Restoration of a parquet floor, causes of defects, cosmetic, partial and major repairs of parquet, sealing cracks in the coating and its renewal. Parquet is a floor covering, one of the most durable, expensive, but also quite capricious. During the period of its operation, it is necessary to maintain a certain microclimate in the room and to carry out the restoration of the surface in a timely manner. Otherwise, the restoration of such a floor becomes inevitable. We will tell you about how to repair the parquet with your own hands in this article.
The main types of parquet repair
Sooner or later, the parquet floor will definitely require some kind of repair, since over time its material dries up from temperature changes, cracks form between the dies, they may loosen or fall out, the parquet begins to creak. With some effort, all of these problems can be solved.
Parquet repair can be divided into three types according to the scale and complexity of the execution:
- Maintenance … It is carried out after a certain period of operation in a planned manner and is aimed at maintaining the appearance of the parquet floor. If such preventive maintenance is carried out regularly, large-scale repairs to the coating can be postponed indefinitely.
- Partial renovation … Performed when the first signs of floor defects appear: the appearance of stains, creaking, movement of individual parquet strips, etc. Such repairs often require replacing the elements of the parquet flooring.
- Major overhaul … It is carried out due to its wear and tear due to prolonged operation or in case of sudden damage, for example, when a room is flooded. This parquet repair involves a complete replacement of the coating. Sometimes, when performing it, cleaned serviceable old dies are used.
With a high-quality installation, a parquet floor can last for more than a decade, if periodically, once every 3-5 years, it is revised and prevented, correcting even completely insignificant flaws on it as necessary. For example, damages such as scratches, which inevitably appear on the parquet over time, must be rubbed in a timely manner with a paste to restore the parquet - in the future, a large number of them leads to clouding of the coating and weakening its protective properties.
Causes of damage to parquet
Defects in a parquet floor can be caused by various factors. The main ones are:
- Aging of the coating due to its long service life.
- Mechanical damage to the parquet when moving heavy household equipment, furniture and walking in shoes with heels or sharp heels.
- Water penetration under the coating, which can occur with excessively frequent wet cleaning. If moisture gets into the space between the floor strips and does not have time to evaporate, this leads to constant dampness of the base and the development of rot in the parquet wood.
- The appearance of colonies of fungus and various insects that are dangerous for the wooden floor.
Defects of the parquet flooring can be immediately seen during its next revision, but it will be better if you simultaneously tap the floor to find places where the strips have peeled off from the base. Some suspicious-sounding ones may need to be removed.
Features of the repair of parquet flooring
Below we will consider in more detail the ways to repair and restore parquet in each case.
Parquet redecoration
The most common of these is the appearance of scratches on the varnished parquet. If the wood of the die is not damaged, and the groove is not deep, a special touch-up pencil made on the basis of PROFIX stain from BORMA WACHS (Italy) can be an excellent solution to the problem. Various options for its execution include dozens of shades and colors of wood, which is used in the production of parquet. This makes it very easy to find the right pencil to match any gender. The beveled shape of the tool shank allows machining of the damaged surface in areas of any width. After complete drying, the retouched parquet is resistant to sunlight and moisture.
For a more accurate drawing of the wood texture, another version of the retouching pencil is used - PROFIXPEN, it has a thinner core.
If the scratch on the parquet is deep, and it touches the surface of the wood of the die, or there are dents and chips from the fall of heavy angular objects, the process of repairing the coating becomes more complicated, but it can also be done independently.
At the initial stage of work, the areas of the floor to be repaired are sanded with an abrasive material with a grain size of 220. After that, it is necessary to select the wax to match the color of the wood to restore the parquet, melt it with a soldering iron and fill the crack or chip in the coating with the composition. After the material has completely cooled down and hardened, its excess must be removed with a spatula and the parquet must be sanded again with an abrasive, but already with a grain size of 320.
Recommended for use is wax from HARTWACHS, it has more than 100 color positions, excellent plasticity and a high level of adhesion to wood. In addition, you can get new shades of the repair material by mixing several types of wax that differ in color. The final stage of the cosmetic repair of the parquet is its varnishing. To obtain as a result of this work an even film of varnish that does not have a halo, it is recommended to use HOLZSPRAY varnish-spray (Italy). It differs from other similar materials in that when it is used, there is no visible boundary between the untreated and the treated surface. This varnish has a nitro base and is produced according to the degree of gloss in different versions from 10% to 90%.
Before applying the varnish to the parquet, you need to shake the can several times, and then spray its contents from a distance of about 30 cm onto the repaired areas of the parquet flooring. Complete drying of the varnish occurs within 15 minutes and earlier, depending on the thickness of the applied layer.
Partial parquet repair
If the floor began to creak, and some of its dies loosened, cracked or formed gaps in the wooden covering, then there are two ways to repair the old parquet in this case: sort out the defective area or strengthen it.
In the first version, the dies that have peeled off from the base should be carefully removed with a spatula, carefully inspected and treated with an abrasive material - a special mesh or sandpaper. If they are not suitable for reinstallation, you need to take new dies. Clearly damaged elements of the floor, visible during an external examination, can be removed in an accelerated way - pre-split them with a chisel. When replacing several dies at once, they must first be glued together with glue on wood, but on one side of the structure, the extreme ridge will have to be cut off.
The cavity, which formed after the removal of these floor elements, must be well cleaned and its bottom must be leveled with a cement-sand mortar or epoxy putty. When the base is dry, glue should be applied to it, and then put in place of the dies and temporarily press them down with some kind of weight.
The binder can be QUICK SET polyurethane adhesive from VERMEISTER. This material has an extremely high polymerization rate. Once glued, the parquet can be sanded after 30 minutes. This operation must be performed with a grinder or sandpaper. The process of parquet reconstruction ends with the application of protective agents to its surface: wax, oil, azure or varnish.
Parquet repair according to the second option is performed if the floor creaks, its dies are a little loose, the adhesive layer is destroyed, and the voids under the coating create a dull sound when walking. If the parquet peels or creaks, the floor can be repaired easily with a drill, syringe and glue.
To do this, a small through hole must be drilled at the junction of the problematic coating elements. Then 2-3 ml of water should be injected into it with a syringe, and after a few minutes a little POLIFOAM glue should be injected into the same hole. It is essentially a solvent free polyurethane resin. Upon contact with air, the voids under the coating expands, completely fills them, and then hardens in a humid environment. After the introduction of the glue, the dies must be pressed with a heavy load, preventing the composition from lifting them when expanding. After 2-3 hours, the parquet will have a strong adhesive seam and will stop creaking.
Crevices are formed due to deformations of parquet floor dies and are a consequence of seasonal changes in humidity and air temperature. It is not difficult to eliminate slots up to 5 mm wide. It is enough to thoroughly clean each of them using a knife or other thin and sharp object, and then fill the resulting cavities with putty or mastic.
If the gaps between the parquet strips are more than 5 mm wide, such gaps should be deepened, then leveled and carefully cleaned their edges with a chisel. After that, you need to place wooden inserts of the desired color, pre-cut and greased with glue for parquet repair, in the cracks. Then the problem areas of the flooring must be sanded and varnished.
It is more difficult to eliminate the gaps near the baseboards, more precisely between the second and first row of dies. Before embedding them, remove the skirting board and check whether the cause of the defect was a weakening of the space between the parquet flooring and the wall, which was previously made using special wedges. If this is the case, then you should start sealing the cracks only after reinstalling these parts.
Overhaul of the parquet floor
Almost always the reason for the overhaul of a parquet floor is excess moisture. It can protrude onto the surface of the coating due to a decrease in its thermal insulation properties. There may be several reasons for this: insufficient thickness of the insulation layer or its getting wet, thermal insulation compaction under the weight of the coating, its laying on an uneven base or poor-quality insulation of the joints between the plates.
Such a defect of a parquet floor is the most difficult, requiring a complete rework of the coating. At the same time, all the parquet flooring, heat and waterproofing are removed, the flaws in the insulation are revealed, and then, taking into account the errors found, this material is laid again using the correct technology, but in the reverse order.
Another reason for a major overhaul is filling the parquet with water, for example, when an apartment is flooded. Often in this case, the flooring heaves, forming waves and bumps. It can of course be dried. However, if the parquet has separated from the subfloor, it will be more reasonable to reposition it.
If the parquet is swollen, the repair of the floor presupposes its complete disassembly to allow the base to dry. After removing all the dies, you need to wait at least 1-2 weeks, and then check the moisture content of the subfloor. This is not difficult to do. Cover the base with plastic wrap and tape it to it around the perimeter. If after a day there is no condensation under the film, then the base is dry and the parquet can be laid.
After finishing the installation of the floor covering, its surface must be sanded and covered with a protective compound, choosing it at your discretion.
Renovation of the parquet floor surface
The worn-out varnish on the parquet is a rather serious problem. Wood without a protective layer quickly turns black and stains. It is much cheaper and easier to repair parquet at the initial signs of abrasion. The problematic area of the floor can be sanded manually.
If a complete renovation of the parquet surface is required, the best solution would be to rent a grinder and an industrial vacuum cleaner for a couple of days. During this time, with the help of such a set, you can process a floor covering of a large area: remove the old protective layer from it and clean it of dust. After this procedure, the floor will be ready for the application of varnish, oil or wax materials to repair the parquet.
After sanding a wooden floor, it is recommended to treat its entire surface with a putty, which you can buy or make yourself from sawdust and an astringent liquid. The mixture must be distributed evenly over the parquet area with a metal spatula, and after it dries, apply a primer, tinting paste, stain, glaze or gel to the surface.
At the last stage of work, the parquet should be finished with a topcoat. It can consist of varnish, wax or oil. Polyurethane compounds, two-component RU-compounds and alkyd materials are used as varnishes. All of them form a strong and wear-resistant film on the parquet surface, which can last up to 5 years. But while working with varnishes, inhaling their vapors can cause headaches, nausea and other body reactions. Therefore, gas respirators should be used to protect the respiratory system. The varnish can be applied to the floor with a wide brush or short-haired roller. Parquet oils are made on the basis of soybean, linseed and other vegetable fats. These substances must be rubbed into the wood of the coating with a hard brush, applying considerable effort. After impregnation of the top layer, it becomes resistant to dirt and moisture. The disadvantage of the oil coating is the lack of protection of the parquet from mechanical influences: shock loads and abrasion.
Oils mixed with waxes are applied to the coating with a spatula, impregnate the wood 2-2.5 mm deep and create a layer of a protective film on its surface. The combination of the two components of the oil-wax mixture allows the parquet to be protected from many external negative influences. This topcoat must be renewed once a year, but not less frequently.
How to restore parquet - watch the video:
A high-quality parquet repair always more than justifies the efforts and funds invested in it. After all, the result of this work is an updated and very beautiful natural coating that can serve your home for more than a dozen years.
