How To Repair Laminate Flooring

While it can be a great, durable choice for your room, sometimes you may need to repair laminate flooring. Accidents happen. Furniture gets moved and scratches the floor, cracks appear. That's life.

While preventing damage in the first place is always the ideal, if you are now way past that, you may need some help doing some repair work. We've got you covered.

How To Repair Laminate Flooring

Depending on the nature of the damage, it may be a simple enough fix using a repair kit. Alternatively, you may find that you need to replace an entire plank of laminate. If that's the case, you'll need to do a bit more work.

Repair Scratches and Cracks

Scratches and small cracks are relatively simple to repair, and you may feel confident doing this yourself. The first thing you'll need is a floor repair kit. Make sure it offers the right selection of colours to match the colour of your flooring. Then follow these steps:

• Start by thoroughly cleaning the floor, and ensure it is dry. Dirt may make any repairs less effective, and if it's gritty, it could scratch your flooring even more.
• Next, use a sharp chisel to round off the edges of any scratches.
• Warm up the heating tool in your repair kit, and press the tip against the hard wax to soften it. When the wax is soft, apply it to the scratch or crack to fill it.
• When you are happy with how the repair looks, use the smoothing tool to remove any excess wax and make the repair level with the rest of the floor.

Credit: FlooringInc.com

Replace a Damaged Plank

For more serious damage, you may need to contemplate replacing an entire plank of your laminate flooring. We'll tell you how you can do this yourself, but it is a trickier job, so if you aren't confident, you may want to consider finding a professional to do the job for you. But otherwise, here's what you need to do.

If the damage is to a plank in the middle of your room:

• Mark the edges of the board you need to remove using tape.
• Cut out the centre of the board. Then cut from the centre hole to the edge, and lift out the rest of the plank.
• Remove the tongue from the replacement plank of laminate.
• Apply wood glue around the edges of your new plank, on the underside.
• Place the plank into place, then use a hammer and tapping block to ensure it is securely fitted.
• Wipe away any excess glue.
• Place something onto the plank to weigh it down for a few hours until the glue is dried.

If the damage is to the edge of the floor:

• You'll need to remove any scotia or skirting board from the wall, so you can start lifting the flooring.
• Lift out the planks one-by-one, starting from the wall, and working your way towards the damaged plank.
• Next, remove the dmaged plank and replace it with the new one.
• Now replace the boards in reverse order, working your way back towards the wall.
• Refit the skirting board and the scotia.

Hopefully, your flooring now looks as good as new. But as we said earlier, if you don't feel confident in doing this, then do consider getting professional help.