subject: Ways Of Repairing Your Laminate Flooring [print this page] Laminate floors are very durable and hardwearing. This makes them ideal for areas of the house where there is a lot of activity or traffic. But this does not mean though that laminate flooring is indestructible. Laminate floors are also prone to scratching and gouging. Sometimes they lose their shine too from everyday wear and tear. There will come a time that you have to repair your laminate flooring or may be even replace a whole board. When then time comes here is what you should do:
Sometimes laminate flooring buckles or peaks with age. This is caused by an increase in the tension among the boards or around the wall when the floor expands due to the weather or due to the time and there is no room for it to spread out. To fix this, you need to reduce the tension. Take out the molding around the laminate with a hammer or a screwdriver. Keep the molding for replacement after making repairs. Remove the spaces that were put in place when the laminate flooring was installed as well. These spacers provide support between the first board and the wall. When you have removed the spacers, put smaller spacers in their place then press down on the buckle or peak. If the peak does not go down, let your laminate flooring expand naturally. Hammer the molding back into place. On the other hand, if there is a big gap between the boards, put more spacers at the wall.
Laminate flooring is fairly prone to scratches. To repair scratches on your laminate floor, arm yourself with a laminate floor repair kit, touch-up kit or filler kit. This can be purchased from trusted flooring store or hardware store. It is a smart idea to bring a piece of your laminate flooring when purchasing the repair kit so that you can match the colors. From there, it is all a matter of following the instructions on the repair kit label.
Sometimes a laminate floor board could get severely damaged that it needs to be replaced. In order to do this, you have to start by removing the molding near the damaged floorboard. You can use a screw driver to make it loose, but be careful when removing it. You do not want to damage the molding as you will be putting it back when you are finished. Once you have taken out the molding, remove the boards near the damaged one. Boards are interlocked with each other, so when you have removed one it is all a matter of moving and the rest. Remove the damaged board and slide new one into place. Click all the boards you removed back into place and then replace the molding using a hammer.
