Floor Restoration

Solid Hardwood:

Solid hardwood flooring is 100 % natural wood. Usually, it will be an original feature in a home, making people think that it is impervious to damage. However, if exposed to continual moisture, then damage can occur quickly and be difficult to repair.

The woods usually found in hardwood flooring are ash, cherry, maple or oak. If properly looked after, it can provide a great selling point for your home, as solid hardwood floors’ beauty and strength make them highly desirable.

Engineered Wood:

Engineered wood has a hardwood top layer that sits on thicker layers of plywood. This means that whilst what you see is real wood, 95% of the overall flooring is plywood. This type of wood can only be sanded down and refinished a couple of times in its lifetime.

The care for both solid hardwood and engineered wood is pretty similar. However, the ability to repair and restore is limited on engineered wood. This article will mainly concentrate on solid hardwood. With the proper care, your hardwood floors should last you for many years.

Caring for Your Hardwood Floor

Regular sweeping will protect your floor as even small amounts of dirt and debris can cause scratches to the surface of your hardwood floor.

Should any spillages occur, make sure you clean them up immediately, as moisture that gets into the wood fibres can cause damage. Also, removing stains will be a lot harder to clean once dry. Once the spillage has been cleaned up, make sure to dry the area with a soft cloth.

If you wish to vacuum your hardwood floors, make sure you use the correct attachment for the floor. Carpet bristles can be very rough and cause scratches.

Do not be tempted to mop your hardwood floor. If the wood fibres become saturated, the floorboards can swell and warp which will permanently damage your floor. Instead, opt for a lightly dampened rag and dry the floors with a towel immediately. Only use lukewarm water, never hot.

Be very careful about the types of cleaners you use on your hardwood floors. Even some that claim to be safe for hardwood floors may cause damage when repeatedly used by stripping the finish off the flooring.

Our experts at Major Oak Polishing will be able to advise you on the best types of cleaners specifically for your flooring. As a general rule of thumb, avoid cleaning products that contain vinegar or ammonia. It is also best to avoid oil soaps as these will build up over time and create a dull finish that is difficult to restore without professional help.

How to Prevent Damage to Hardwood Floors

As discussed above, hardwood floors do not like moisture, so as well as mopping up spills and not wet mopping, remember to close windows when it rains.

Don’t wear shoes of any kind on your hardwood floor. High heels will cause dents and scratches. Trainers and flat shoes can track in mud and muck that can cause scuffs and dings to your floor.

You could also use a doormat for cleaning shoes before entering the home to help prevent unwanted dirt from being tracked in and as a gentle reminder to remove shoes before entering the house.

Pets’ claws are another enemy of the hardwood floor. It is a good idea to keep claws clipped short and filed smoothly where possible.

Furniture should have felt pads attached to the bottom of the legs to prevent scratches when moved. Whenever possible, it is better to lift furniture to move it rather than dragging it across the floor.

Never leave hardwood floors untreated, as this will cause a lot more damage to the wood. Small scuffs and scrapes can be easily covered with a little touch-up, but larger high-traffic areas will need to be properly and professionally sanded and treated. Strategically placed rugs in high-traffic areas can help to prolong the life of your hardwood floor.

Maintenance and Repair

It is a good idea to have your hardwood floors regularly maintained by a professional team such as ours at Major Oak Polishing. Floor restoration, which includes a light sanding and refinishing of floors every 5 – 7 years, is ideal.

If your floors have a protective layer of wax, this should ideally be stripped and replaced annually.

Should your hardwood floors have any scratches, scuffs or dents that require further repair, our specialist service repair team will be able to advise you on the best course of action and restore your flooring to its former glory.

Properly maintained hardwood floors give your home a warm and elegant feel; keep them looking good with the help of our professional team of experts.

Parquet flooring is made up of wood pieces used for a decorative effect, often in geometrical patterns. Parquet flooring is fairly expensive to install, so if you are lucky enough to have it already in your home, even if it looks a little tired, you may want to restore it to its original glory.

Imagine the delight of taking up an old carpet in your new home, only to discover there is this decorative parquet flooring underneath. But pieces are missing or broken, and it looks dull and lacklustre. It is possible to repair and restore your parquet flooring, and this guide will give you some helpful tips.

Firstly Check for Missing or Broken Blocks

Check the entire floor for any movement when you are walking, that hollow sound when you knock on it, or any obvious missing or broken blocks. You will want to make sure that the entire floor is still firmly attached to the underfloor before starting any restoration.

Most original English parquet floors are locked together with small tongue and groove systems, so you will need to be careful when removing any loose or damaged blocks so that you don’t disturb the connecting boards.

If you are lucky, you may find that you have the extra blocks to fill in any gaps in your parquet flooring already in your house. In another room that has the parquet that you do not intend to restore, for example, or inside cupboards, parquet was often installed inside of cupboards too. Otherwise, you may need to go to a reclamation yard to find matching blocks or ask an expert to help you source some.

Cleaning a Parquet Floor

You will want to vacuum to get the excess dust and debris up first using a soft-bristled brush attachment. Then you should mop the floor to clean it with a solution of wood washing detergent and water. Make sure you ring the mop out as much as possible to avoid over-soaking the wood. Use a scrubber to remove any stubborn marks, then mop with clean, warm water to remove any soap residue, again ensuring that you ring the mop out well.

If your floor is excessively dirty when you begin cleaning, mop with the detergent solution and leave for five minutes before rinsing. Then immediately repeat the wash and rinse process.

Should your parquet flooring have any dark sticky patches, it is likely that too much wax was used at some point. You should remove these patches with mineral spirits and a cleaning rag before starting the cleaning process. See the following website for more tips on cleaning and maintaining your parquet flooring. https://homeguides.sfgate.com/restore-parquet-27729.html

Old parquet flooring was usually fixed down with Bitumen, a black tar adhesive that is no longer allowed to be used inside houses. You should try to remove any residue of the bitumen. It is a laborious job which will require chiselling, scraping and sanding (although sanding will require a lot of paper). You can also remove it by dipping boards in an odourless kerosene, but be sure to wear protective gloves, goggles and a mask. Putting the blocks in the freezer before chiselling will make the job easier as the bitumen will become brittle.

Make sure to clear any old ridges of bitumen, as any residue will affect the bonding time of a modern adhesive. Ordinarily, bonding time is between 6-8 hours, but if the old residue is not removed, your time could increase to 14 or even over 72 hours.

Level the Underfloor

When you have removed some blocks, remaining bitumen, or any damaged concrete, you may find your underfloor is rather uneven. It is advisable to use a maximum of 3mm per coat of acrylic levelling compound to level the floor. Follow instructions carefully when using this, and ensure the compound is completely dry before installing the replacement wood blocks.

Uneven sheet material could possibly be levelled out with a hand sander or by nailing or stapling thin sheets of hardboard, smooth side down.

Re-Laying Missing Boards

Try to re-lay in the pattern as precisely as possible based on the existing pattern of the floor. You should take your time to ensure this is right. If small gaps appear, this is nothing to worry about; they can be filled afterwards. Modern parquet floors have tiny gaps due to seasonal changes in air humidity, which makes the blocks expand and contract very slightly.

Using a notched troll, spread the parquet adhesive to the underfloor. The ridges created will allow you to firmly fix the blocks in place. For smaller areas, you can use a trowel knife. The ridges spread out under the block and give even coverage.

If you spill any adhesive on the surface of the blocks, use a clean cloth to wipe it off. It is a lot harder to remove once dry.

You may need to cut the blocks to the correct size using a jigsaw. If it is necessary to remove the tongue on the block, do not worry; the modern adhesive will keep the blocks in place.

Sanding the Parquet Floor

Once the adhesive is dry, you should sand the entire floor unless both your original floor and the blocks you have sourced have a decent finish already. In this case, you can skip this step and just maintain your flooring.

Make sure the flooring has been cleaned as per the above, including new boards, before sanding.

It is best to use a belt sander to sand the floor as this won’t leave scatter marks as a drum-sander can. You will need a smaller edge-sander to reach the edges and corners of the floor.

You may notice a difference in height between old and new blocks. Start with grit 40 sandpaper to even out. Try to sand with the grain. Some patterns, such as herringbones, will make this quite tricky, but you will be making various sanding rounds which should sort this.

You should start in one corner of the room and walk the belt-sander across to the other wall, then walk back over the same area. Repeat with the next row overlapping the first row. Once you have finished the last row, turn 90 degrees and repeat the process over the entire floor again.

Using grit 40 paper on the edge-sander, you can now sand the areas that the belt-sander couldn’t reach. You may see circular sanding marks on overlapping areas as the edge-sander uses a circular motion as opposed to the straight motion of the belt sander. Following sanding rounds will clear most marks away, don’t be tempted to try to sand them with the edge sander, as this will only make it worse.

Vacuum clean the whole floor and repeat the process with grit 80. As you will need the dust of the grit 80, clean dust, for mixing with the wood-filler later, make sure you empty the sand-dust collecting bag before starting. Once you have completed two rounds with the grit 80, vacuum clean the entire floor again.

Filling in Gaps

Mix some of the sand dust from the grit 80 sanding round with the special wood-filler, small amounts at a time. Larger gaps may be filled with a scraper. Any excess filler will be removed by the final sanding round. You will need to leave the filler to dry out before the last souring round, between 30 and 60 minutes, depending on how deep the gaps are.

Using sanding paper grit 120 will remove any excess wood filler and give your wood floor a smooth surface. Use the same pattern as you did for the first two rounds.

Finishing the Parquet Floor

The best way to show off your newly restored parquet flooring is to use oils. The oils bring out the wood’s natural character without a glossy finish. Oils penetrate the wood for long-term protection, and a wax layer will protect your floor against general wear and tear.

If you prefer to varnish or lacquer the floor, you will need to sand again with grit 150 to prepare the wood.

Make sure you use a finish that is suitable for your flooring. If you are unsure, ask an expert for advice.

If you notice some patches that appear duller or shinier than the rest of the floor, this could mean that the blocks have absorbed the oil differently from the neighbouring blocks. Buff the area lightly; if this doesn’t help, wait a few days to see if it evens out. Should it still not look even, you can apply some power wax or wax polish on the areas to feed it.

You may put most of your furniture back in the room after the second coat has dried (8 hours), but wait ten days for the hard wax oil to cure completely before laying any rugs.