A floor is often used. It is logical that stains, scratches and cracks will appear. The repair is easy with exchangeable floor tiles. You just need to replace the broken one. With a floor covering you have to cut and replace. Wooden floors often involve superficial damage that is usually easy to repair. This article focuses on broken vinyl tiles, vinyl floor coverings, carpet and wooden floors.
Fix a hole in the carpet
If only the top of the carpet is damaged, you can remove it with nail scissors. Do cut regularly!
With a real hole, you can use careful measuring and cutting to invisible repair the carpet. With a set square you can make a straight cut around the hole. Place the new piece of carpet with double-sided cloth tape. Let the tape dry and brush up the stopper cloth and the rest of the carpet so that the transition is no longer noticeable. You can also make a circle with a circle cutter and stop the hole.
Broken vinyl tiles
Have spare tiles available so you can replace the damaged ones. Make sure that any pattern matches.
How do you work?
- Remove the damaged tile.
- Remove old adhesive residue from the floor.
- Apply glue to the back of the new tile with a trowel.
- Press the tile into place.
- Remove any excess glue.
If you don’t have a spare tile, take one that is under the cupboard, for example. You can place a new tile that looks like it or just the damaged tile on that spot.
Repairing vinyl floor coverings
How do you work?
- Stick a leftover carpet over the damage and cut through both layers of vinyl at the same time.
- Remove the damaged piece.
- Glue the stopper patch in place
Refurbishing wooden floors
First check the floor by cleaning it: vacuum, remove old floor wax and grease with floor cleaner or turpentine. Check if the floor is damaged. Scratches can be removed by sanding in the direction of the grain. Liquid wood can fill holes and deep dents. Then you will stain and finish. With varnish, use floor wax.
Remove stains
Cleaning wooden floors can be done with turpentine. Never use the wet mop as this can warp the wood. Therefore, clean up spilled liquids as soon as possible.
Water stains can be removed with oxalic acid after sanding down the old finish.
After the oxalic acid has dried, you can stain the wood again with the correct color. Do this thinly in several layers. Finally, wax the floor.
Refinish the wooden floor
In principle, sanding is only possible with real parquet floors. It is best to finish a worn or seriously damaged parquet floor completely. Do not sand down too much of the top layer, otherwise the floor will become more flexible and will crack. You should sand evenly with a parquet sander.
How do you work?
- Rent a parquet sander and an edge sander.
- Seal the doors hermetically with wide masking tape to prevent dust from entering the other rooms.
- Remove the baseboards along the walls.
- Drive protruding nails back into the wood.
- Open the windows and evacuate all residents of the house. Wear mouth and eye protection.
- Sand the edges and the difficult corners with the edge sander.
- Sand the floor with the parquet sander.
- Sand with a finer grade of sandpaper.
- Clean the floor.
- Stain the floor.
- Apply a second coat of stain with the paint roller.
- Let the stain dry and apply a top coat with polyurethane lacquer.