Among all flooring materials, parquet flooring has earned special respect from consumers. They are valued for their natural and attractive appearance, reliability and durability.
However, even with the most careful attitude and proper care, there comes a time when the old parquet needs to be completely changed or repaired. To perform these works, you can attract specialists, or you can save money and do all the work yourself.
How to independently dismantle the old coating and whether it is possible to return it to its original appearance, we will consider in this article.
Determine the scope of work
Depending on the nature and degree of damage to the old coating, the extent of the repair is determined. If the old parquet is heavily worn, the boards have a large number of cracks, blackouts and chips, it must be completely dismantled.
If the defects appeared only onsome elements of the coating, the strips can be carefully removed and replaced with new ones.
If the boards are quite well preserved, but have ugly scratches, chips, and the floors themselves began to creak unpleasantly, then you can do without dismantling. In this case, it is enough to restore the parquet and make minor repairs.
Situations also often arise when the coating has not yet lost its presentability, but the owners of the premises decided to change the situation and change the flooring. In this case, you can very carefully remove expensive material and put the old parquet in another room.
How to do the job correctly in each of the above cases, we will tell further.
Preparing for parquet removal
Before dismantling, the room should be cleared of furniture. Do not forget about your own safety. It is necessary to prepare thick clothing, protective gloves and a headgear in advance. If there is wiring in the area of \u200b\u200bthe baseboards, the room must be de-energized.
In the course of work, you will need the following tools:
• hammer;
• Hatchet;
• chisel;
• circular saw;
• crowbar.
The degree of complexity of this process will depend on the type of parquet (rack, piece, panel) and the method of its fastening at the base (using nails or glue).
Complete dismantling of piece parquet
If the old parquet is presented in the form of piece planks that are attached to the base with glue, carefully removeit won't work. In such cases, the boards split and become completely unusable. Modular and plank decks are much easier to remove.
The process of strip parquet dismantling includes the following steps:
1. With the help of a crowbar, all skirting boards are dismantled.
2. The coating is tapped with a hammer, and from those places where the sound from the blow is more deaf, they begin to disassemble the parquet.
3. If the dies are fastened with nails, the work is done with a nail puller, and if the slats are fixed with glue, an ax and a crowbar are involved in the work.
4. Tightly glued elements can be removed using a puncher with a flat nozzle. In this case, it is necessary to protect your eyes from falling chips by wearing protective goggles.
Removal of parquet boards and modular flooring
Laying parquet boards is very similar to installing laminate flooring. The elements are attached using special locks, so all you need to do to dismantle them is to carefully click out the mounting grooves.
In this case, the coating is not damaged in any way, so it is quite possible to reuse it. For example, in rooms where old parquet can be laid.
Dismantling the modular deck is also easy. It is only important to determine on which side the elements with an open comb are located. Since the laying of such a coating always starts from the window, it is more logical to start dismantling from the opposite wall.
The corner module is lifted with a crowbar and detached from the base. If when layingnails were used - they are pre-removed.
Many are interested in the question: how to remove the old parquet if it is fixed with resin? In this case, the back side of the module must be carefully cleaned of glue with a hatchet.
How to make a partial parquet repair
During the operation of such a coating, the planks may dry out and lag behind the base.
In such situations, you can do without a complete replacement of the flooring by repairing the old parquet.
To do this, do the following:
1. The old varnish must be completely removed to reveal all loose elements.
2. Strongly dried dies, between which the distance is more than 5 mm, are removed and replaced with new ones. To dismantle unnecessary elements, they are split into chips with a chisel.
3. To install a new die in an empty place, a protruding spike is cut off from it. The base is covered with glue, after which (at an angle) a new element is laid so that its groove is put on the spike of the adjacent plank.
4. If the gaps are small, glue is poured under the board. This area is pressed down with a heavy load and left overnight.
5. Reclaimed flooring being sanded and varnished.
Color restoration
Under the influence of external factors, natural wood coating gradually loses its attractiveness, begins to fade and darken. However, this phenomenon can be easily eliminated, it is enough just to restore the old parquet a little. The cover thatdoes not have major mechanical damage, is easy to repair and does not require large expenses for its implementation.
To do this, do the following:
1. With the help of grinding or sanding equipment, the varnish is removed.
2. The surface is cleaned of dust, small gaps and cracks are puttied.
3. If the owners have a desire to change the shade of the coating, at this stage the floor is covered with a stain of the desired color.
4. Using sandpaper with a fine grain, the flooring is re-sanded. This is necessary to eliminate chips and blackouts.
5. The even surface is cleaned and treated with 1 coat of primer. After that, the floor is re-sanded with zero sandpaper and varnished again. This treatment can be repeated up to 9 times until the surface is perfectly smooth.
6. After applying the final layer of varnish, the floor is left to dry (for 3 days). The room should be free from drafts, high humidity, and sudden changes in temperature.
Scratch Repair
Scratches are the most common defect in parquet floors. If they are not very deep, they can be easily removed with a parquet repair kit or special wax pencils. But what to do if the old parquet is covered with deep and numerous scratches? In this case, you will not have to lay a new coating, but it will take time and effort to repair the damaged one.
To remove deepdefects, the parquet must be completely cleaned of varnish and the damaged layer removed using a sanding machine. This cannot be done at once, so you need to be prepared for several treatments.
Next, the room is thoroughly cleaned of dust, and the floors are varnished several times (as described above).
What to do if the floor began to creak a lot
Old parquet flooring can start to creak for several reasons:
• if there are voids under the planks;
• if the expansion wedges are sagging;
• if the slats are loose.
To find out the reason, the skirting boards are removed first and the wedges are examined. They can dry out, as a result of which they will cease to perform their functions. New wedges are installed in their place and the sounds of the floor are observed for a week. If the squeaks haven't disappeared, it's something else.
If certain elements creak, this indicates that a void has formed under them. Then a hole is drilled in the center of the plank, through which glue is poured under the plank (until it stops being absorbed). This area is pressed down with something heavy and dries for 3 days. When the mixture has completely hardened, the hole is completely filled with putty.
If creaking is observed throughout the flooring, the above methods will not help. This defect is eliminated by completely re-laying the parquet.
As can be seen from all that has been said, during operation, parquet flooring gradually loses its original qualities. However, they are veryare highly repairable, so any acquired flaw can be removed and continue to enjoy the beauty of the natural coating.
