Repair of wooden floors in the apartment with your own hands, price

The wooden floor of the boards is a reliable coating, well suited for the apartment. It serves for a long time, but there are some nuances: the tree is hygroscopic and moisture acts on it. In the summer, at high temperature and humidity, the boards swell, and in the winter they dry out. In this case, cracks appear between the floorboards. Over time, old wood can begin to rot and lose its properties. Under the weight of the furniture, scratches and dents appear on the surface, and the paint lags behind. And finally, there comes a time when the repair of wooden floors is required.

Depending on the life of the wooden floor, certain restoration methods are required:

• coverage update;
• ordinary repair with the appearance of cracks, deflection of the boards and creak;
• major repairs when the floor is rotten, when it is no longer possible to use it;
• complete replacement of the flooring using modern finishing methods.

Checking the quality of the floor

When you repair a wooden floor with your own hands, you should correctly assess what condition it is in. To check your floor, you should remove the finish coat (linoleum, laminate, etc.) from it and get to the boards.

• The quality of wood is determined by tapping it with a mallet. A muffled sound means that the board is rotten.
• Suspicious surfaces are checked with an awl. If it fits 10 mm freely, the board should be replaced.
• Rust on nails indicates increased humidity in the room.

The cost and amount of work depend on how damaged the wooden surface is.

Wooden floorboards stacked on lagsthat rely on a reinforced concrete base. To repair a wooden floor with a complete replacement, it is advisable to make a "floating" floor, representing a concrete screed lying on a layer of heat and sound insulating material and in contact only with him. The price of such a base is high, but worth it.

Looping

The flooring in the apartment is used when there are spots, dents, scratches, a thick layer of paint on the surfaces. The manual method of hinging a wooden floor in an apartment with your own hands is too laborious. Currently used grinding machines, working on the principle of friction of the emery cloth on the plane.

Before hitching, all nails should be recessed 3-5 mm in order not to damage the abrasive material.

• First of all, with a spatula, old paint is heated with a building hairdryer.
• The next step is polishing: first, along the floorboards, and then across.
• Before coating the wooden coating with varnish, it is sanded with fine sandpaper. After they close up all the irregularities with putty for the tree and make another pass.

It is recommended to apply the varnish in three layers, with the final drying of each.

Partial replacement of floorboards

It is possible to repair a wooden coating by replacing individual boards in damaged areas. This is done as follows:

• On hammered nails is the location of the log. A fragment of a rotten floorboard is cut out above its middle.
• A new board is laid with size adjustment and antiseptic treatment on all surfaces except the ends.

The self-tapping screws fastening the boards are easy to remove. It is enough to turn them out with a screwdriver. The nails are first slightly pulled out with pliers, and then pulled out with a nail clipper.

• Similarly, all sections of the wooden floor with rotten floorboards change.

An important rule should be observed: the board must lie on at least three lags.

The most difficult thing is to replace the grooved board without breaking the lock. Certain skills are needed here.

Sealing cracks

Between the boards, cracks form over time. This happens for the following reasons:

• deformation from changes in humidity;
• wrong styling technology;
• drying boards.

The appearance of gaps makes the floor look unattractive. In addition, air cooling the room enters through them.

• Spread seams in most cases are sealed with wood putty. It can be purchased at the store. In dry rooms, adhesive putty is used, and in wet rooms it is oily. You can add stain or color to it. Before applying, the floor is cleaned from varnish or paint with a metal brush. After filling the gap, the surface is leveled with a rubber spatula.
• When there are many slots, and their width is large, the boards are shifted. Another option is to cover the floor with plywood, fiberboard, particleboard or OSV. It is covered with sheets only in dry rooms, since ventilation decreases and the wood begins to rot.
• Wide slots need to be hammered to the stop with wedge-shaped wooden glazing beads using PVA glue. The protrusions are leveled with a grinder or a plane. The finished coating is covered with several layers of varnish or paint.

Squeak removal

The device of the wooden floor over time leads to drying out and changing the shape of the boards. As a result, the floorboards begin to creak. Causes of floor creaking:

• gaps form between boards and lags;
• the ends of the floorboards abut against the walls;
• weakened fasteners;
• friction between the side surfaces of the boards.

A creaky floor usually requires major repairs. This is not always possible. Often the owners make redecoration of the wooden floor in the apartment so as not to open it. This can be considered a temporary measure, since no lasting effect can be expected here.

If there is a subfloor in your house, the creaking floor can be repaired by inserting wedges between the floorboards and the logs below. In the apartment there is no access to the floor from below, so the following methods are used.

• The floorboards are fixed with self-tapping screws installed counterclockwise at an angle of 45–600 to the surface of the board, which should be pulled to the lags.
• Between the floorboards, talcum powder or graphite powder is poured.
• The space under the boards is blown with foam.
• The floor is covered with 12 mm thick plywood sheets.
• On creaking floorboards, nails are replaced with self-tapping screws. Such an event often eliminates problems with a creak.

Overhaul

Capital lag floor repair done with replacement floorboards. In this case, the old wooden floor is completely disposed of. This requires the opening and dismantling of all boards. Logs are also checked and aligned, and rotten ones are replaced. It is advisable to replace them completely.

• Concrete flooring is cleaned of debris, defects should be repaired. In houses with wooden floors, they also need to be repaired.
• On the ground floor it is necessary to lay insulation, and sound insulation is needed everywhere.

It is necessary to take the board grooved and well-dried, otherwise in a year cracks will appear in the floor.

• All accessible places should be treated with an antiseptic. Old boards are not recommended, since the fungus can switch from them to new ones.
• The heads of the self-tapping screws are embedded in the wood, after which they are putty and the floor surface in these places is ground.

Overhaul is more complicated than cosmetic. You can familiarize yourself with the process in detail by watching the video at the end of the article.

Floor painting

Only completely repaired and cleaned floors should be painted. Surfaces without paint and plastered areas are covered with drying oil, after which the floor dries for at least 2 days.

• First paint the floor skirting. Acrylic, oil and alkyd paints are suitable for MDF and wood skirting, and only acrylic for plastic. In this case, a small brush is used.
• A carefully prepared surface allows you to get an even coating.
• Paint should be applied in at least two layers, allowing each to dry.
• Varnishing makes the surface glossy.

Cost of work

The price of repairing a wooden floor depends on its condition and the required work:

• dismantling the old wooden coating in Moscow and St. Petersburg will cost about 100 rubles. per 1 m2;
• dismantling lag - 100 rubles. per 1 m2;
• lag device - 110-200 rubles. per 1 m2;
• the device of rough wooden floors - about 200 rubles. per 1 m2 in St. Petersburg and 280 rubles. per 1 m2 in Moscow;
• laying plywood on a wooden base - 100-200 rubles. per 1 m2;
• laying a board (array) - from 600 rubles. per 1 m2.

Conclusion

With a correct assessment of the condition of the coating, you can independently decide how to repair a wooden floor without significant costs. A well-repaired floor will last a long time. If funds for major repairs are not enough, you can make cosmetic.