding the area, putty, sanding, applying false joints and subsequent varnishing (for more details: "").
- For herringbone parquet floors, an individual approach is used for each gap. They are filled with small chips.
Loose parquet planks
If there is a loosening of individual parquet floors in different places of the coating, then they can be fixed to neighboring planks with small studs, fed at 45 o. Fastening is done along long ribs 1.5-2 cm from the corner. The heads of carnations must be drowned in the wood with a hammer or a doboon. Small notches from the caps are putty, after which the surface is sanded and varnished.
In cases where several neighboring parquet floors are loosened at once, you can strengthen the coating with bamboo. As a grass, bamboo absorbs moisture more strongly than wood, absorbing it from the air.
For repair, you need to perform the following steps:
- At the joints on the long sides, 15-20 mm from the corners, holes 4-6 mm in diameter are drilled.
- The bamboo pieces are very tightly driven into the holes obtained, and the remaining protruding section is combed off with a chisel.
- After a week, the repaired parquet section can be scraped, gaps can be putty, false joints can be made, sanded and varnished.
Repair of creaking parquet
The most common reason for repairing a parquet floor is squeaking. There can be two reasons for this phenomenon: natural drying and aging of wood; violation of installation rules (read: ""). If it is necessary to restore the parquet, laid on bitumen mastic, there is still a chance to extend its life by several years. But a poorly laid floor is unlikely to be saved.
The first thing you can try to help with squeaks is to tie the parquet from the edges:
- Air humidity is checked first of all. It should be within
40-60%, but not more, otherwise it will not work to drive the parquet. - Having removed the skirting boards around the perimeter of the room, you need to check the condition of the spacer wedges. Often, due to the drying out of the parquet, such wedges turn out to be free lying in the gap.
- If, instead of wedges, the gaps near the walls are filled with foam, you need to cut it off with a chisel until a clean groove is formed.
- Every 50-60 cm, you need to drive in new spacer wedges tightly.
- Next, you need to tap the wedges every day deeper and deeper, while checking if the floor creaks. If after a week it is no longer possible to drive the wedges deeper, and the floor still continues to creak, then nothing can be done to help it. You can only completely change the coating. Alternatively, plywood can be laid on top of the parquet on the waterproofing layer in order to hold out for several years until the apartment is overhauled. Instead of a film, you can use red lead or white, but then the old parquet will have to be thrown away completely.
Elimination of bulging
Such defects are subject to self-restoration only if their area is small, and very little water gets on the floor.
The sequence of actions in this case is as follows:
- The swollen area should be warmed up with a construction hairdryer for one or one and a half hours, interrupted only for a short time. If you smell the mastic, you may be able to save the parquet.
- On a warm floor, you need to lay a thick fabric and distribute the oppression over the floor area, taking into account that for every 10 cm 2 there is 10 kg of weight. You can use any means at hand - bricks, buckets of water, books, dumbbells mounted on a 40 mm board or thick plywood.
- After a day, you can check the condition of the parquet. If the swollen area began to fall off noticeably, then you can repeat the procedure again.
Unfortunately, if this approach did not lead to tangible results, then it will not be possible to restore such parquet.
Note that the effectiveness of the fight against bloating can only be expected if you get down to business immediately. If a week or more has passed, the decay process has already begun in the wood, and it is no longer possible to help such parquet.
Craftsmen advise that when working with straight-grained parquet (walnut or oak), pre-moisten it slightly - leave a well-wrung out damp cloth until it dries. On the other hand, thin-layered wood (beech, mountain ash, birch) and from tropical trees must be thoroughly dried before laying.
How to care for parquet
In order for the parquet to serve faithfully for many years, to remain in good condition and not to be repaired, you need to be able to properly care for it (in more detail: ""). Most of all, the parquet is damaged by direct sunlight, large particles of dust or sand, as well as insufficient or excessive moisture. Under the influence of excessive moisture, the parquet swells, in a too dry room it dries up, the sun makes it ugly and dark, and the sand destroys the top layer of the protective coating.
Subtleties of care:
- Avoid direct sun - the light should be diffused tulle or vertical blinds. Horizontal blinds are not recommended in this case, as they, on the contrary, create a directed stream of sunlight.
- You can walk on the parquet only in soft indoor shoes, and in no case in street shoes. Before entering the room, you can lay a small cloth rug so that the grains of sand linger on it. Pile carpets will not protect your parquet from sand.
- In order to bring less dirt into the apartment, it is better to put a plastic backing for cleaning shoes at the front door.
- Do not let the humidity level drop below 20%. In winter, place water containers under the batteries to humidify the air.
- Ventilate the area as often as possible. In summer, cover the windows with a mosquito net, which will also serve as protection from large dust particles.
- You need to vacuum the parquet floor, the more often the better. But wet cleaning can only be done manually and no more than once a week. A microfiber cloth is ideal.
If the room has unvarnished old parquet flooring, in order to preserve it, you need to regularly polish the floor with mastic and beeswax or oil. It makes the top layer of parquet much stronger. An alternative is water-based varnish. Then rubbing is enough to do once a week.
How to clean parquet
To clean the parquet, you can use only special products containing surfactants (surfactants) that have a neutral acid-base reaction. In no case are abrasives, dishwashing detergents, soda or solvents (acetone, alcohol, gasoline, etc.) appropriate.
If blood gets on the parquet or pets defecate on it, you should immediately clean the contamination with a damp cloth. As soon as such spots dry up, it will be impossible to remove them without a trace. We'll have to scrape, grind and reopen with varnish.
conclusions
With proper care, parquet flooring can last a long time and delight with beauty and comfort. At the same time, minor cosmetic repairs with minor damage or loss of appearance can be performed independently. Guided by the recommendations and videos, you can easily cope with this task.
Parquet is a cozy and environmentally friendly floor covering. With proper care, it will last for many decades. Ordinary domestic accidents most often do not lead to the final damage of the parquet floor, and repairing the parquet with your own hands in most cases does not require significant costs and any special skills. To prepare for minor and cosmetic repairs to the parquet floor, it is enough to remove the furniture from the room and do a wet cleaning. In this article, we will look at how to renovate your parquet floor without scraping the entire floor area. Full scraping with overcoating is an expensive and time-consuming operation. ...
Severe cases
In three cases, self-restoration of parquet will require significant expenditures of money, time and labor:
- Heavily worn, unkempt and trampled parquet with visible hollows and wave-like cracks in the dies. In this case, most often you can do without replacing the parquet flooring, but it is best to entrust the restoration of parquet to professionals: it will be cheaper.
- Floor swollen after abundant flooding over the entire area; the dies (parquet) came off the base. This floor needs to be repaired. After drying in a stack, old parquet floors can be used, but the whole complex of scraping and varnishing works is also necessary.
- The dies have darkened, the wood is loose, with a slight pressure, the awl goes into the wood by 5 mm or more. The parquet floors are affected by rot and mildew. Required with drying the room and preparing the base floor.
In other cases, do-it-yourself restoration of the parquet is quite possible. If the parquet works are timed to renovate the premises, they are performed last. Let us first of all consider what materials and technological operations are required for this.
Varnish, putty and paste
Parquet varnish is needed both for creating a protective coating and for matching the replaced parquet flooring to match the existing ones. Parquet varnishes are available in four types:
- Alkyd and uralkyd. Inexpensive, non-toxic, dry quickly: work can be continued, and the room can be populated an hour after application. But the durability of the coating does not exceed 10 years, after which a complete scraping and overcoating is required. Uralkyd varnish is slightly more expensive and more durable than alkyd varnish. Recommended for use around the perimeter of the room and for temporary, for several years, coverage before renovation.
- Epoxy varnishes. Provide, with proper care, the durability of parquet in 30-40 years, but expensive. During curing, highly toxic volatile substances are released, so you need to work with a respirator, rubber gloves and goggles, opening the windows wide open and closing the door tightly. The work can be continued and the room can be populated a week after varnishing: the seemingly completely frozen varnish gains strength for a long time.
- Acrylic varnishes as well as epoxies, they require mixing before using the base and hardener. Little toxic, but very expensive. The durability of the coating with proper care is up to 50 years or more.
- Water based varnish in essence, not a varnish, but a finely dispersed suspension of a polymer (PVA or other) in water. Non-toxic, cheap, the coating “matures” in a day. Penetrates into the mass of wood, which gives it strength for decades; the exact time depends on the quality of the wood. Allows rubbing with mastic. Parquet lacquered with water-based varnish is not so sensitive to grains of sand. Disadvantages: strongly fades under the influence of ultraviolet radiation and slightly changes the tone of the wood.
Working operations
For minor repairs of parquet, you need to master four simple technological methods: preparation of tinted putty, imitation of joints, hand-scraping and foot grinding.
Cosmetic putty
You can do without the preparation of homemade cosmetic putty: there are a variety of restoration pastes for parquet, Bona, and other different shades on sale. But if you have several old parquet floors lying around in your closet, the same as those laid on the floor, you can prepare a grout for potholes and seams, ideally suited to the floor. To do this, you need to cut a lot of sawdust with any suitable tool and mix them with parquet varnish to the consistency of sour cream. Sawdust filler can be added to epoxy varnish in a ratio of up to 4: 1; you get something like plasticine.
But it makes sense to prepare the putty on your own only in the case described above: to obtain exactly the same tone, it is not only the breed that matters, but also the period with the aging conditions of the wood. If exactly the same wood samples are not available, it is easier to buy a ready-made putty or paste of a suitable shade.
Video: parquet putty
Simulation of joints
The imitation of the joints of the dice on the putty surface of the parquet is done with an ordinary awl and a metal locksmith's ruler:
- Waiting for the gelatinization of the putty, i.e. she no longer has to "take", but still be soft. In alkyd and uralkyd varnishes, gelatinization occurs in a few minutes after application and lasts about a minute, so you need to work quickly.
- Direct false joints are carried out with an awl along a ruler.
- Curved false joints are made with a ruler edge with slight pressure.
- False joints on the hardened putty, when necessary, are scratched with an awl along a ruler or a galvanized template.
Manual scraping
Small areas of the parquet to be repaired are hand-scraped with a manual cycle. Ready-made cycles are sold in tool stores. The cycle can be made independently from the iron for the plane, by releasing its blade, bending it with a hook and hardening it again. (Read more about manual and machine do-it-yourself scraper -).
Sanding with your feet
For sanding parquet areas, it is convenient to use old flat-soled shoes: sneakers, "bazaar" Chinese summer shoes, etc. On one sole, a skin number 40 (coarser) is glued with 88 glue; to the other - number 80 (thinner), for primary and final grinding. Shuffling with your feet is also somewhat tiring, but it is much more difficult to rub with your hands while kneeling or bent over. And the skin on the elastic sole works more neatly than on the skin block.
Parquet repair
Chewing gum and plasticine
Do not wash or remove with solvent: a stain will remain on the parquet. You need to prepare a plastic bag (not plastic) with ice cubes and put on the dirt. After 10-20 minutes. it will rise with the package or skip away without leaving a trace.
Scratches, chips, potholes, corners of dies
To eliminate minor defects without taking out the furniture, first cycles, and then the old varnish is removed with a sandpaper to clean wood and the defect is sealed with a cosmetic putty on a cardboard stencil. After hardening, the putty is rubbed with a sandpaper until smooth and immediately, until the putty has gained strength, the false joints are scratched. Then varnished, picking up the varnish to match. At least two layers of varnish are applied, the next one after the previous one has completely dried.
Single scratches and chips can be tried to be removed using commonly sold repair kits, in particular with wax crayons.
Cleavage
In old parquet, gaps are often formed. This is the result of natural drying of the wood, and the floor is most likely still quite usable. Narrow single cracks are sealed with putty in the same way as scratches with potholes: peeling, putty, false joint, varnishing.
Sealing gaps that are multiple and wider than 5 mm is somewhat more difficult:
- A row of parallel parquet floors (if the installation is not herringbone) is heated for 10-20 minutes with a household hairdryer. A sure sign that it's warmed up enough is the smell of mastic or base putty.
- Using a laminate hook and a rubber hammer, they pull the dies together so that there is one wide gap.
- A wooden rivet is tightly placed in the gap on the putty, flush with the parquet strips.
- When the putty hardens, the repaired area is peeled off, putty, false joints are made, sanded with sandpaper and varnished.
- On a parquet laid with a herringbone, wide gaps are sealed individually, using chips instead of rivets.
Parquet floors are loose
Fastening parquet with nails
If individual dies are loose, they are attached to neighboring small studs at an angle of 45 degrees. Nails are driven in on the long sides of the dies 15-20 mm from the corners. The heads of nails are driven into the wood with a hammer and a metal spacer rod (doboinik). Holes with caps are putty, without peeling. After hardening, the putty is once passed with a sandpaper and varnished with a drop of varnish.
If the dice “play” with whole hearths, then they are fixed with the help of bamboo. Bamboo is not a tree, but a large and hard grass. The cut shows that its fibers are located in a completely different way than wood. Having a little moisture from the air, bamboo swells a little more than wood.
The cutting of the playing parquet with bamboo is done as follows:
- On the long sides, 15-20 mm from the corners at the joints, vertical holes with a diameter of 4-6 mm are drilled.
- Round bamboo blocks are driven into the holes tightly, even tightly; the protruding residue is cut off with a sharpened chisel.
- A week later, they rip off the repaired section of the cycles, putty the cracks, carry out false joints, grind and varnish.
Creak
Probably the most common question about repairing parquet floors is what to do if parquet creaks? Parquet creaking is a consequence of natural aging of the floor or violation of the technology of its laying. Old Soviet parquet, laid on bitumen mastic, can most often be corrected for several years before repair; "Hack" floors - in some cases. First of all, you need to try to pull the parquet from the edges:
- We check the humidity in the room with a hygrometer. It should not exceed 60%. With higher humidity, the floor will not be cut. The optimal value is 40%. This humidity is typical for winter time with heating on.
- Remove the skirting boards and check the spacer wedges; most likely, they are no longer bursting with anything, but simply lie in the gap.
- If there are no wedges at all, and the gap is foamed, select the foam with a chisel to a clean groove.
- We install new pairs of wedges every 0.5-0.6 m and knock them out tightly.
- Every day we hit the wedges and check the floor for squeaks. If the creak has not diminished within a week, and the wedges are as tight as at the beginning - alas, the parquet has served its purpose, and you need to think about how to re-grind. An alternative option for two to five years before renovation is to cover the floor with plywood on a soft waterproofing film or, if the old parquet is definitely not needed, on a thickly rubbed mineral paint: whitewash, red lead.
Video: self-elimination of squeaky floors
Bloating
It is possible to fix the parquet floor that has swollen up after bonding on your own only in some cases, and if it has been spilled a little over the entire floor. In this case, you can try to do the following:
- Warm the swollen area well, an hour and a half or more, with short breaks, warm it up with a household hairdryer. The smell of mastic that appears is a sign that the repair is likely to be successful.
- Quickly, while the floor is warm, cover it with a dense cloth like burlap and give a surcharge distributed over the area of at least 10 kg / sq. Dm. For this, weights or other weights (a basin or boiled water with water, stacks of books or bricks, etc.) are suitable on trimming a forty board or a piece of thick plywood, fiberboard, etc. The author of these lines observed a case when they worked perfectly as a load three tube color TVs - "coffins".
- Withstand under load for at least a day; check if the bulge has fallen off. If the “bubble” has significantly decreased, repeat the operation.
If the swelling has not noticeably fallen off - alas, the floor is damaged, you need to re-grind.
In serious cases, such as the one shown in the image, the optimal solution would be a complete replacement of the damaged elements.
Note: if you decide to start work a week or more after it has swelled, you don't have to try. Fungal spores have already awakened in the solid wood.
A little trick for all floor renovations: Before starting work, parquet made of straight-grained wood (oak, walnut) should be slightly moistened by covering it with a slightly moistened and tightly wrung out cloth until it dries. Thin-layer parquet (beech, birch, mountain ash) and from tropical tree species, on the contrary, should be dried as best as possible.
Parquet maintenance
As the best way to treat diseases is to prevent them, and the best way to repair a parquet floor is to take proper and timely care of parquet. The parquet has three main enemies: excessive / insufficient humidity, sand and ultraviolet light. From the "wrong" moisture content, the wood shrinks or swells and is more easily affected by the fungus. The sand scratches the varnish and spoils the upper, decorative layer of the tree, and from ultraviolet light the wood darkens and takes on a sloppy look. So:
- During the day, illuminate the room with diffused light. Previously, tulle curtains were recommended for this; now there is a better tool: vertical blinds. But not horizontal, they can, on the contrary, concentrate ultraviolet light and direct it to the parquet!
- Enter a room with a parquet floor only with slippers. Put a cloth rug in front of the door - it retains grains of sand, and from the pile of the carpet they then fall on the floor.
- Place a plastic shoe cleaner mat in front of your apartment's front door.
- In winter, when the humidity in the apartment with the heating turned on can drop to 20%, humidify the air, at least with tin troughs with water suspended from the radiators.
- Ventilate the room more often in the summer; hang the windows and the balcony door with a net. It not only keeps mosquitoes out, but also captures the largest, most harmful to parquet fractions of street dust.
- Vacuum the parquet more often, but never with a washing vacuum cleaner! Wet cleaning - manual only.
- Do wet cleaning no more than once a week, with a slightly damp and well-wrung out cloth. The best option is a special microfiber cloth.
Video: expert opinion on parquet maintenance
Just in case: the parquet that serves for three generations is not varnished. Such parquet is regularly, especially valuable - every day, rubbed with mastic based on oil and beeswax. The mastic strengthens the entire top layer of the parquet by a few millimeters inward. The work of polishing is laborious, but nowadays it is facilitated by water-based parquet varnish. It is enough to rub the parquet lacquered with it once a week.
Parquet cleaning
Parquet cleaning is a special conversation. Parquet must be cleaned with special cleaning agents that are chemically neutral and free of abrasives. They are based on nonionic surfactants (surfactants) with a neutral acid-base reaction.
Parquet is a floor material that has been in constant and constant demand for a long time. It confidently occupies a leading position in its segment. This material has been known to mankind for many years and, most importantly, during this entire period it has not undergone practically any changes. One of the main advantages of parquet is its design features. Any element of such a wooden covering can be easily and quickly replaced, and its surface can be renewed as many times as necessary.
Also read: OWN HAND PARQUET FLOOR RESTORATION
Repairing parquet flooring at home involves, first of all, sanding its surface. What is this procedure? Parquet board is a multi-layer construction. The first layer is a substrate that serves as thermal and waterproofing. The second layer is the "body" of the parquet, made of wood and consisting of so-called rivets. The third layer is varnish, which provides the coating with reliable protection against various physical and damp influences.
Also read: DIFFERENCES IN PARQUET, ENGINEERING AND PARQUET BOARDS
During operation, the varnish layer is gradually erased, as a result of which the tree is exposed. Under external influence, it turns black and gradually dries up. To avoid such an unpleasant phenomenon, it is precisely the scraping of the parquet surface that is used. The essence of this procedure is to remove the old varnish coating with your own hands, as well as a small layer of wood using special equipment. All existing damage is completely eliminated, after which a new layer of varnish is applied.
Thanks to this approach, the protection of the wooden coating will be at the highest possible level. The original appearance of the material is also completely restored. An important role is played by the technique used for scraping parquet.
Do-it-yourself parquet renovation without scraping
Parquet is a natural, cozy and environmentally friendly floor covering. Its service life is from 5 years. If you have it in a fairly decent condition, but you want to update it, then you can do it yourself, relying on the instructions:
- Putty (putty). It is necessary to buy a restoration paste to match your flooring. After purchasing the paste or mixture, rub it thoroughly around the entire perimeter with a spatula.
- Profiling joints. When the putty dries up a little, it reaches a jelly-like state, it is necessary to simulate the joints, do it with an awl or a locksmith's ruler. Straight false joints are drawn with an awl along the ruler, curved ones are drawn with the edge of the ruler, pressing hard on it.
- Grind. If the putty is frozen, then false joints are carried out according to the galvanized pattern.
Parquet is usually sanded with feet. Any old flat shoes will do. Sandpaper for the initial finishing (No. 40) is glued on one sole, and for finishing sanding (No. 80) on the second. It is tedious, but easier faster than hands and a bar. - Cover the surface with varnish. You can purchase a water-based slurry. It is inexpensive and non-toxic. Or you can opt for acrylics, they are very durable but expensive. Epoxies are also sold. They serve for a very long time, but are expensive and toxic. And the last option: uralkyd and alkyd coatings, non-toxic, do not have a harmful effect on health, are inexpensive, but short-lived. The term of use is no more than 10 years.
As you can see, it is quite possible to update the parquet floor without scraping with your own hands. The main thing is to follow the instructions and follow the advice of professionals.
See also the video: how to update the parquet without scraping with your own hands