How can I get my repairs to match better when I lace new flooring into the existing flooring? Even after resanding, sometimes the new part seems obvious.
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Blending In Repairs
How can I get my repairs to match better when I lace new flooring into the existing flooring? Even after resanding, sometimes the new part seems obvious.
Roy Reichow, founder of National Wood Floor Consultants Inc. in East Bethel, Minn., and NWFA Regional Instructor, answers:
I get calls for inspections all the time on wood floor repairs someone did, often after water damage. Typically what's happened is they added new flooring to replace the damaged wood flooring, but now it doesn't match the existing wood floor. Many times they'll tear the flooring out and leave a straight line where you can clearly see the old flooring butting up against the new flooring. Even if it isn't a straight line, sometimes the repair is just obvious due to the color of the new flooring.
A good way to prevent that objection is to tear out rows of the existing flooring that isn't damaged and then mix the new and the old boards together. When we do a job like this, typically we'll tear the floor back 18 inches from where the repair is and save that undamaged flooring. Then we re-install it and blend it together with the new flooring. In my area we'll get a lot of older floors that we call "caramel" maple, with darker red tones to it. Even when we get flooring that seems to match the color, the older flooring has a tighter grain to it that you just don't find today. When we do the repairs like this and resand the floor, though, the repair is undetectable.
Doing repairs this way is time-consuming, but in all the years I've been doing it, I've never had a complaint that the repair didn't match the old flooring.
Defining CSP
The other day, another contractor and I were talking about slabs and he mentioned the "CSP." I didn't want to let on, but I had no idea what that stands for. What is it?
Jon Namba, owner at Salt Lake City, Utah-based Namba Services Inc. and NWFA Regional Instructor, answers:
When you hear people talk about "CSP," that means "Concrete Surface Profile," and it comes from the ICRI, the International Concrete Repair Institute. The CSP provides a standard that defines the roughness of the concrete surface, with a "1" being the smoothest texture and a "10" being the highest. (You can find the standards at www.icri.org.)
For wood flooring professionals, we typically want a slab that is rated as "2: Grinding" or "3: Light Shotblast" by this standard; this is important when we are gluing down wood flooring or using floor patching compounds or self-levelers. If a slab is too slick, there is no porosity, so the adhesive (or compound, etc.) has nothing to bond onto. For example, the training area of the NWFA headquarters has a slab that had been power-troweled. We've experimented with trying to glue flooring to that slab, and we haven't found anything that will stick to it.
A shiny slab is a good indication that you'll have adhesion problems. To avoid issues, what most wood flooring contractors do is use a buffer and some 36-grit paper to roughen the slab. Just be sure to use dust containment and respirators as you abrade it, because otherwise you'll send silica, which is a carcinogen, airborne.
Also, if you place a few drops of water on the slab and the droplets don't absorb into the slab, this is another indication of a slab that has a low porosity that, again, could affect bond strength of adhesives and patching compounds.
Gapping & More Gapping
This spring I've been having more complaints than I ever have before about gapping in floors I've installed. What can I tell them?
Rusty Swindoll, technical services manager at the National Wood Flooring Association, answers:
With the extremely cold winter and very late spring many parts of the country had this year, we had many calls to our technical hotline about gaps. We tell them if the gaps come and go with the seasons, that is a normal part of having a wood floor.
The best time to talk about gaps is before the job is even installed. It's the responsibility of the salesperson or contractor to give customers a to-do list on how to maintain their floors; a big part of that is letting customers know it's their responsibility to maintain normal living conditions. Depending on where you live, this typically means using dehumidifiers in the summer and humidifiers in the winter. Explain what a hygrometer is and why it's so important; some contractors give customers a hygrometer as part of the job.
Remember, you are the professional. Some contractors think once they're done installing, that's it, but you're not done till you tell people what to do with the floor. You know those directions that come in the box? Don't just throw them away or use them to pick up trash-give them to your customer! It's much easier to educate people ahead of time about issues like gapping and maintaining acceptable temperature and humidity in the home than it is to explain things after the fact, when your customer is already concerned.