Hardwood floor repair

[Gerry Lopez]

Need help.

Repairing flooring, new flooring is just a bit wider than existing floor. Did not catch this until laying a few rows. Have not nailed, yet. The difference is effecting the fit.

To fix this problem should I just rip the new flooring to fit or create an inlay area to make repair.

Thanks.

G.L.

[Paul Atkins]

I hate when that happens. I would run a sample through the jointer and see if the t&g fit. You don't want to remake the stuff.

[Steve Clardy]

Rip the new boards to width on the groove side, then set your tablesaw blade height up to the correct depth and recut the groove depth. Set fence to correct setting, then reset the fence again to get that 1/4" width groove.

[Gerry Lopez]

Thanks for your suggestions. The T&G fit find, did not look at the width of very close when I bought new flooring.

Steve, I was thinking I could something along does lines.

G.L.

[Doug Carpenter]

Did you give the new wood you bought time to acclimate to your house? It may have been sitting somewhere really damp. That would cause it to swell in comparison to your existing floor. My flooring contractor always delivers the wood to the room it will be installed in a week or two before in advance.

Just a thought,

Doug

[Bob Lloyd]

+1 on what Doug suggested, definitely acclimatise the flooring. If you do have to rip such a small amount off of the groove side, you may not have to also deepen the groove, it will probably be deep enough. Also, be aware that the total width of the material below the tongue and groove is not as wide as that above so you may want to make the rip with a slight bevel.

[Gerry Lopez]

Bob & Doug,

Yes, the wood was acclimated for two weeks before laying it down. Did not check with moisture meter, could have been worth the while, to eliminate the moisture issue. At this point it has been over a month since having the flooring in the room.

The difference is so small it is ridiculous that it does not fit. The other issue could be that I have not nailed the flooring, was just fitting the flooring. I will be renting a nailer to do the job. Considering buying one since my pace is real slow. It's a shame work gets in the way of things!

Thank you for your suggestions.

G.L.

[Wayne Cannon]

I experienced the same thing last year when patching and lacing-in a fairly large amount of flooring. At the time, I suspected that the boards had been compressed from years of expansion and contraction with limited expansion room.

Fortunately, it's a lot easier to deal with a new board that is too wide than one that is too narrow. Narrow length-wise gaps along board edges will almost disappear when sanded and filled, but that doesn't look like it will help in your situation where you have an end-to-end mismatch.

As Bob Lloyd mentioned, the board is narrower below the groove so that sawdust or irregularities don't interfere with the top-side fit. If I recall, the gap is on the tongue side, so you should be able to simply rip the groove side to the desired width and then re-rout the groove if it's no longer deep enough. You can groove with the table saw or a generic "grooving" router bit, but it you have much to do, a bearing-guided flooring-specific groove-cutting bit makes everything easy (though they run about $50).

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The following links for router bits show the profiles we're talking about:

2nd & 5th entries: http://www.amanatool.com/bits-fv/45663.html

http://www.toolstoday.com/p-6117-flo...-material.aspx
http://www.toolstoday.com/p-5786-flo...-bearings.aspx

[Josiah Bartlett]

It would be far easier to just shorten the tongue a little then it would to have to deepen the groove.

[Doug Carpenter]

Just checking. I know if it were my house it would have sit for a year before I get to it!

Although usually when I have money I don't have time and when I have time....I got no money!

[Wayne Cannon]

Good point. Shortening the tongue would certainly be easy for that that one specific modification.

Re-routing the grooves was easier for me because I kept a router set up during my patching project for a number of other grooving tasks, as well -- cut ends, splines, tapered planks, around heat registers, etc.

BTW, on a totally separate note, a tip I received was to use a stack of a couple of powerful one-inch rare-earth magnets to locate hidden flooring nails and staples. They work great -- sucking in to the nail's location from a couple of inches away. They'll even detect nails in the subfloor with good precision.