Parquet board is a beautiful natural and reliable floor covering. But over time, it can also lose its original appearance under the influence of various environmental factors. And then you have to make some efforts to return the sex to its former attractiveness..
Causes of damage
All damage to a parquet board laid in a house or apartment is conventionally divided into:
- resulting from improper processing of the board in production or improper installation;
- arising from the operation of the parquet board.
To avoid the appearance of defects of the first type, you need to carefully choose the manufacturer, carefully inspect all the planks before laying and follow all instructions when installing the parquet floor..
Despite the fact that the service life of a parquet floor is about half a century, wooden planks lose their attractiveness much earlier and require restoration. Scratches, chips, cracks may appear on parquet boards. Some panels begin to exfoliate, dry out, and rot. Gaps can occur between parquet boards, which leads to the appearance of squeaking floors when walking, loosening and falling of the planks.
The main causes of damage to a parquet board include:
- mechanical defects – occur due to improper use of the floor covering (walking on parquet on sharp heels, moving heavy furniture, irregular cleaning, when accumulated sand and dirt begin to scratch the floor when walking on it, the absence of special devices to protect the legs of furniture);
- high humidity or dryness of the air in the room, as a result of which the parquet board begins to deform and dry out;
- water getting under the parquet board during various leaks or excessively damp cleaning. From this, the parquet board can begin to rot and turn black;
- the appearance in the wood of various insects, mold, which gradually destroy the coating from the inside;
- long service life. The natural result of this can be abrasion of the top layer, tarnishing of the parquet..
Therefore, in order to timely detect problems with the flooring, it is necessary to periodically inspect it and tap it to find voids. Perhaps it was in these places that the panels moved away from the base due to drying out, decay processes, and so on..
Depending on the type and cause of defects in the parquet floor, you may need different types of repairs: current, partial and major:
- current repairs are usually carried out every 3-5 years of the operation of the parquet board. If you constantly maintain the wooden flooring in proper condition according to the manufacturer’s recommendations, then the need for major repairs will disappear by itself;
- partial repair of the coating is carried out immediately after the detection of certain floor defects – chips, cracks, scratches, squeaks. To carry out such repairs, no specialist assistance is required;
- overhaul of the coating is resorted to in extreme cases, for example, after global leaks of the heating system and the like. In this case, you have to rearrange all the boards..
Repairs indiscriminately flooring
Repairs without analysis of the flooring are resorted to in cases where there are defects in the upper layer of the floor. Let’s consider each case separately.
Eliminate scratches
Scratching is the simplest problem and is fairly easy to fix, especially if only the top layer of the floor is damaged. In order to remove scratches from parquet, there are many special tools in the form of retouching crayons of various colors and thicknesses. Thinner pencils are for those occasions, when it is necessary to accurately draw the wood structure or mask a defect in a hard-to-reach place.
Sealing chips, dents
To remove chips and dents on the surface of the parquet flooring, there are various means. You can use a pre-melted hot melt putty for refurbishment work. It is poured into a previously cleaned chip, and then, after hardening, all excess is removed and sanded with fine sandpaper.
You can also use a mixture of sawdust and epoxy glue to restore the top layer of a parquet floor. The procedure for repairing defects is the same. After the restoration work, the wooden panel is covered with varnish or special mastic..
Sealing gaps between planks
Sometimes, when parquet boards dry up, noticeable gaps form between them. To seal such gaps, a composition based on wood glue is used. For its preparation, glue and water are heated, combined in a ratio of 2 to 15. Then add 5 parts of cement and 5 parts of sawdust. All components are thoroughly mixed and the gaps are filled with the resulting mixture. The excess is removed with a spatula. After 10 days, the composition is completely dry.
Top layer update
If the parquet has faded, and in many places the old varnish is worn, it is necessary to restore it. To renew the top layer of a wooden floor, you must first remove the remnants of the old varnish or mastic, and also partially remove the top layer of wood. For grinding and scraping the floor, special equipment is used. Before you start looping the floor, the whole parquet board must be securely fixed.
After the end of scraping, the gaps that appear are leveled with a putty and sanded again. Further, in order to finally restore the flooring, it must be varnished..
If you need to change the color of the floor, then matting additives are added to the varnish. The varnish is applied to the floor with a roller or brush in the direction of the wood pattern in 2-3 layers. Each layer must be thoroughly dried. After 4-5 days, the floor is ready for use.
Eliminate squeak
One of the disadvantages of a parquet floor is the appearance of squeaks that occur when moving. If the floor creaks, then there may be several reasons for this: either during installation, the individual strips were not sufficiently secured, or over time, the strips were deformed and do not fit tightly to the base and, when stepped on, they emit a corresponding sound.
To quickly repair a creaky floor, you must first locate the spot that responds to movement with a creak. The easiest way to eliminate the squeak is screw a screw into the parquet panel to a depth of no more than 5 cm. If the parquet is attached to the base with mastic, then it is necessary to use a building hairdryer and warm up the “squeaky” place. After that, the parquet plank should be pressed down with something heavy. After the floor has cooled down, the squeaks should disappear..
If the reason for the squeak is the peeling of the board, then in the area emitting a creak, several holes must be drilled, filled with glue and pressed down with a load..
If plywood serves as the basis for the parquet board, then the parquet panel must be attached to the base using a pneumatic gun. You can also drill a 45-degree hole between the parquet planks and insert a wooden dowel soaked in wood glue into it..
Capital restoration
If the parquet board is not regularly looked after, then in the end it will become unusable ahead of time, especially if the room is too hot or there are frequent temperature changes. In such conditions, wooden elements quickly dry out, deform and loosen..
If a small section of the floor has failed (loosened, one or more planks have cracked), then it can be restored with your own hands. To do this, you need to choose in the store parquet boards that are suitable in color, texture and size. Old planks are removed with a chisel. The remaining mastic or glue is also removed. With the help of putty, the base is leveled under the new planks. If one bar is to be replaced, then the comb is removed from it and the butt is cleaned with a plane. New planks are glued to glue or mastic.
When it is required to update several adjacent strips, a new section of the floor is first assembled separately, and then inserted into the place of the dismantled one. A load is placed on the newly glued planks and at the same time on the old parquet. The adhesive protruding along the edges of the new coating is immediately removed. When the planks are glued, the new section of the flooring is sanded and covered with varnish or mastic..
If a too large area of the flooring is damaged, then it is better not to do partial repairs, but immediately replace the entire parquet board.
A major restoration of the parquet flooring may also be necessary if it has deteriorated under the influence of moisture. This process is quite time consuming. Not dried wood panels lose their thermal insulation properties. As a result, the entire parquet deforms and becomes unpresentable..
To fix the situation, all panels need to be rearranged. And for this they must first be dismantled. Then remove the waterproofing film, detect defects, if necessary, dry the parquet planks and the base of the floor, and then re-install the floor covering.
Care advice
In order for the parquet flooring to serve for quite a long time, it must be regularly and properly looked after:
- You should not walk on parquet in high-heeled shoes. If the parquet is laid in the hallway, then it is better to lay a rug on it. So it will be protected from heels and from sand and dirt..
- If furniture on wheels is used in the room, then the latter should be made of soft rubber.
- Parquet is cleaned with a soft, slightly damp cloth or vacuum cleaner. Wet cleaning is best done with special parquet products. It is unacceptable to use other detergents (for example, solvents or dishwashing detergents) to clean the parquet..
- The lacquer layer of the parquet needs to be renewed regularly every five years. If the floors are covered with oil, then it is necessary to renew the coating at least once a year..
To give the parquet shine, rub it with mastic. The wood surface treated in this way becomes smooth and you only need to wipe it with a rag at least once a week. An alternative to mastic is wax. It enhances the water-repellent properties of the floor. Apply wax enough every six months.
For information on how to repair a parquet board, see the next video..
