Old Floor Repair

[Rob Gray]

I am in the process of uncovering and refinishing a wide plank pine floor as I noted in an earlier post. The floor is original to the house from 1820. I have found that a few of the floor boards had pieces right near the tongue and groove edge between boards that got broken off by the sander. Essentially these are long, thin pieces in a few places that were already cracked and they broke off when the sander hit them. One of them broke off clean, and I think I can just nail it back in with small nails and polyurethane over it and it would look fine. The other is a thin piece (about a 1/4 to a 1/2 inch wide) that broke into several pieces. The whole piece was about a foot and a half long.

Does anyone know of a good way to "patch" something like this? I was thinking that maybe people who repair floors a lot might know of a good source for "patch pieces", or do you just usually just find a piece of similar size to fill in the spot?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Rob NE PA

[William Brown]

I did one on a hardwood floor.

First, I found a similar piece of wood to use. Then I routed and chiseled out the hole until it was a rectangular shape; I also tried to undercut one side to help hold in the replacement. Then I carved the replacement to the appropriate shape, but thicker than the hole. I then epoxied in the replacement, let it set, and sanded the area to bring the replacement down to the height of the floor, and get the finish off the old floor. I then refinished, and it came out pretty well.

I would suggest you use epoxy > I am in the process of uncovering and refinishing a wide plank pine

[Daniel L. Belton]

I really don't know much about repairing your floor, but there is a good source for patch pieces that will probably come close to matching since this company goes in and removes floors from old buildings...