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Can you take up a wooden floor without damaging it?

7 replies

ShamefulPlaceMarker · 20/12/2015 20:12

We need to replace a small section of engineered tongue & groove flooring.
Is it possible to do this without having to replace the whole lot?

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anythoughtswelcomed · 20/12/2015 20:19

I understand that wooden floors can be lifted without damaging but you have to start in the place where they can be lifted its like a jigsaw puzzle it sort of interlocks. We had to take some of ours up but we couldn't for a variety of reasons start where you would normally lift it so even though it wasn't screwed or glued down damaged it rather badly.

ShamefulPlaceMarker · 20/12/2015 20:39

Thanks anythought.
Ours is 't the click stuff, it's glued tongue & groove :/

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lalalonglegs · 20/12/2015 22:29

Is it glued to the next row or glued to the floor as well? We had nailed tongue and groove that had also been glued to the floor for the first couple of rows and those bits were impossible to lift cleanly.

ShamefulPlaceMarker · 21/12/2015 10:24

Not glued to floor. Just to each other.

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PigletJohn · 21/12/2015 15:00

if you mean it is a floating floor (not nailed down) it will be very hard to break the bond of the glue, which is usually said to be "stronger than the wood itself"

Usually for T&G you have to run a circular saw down the joint between the boards, which cuts through the tongue and if they are tightly butted, will reduce the boards' width by the thickness of the saw cut. There might be a special thin blade available but I have not seen one. On a traditional boarded floor it doesn't usually show.

Modern fancy T&G is often secret nailed and pretty sure to be damaged if taken up.

PigletJohn · 21/12/2015 15:06

p.s.

I see now that you just want to replace a section, so presumably it doesn't matter if you damage the bits you take out. So I would whiz round with a saw, and cut the tongue off where new meets old. I would use countersunk brass screws to hold down the old and new boards where they meet. If they move independently they will squeak. This is sometimes done round the edges of a room where you might need to access cables or pipes below.

ShamefulPlaceMarker · 21/12/2015 20:36

Hi piglet thank you :)

Yes, I was thinking that we could cut in to the board which needs replacing, and hopefully remove/prise from the t&g planks next to it.
We have a joiner coming round tomorrow so hopefully he will have some solutions :/

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