Lazy land lord Floor repair.

[Steven Maduro]

Ok finally I can do this post

I wanted to tackle it before but i ran into some issues with getting the floor together.

Ok so you have a floor that is relatively in good condition but there are a couple of boards that are damaged beyond repair

What could cause such a thing.
heavy machinery being dragged across the floor.
fire damage.
water damage.
chemical spill

If you don't have the time or the money to redo the entire floor but it is just a few boards that are out of whack there is a way to tackle this job without a lot of effort and time. you dont have to do the whole floor.

most people will tell you it is impossible to match stain
and this is true it is really really difficult
but there is a trick that you can do.

it is called monochromatic color effect ( i just made that name up but it works )

you will need a fine cutting tool like a multi-max
a brush or a rag and three or four colors of stain

you will use the multi-max tool to cut along the seams where the boards meet each other
cut down into the seam cutting loose the tongue of the adjacent boards

take your time. if you are cutting a length of board and stopping before the board is finished. then make sure you stagger your lines so that you get the staggered look floors are meant to have.

you will need to find wood that is of the same size..
I suggest you get plain wood because we are going to do some staining.

the problem is it is very hard to match stain.

but there is a way around it.
when you have the new wood remove the tongue of the new wood so that it will fit evenly and snugly into the empty slots. using flooring nails and a power nailer which is the best way to go. so you don't beat the wood with dents from missed hammer blows.

but if all you have is a hammer have at it but be careful.

ok now for the staining.

I recommend you get three cans of stain all of which should be close to your color of floor.
going a little darker but not lighter. if you use three colors lighter by a shade if you use four colors

carefully use a darker shade against the nearest board of the old floor
followed by your lightest shade followed by another darker shade followed by the middle shade. be sure to stay in the lines of the board and try not to go astray.

actually using a rag turn it but dont worry too much about keeping your colors too separated
the more contamination of stain from board to board the better it will give more illusion of uniformity in contrast this sounds contradictory to what I said about staying in the lines. it is actually two steps first you color each board with its own stain color but then you may have to use the lightest of the stains to sort of feather out your work.
be sure to wipe the stain lightly when feathering to bring out the natural gradation of color

depending on your floor you may have to sand some adjacent boards to keep the hues going out. from the repair so that it begins to look like an anomaly on your floor. skip a few boards then sand one board entirely and stain it with one of your new stains.

time taken about 30 minutes start to finish.

I wish I could take a picture and post it here. my results came out really. good.

avoid using just one stain and covering the whole area it looks terrible

Using multiple stains is really the way to go. the results came out very very good

doing it this way it looks like you have some boards that are slightly a different color and if you are clever and duplicate this to a few other boards in the room it will really look intentional.. you have saved yourself a lot of time and made a repair that looks darn good.

if you really want to make the whole floor sing praises

get a pole sander and use the dry wall screen
and pole sand the entire floor lightly.

sweep up all the dust. a few times and then spread a very thin coat of fast drying poly
the whole floor will look awesome..

the screening sanding will give the poly something to stick to.