Most floors require some level of repair before they can be sanded and varnished. This may be as little as securing loose boards or as extensive as relaying whole areas . If you do not wish to undertake this work yourself we will happily estimate for any repairs necessary. If the floor is unavailable for inspection at the time of our initial visit then we will give you a rate per lineal metre for board repairs or alternatively call back when the floors are uncovered. The following repairs are commonly requested ;
Loose boards can generally be secured by screwing or nailing to the joist below . Often the board will need to be packed up level and re-positioned to line up correctly with adjacent floorboards. Occasionally we find that the joists below the loose boards have been channelled out to take pipes and cables making it difficult to secure the flooring properly. In such cases a Bridge repair is required to enable the gap in the joists to be spanned.
Patching of split or damaged floorboards can be done using new material in a matching width and thickness. The new patches are Tinted during subsequent coats of varnish to ensure a reasonable colour match with the original floorboards.
Filling is carried out using a two-component wood filler specially formulated to resist cracking and shrinking. It is used only to fill minor splits, knots, and saw cuts within the floorboard , not as a general gap filler. We do not recommend filling gaps between floorboards unless the gaps are in excess of ¼ inch (6mm) in which case Fillets are used.
Fillets are long wedge shaped pieces of timber designed to fill spaces of between ¼ - ½ inch (6-12mm).The fillets are hammered down between the boards and glued in position with adhesive before sanding and varnishing.
Hearth stones can be broken out and patched in with new timber if desired. However this is a particularly expensive procedure and very often un-necessary since furniture and rugs will often hide the hearth completely.
