Although artificial flooring is popular today, natural wood remains in fashion. It gives comfort and warmth, and also has excellent aesthetic characteristics. But wooden dies also have some disadvantages, they consist in the fact that from time to time they require major or minor repairs.
With a wooden floor, problems such as:
- deflection of boards;
- worn coating;
- creak;
- numerous painted layers.
What leads to the need for repairs?
The floors begin to creak with gaps, abrasion, poorly reinforced flooring or lag. But the elements bend because of the large distance between the lags and because the boards become too thin. Floors can be painted many times, because of this they lose their aesthetics.
How to get rid of a deflection?
Repair of the wooden floor in Khrushchev may be required when the boards are bent. To get rid of such a defect, it is necessary to dismantle the coating using improvised tools. Then you should study the state of the lag, for example, what is the width of the step, and what they rely on. The distance between the elements should not exceed 60 cm. If necessary, damaged logs are replaced, and the existing kit can be replaced with a new one.
As soon as you change the step width to the required, you can eliminate the defects. All lags are then installed in place, and then boards are laid on them. If you started a repair of a wooden floor in Khrushchev, then before dismantling the old boards, you must remove the skirting boards. After all the nails are removed, the elements may become unusable, they are changed in this case, as are some boards.
Expert Advice
You must determine the right amount of material, but this can be done only after the complete dismantling of the coating. Experts recommend an audit of the rough floor. Sometimes it happens that hydro- and heat-insulating materials require replacement. When choosing them, it is necessary to take into account the moisture content of the wood, which should not be more than 22.5%. Boards without stains from rotting, knots, traces of insects and curvature will last longer.
Material at this stage may require processing from rotting and burning. When laying the log on a brick or concrete base, it is necessary to prepare additional supports that you can install yourself. This is required on the ground floors, where there are no floor slabs.
Where to start repairs in a wooden house?
Repairing the floor in a house with wooden floors is more difficult to carry out. In addition to checking the upper floorboards, logs and the subfloor, you will have to check the integrity of the beams and embedded crowns. Inspect the elements from all sides. You need to do this in good light so as not to miss the rot.
When checking the underground, it is advisable to arm yourself with a good lighting device. Repair of old wooden floors is usually accompanied by work where it is customary to use a hammer. They tap the entire floor to find rotten boards. So you can detect hidden defects. The presence of rot will be accompanied by a dull sound. You can find out about this by seeing rusty nails. The scope of work will depend on the scale of the damage.
It is easier to replace the top floorboards. More complex work is those that involve replacing the subfloor boards. However, dealing with this will be easier than replacing the lag.
To repair old logs, you should dismantle the floor and remove the defective piece, after it is replaced with a new one. Do-it-yourself repair of a wooden floor can be accompanied by a search for defects that are not visible to the eye. To detect them, a knitting needle or an awl with a sharp end is used. The entire beam must be passed through piercing movements. So you can find rotten areas. Punctures are made as often as possible. If you find a damaged beam, you can replace it with a new one. To replace the beam, sometimes you have to lift the structure with a jack.
Replacing floorboards
When repairing the floor in a wooden house with your own hands, you may encounter different cases. If we are talking about an old apartment building, where wooden floors were preserved, then the device of such structures will differ from those found in private houses. In the latter, the logs are laid on the ground, while in the apartment the logs are located on concrete. Therefore, the repair will be different.
After the lags have been removed for replacement, the concrete base is cleaned and checked for cracks. If you are making a complete replacement of the floor, then after dismantling and cleaning, fill the cement screed. You can use a self-leveling solution. After this, the base is primed and the waterproofing is laid.
Top should be placed heat and sound insulating materials, then there are floor boards. Do-it-yourself repair of a wooden floor in Khrushchev may be accompanied by the need to replace several floorboards. When you find the damaged area, you will need to remove the rotten floorboard. According to its size, the workpiece is cut. It is treated with an antiseptic without affecting the ends. The fragment fits into the place of the old. It is impossible to process the ends with an antiseptic, otherwise, over time, the board will begin to rot.
Using self-tapping screws, the element is fixed in place and screwed to the lags. So you can replace the rotten floorboards. If there is a small area of rot on the board, you can use the following technique: cut out the defective area, using it as a template in order to cut a new element from wood. It is fixed to the lags, and the ends of the new section should reach the middle of the lag.
Floor Repair: Crack Sealing
Carrying out the repair of wooden floors in the apartment with your own hands, you can close the cracks between the floorboards. But before that, it is necessary to clean the coating. Excess furniture is removed from the room. To thoroughly clean the crevices, use a stiff bristle brush. In order not to miss anything after the inspection, all areas requiring repair must be identified.
At the next stage, you can prepare the composition for work. On sale there are special putties for wood. You can make one yourself by mixing PVA glue with sawdust. It should get the consistency of sour cream. When repairing wooden floors in an apartment using the described technology, in the next step you should process all the cracks, leaving them after that until they completely dry.
The surface is cleaned with a sandpaper. This method is only suitable for small cracks. Deep and wide potholes are eliminated differently. For them, it is necessary to prepare wooden bars, the length of which should correspond to the length of the slit. The element sits on glue with sawdust, and after the workpiece is driven into the slot with a sharp edge down. The excess must be removed with a planer and sanded. After the repair is completed, the floor is varnished or painted.
Squeak removal
Repair of wooden floors in an apartment may include eliminating squeak of floorboards. These defects are minor. Over time, the wooden floor begins to make extraneous sounds, the main reason is the weakening of the fasteners. If the house has a basement, this reason you can easily eliminate. Having calculated the creaking element, you must drive a wooden wedge into the gap between the beam and the board. You don’t need to be too zealous, because the board should not rise above the base.
If it is not possible to enter the underground, repairs should be carried out from above. For creaking floors, holes are drilled above the beams for this. Where are the screws that fit into the beams at a slight angle. The board can be fixed with nails.
Work with wood flooring
Repairing floors with wooden floors is carried out almost on the same principle as described above. If you planned to upgrade the design, you will need to select the option you want. If these are the ground floor floors, which are the basement ceiling, you should check the condition of the lag. They must withstand all braces.
Next are creaky floorboards that are attracted to the logs with self-tapping screws. Floors can be replaced partially or completely. In the first case, the elements are attracted to the lags with the necessary number of screws. If the room has parquet flooring, you will need to redo the boards.
Repair of a wooden floor in Khrushchev can be accompanied by work with packed bars instead of logs. They are checked for strong binding. Additional elements can be tightened with bolts or completely replaced dies. For a strong fastening, it is better to use ordinary dowels.
Cycling repair: preparing tools and materials
If you decide to carry out the repair using the loop method, then you should prepare tools and materials:
- looping machine;
- grinding machine;
- plastic wrap;
- mineral alcohol;
- screwdriver;
- abrasive sheet;
- varnish.
The grinding machine can be replaced by manual cycles. As for the sheets of abrasive, they must have different stiffness. To remove the varnish you will need mineral alcohol. If you plan to cycle the parquet, then the machine must be disk on one or three disks. But for wooden boards, drum-type equipment is suitable.
Step-by-step instructions and expert advice
Repair of a wooden floor in Khrushchev by the method of scraping should begin with the preparation of the premises. Carpets and furniture are removed from it. The interior door should be dismantled, and hang the opening with foil. If there are gaps between the floorboards, they are filled with filler like sawdust.
To remove old varnish, use a scraper and mineral alcohol. The floor is washed, after which it is left until drying for three days. Then it remains only to purchase a respirator and good headphones.
It is necessary to start the process with coarse-grained grinding disks, which will allow you to remove the remnants of the old coating and remove defects. Before starting the machine, tilt it and then lower it to the floor.
If you have to work with squiggly boards, then you need to cycle them in a different way. You should move diagonally. So the surface is processed several times, and then the procedure is repeated, but in the opposite direction.
Then use medium-grain sheets. After the looping of the frizzy boards is completed, the previous sheet changes to a medium-grain sheet. It is necessary to move along the boards. After processing the floor, it remains to recycle it near the walls. For this, a curb cycling apparatus is perfectly suitable. You need to start with sheets of medium grain, and you can finish the work with a thin disk.
Finally
Repairing a wooden floor is usually accompanied by the removal of old boards and dies. In the next step, you can check the lags. If their condition is satisfactory, they are removed to the side and the concrete pad is cleaned of debris.
Using a grinder, you can remove unevenness on concrete. One of the final stages will be laying the boards in the same place. If you want to replace them with laminate sheets, you should lay the coating of chipboard or plywood. But this will lead to an increase in floor height.