We bought our laminate flooring from a proper flooring shop. He told us that if we had any movement underneath to drill a drill and squeeze gap filling adhesive in, and then fill the hole afterwards. This I have just done with apparent success. I shall endeavour to describe in detail as follows:
1) You will need to ensure that your weight is not on the area being filled, or at any time afterwards for about 24 hours. Obviously a non-giving board or batons would do.
2) To drill the holes, I used a 6mm, but think I could have got away with a 4 or 5mm drill. Drill at points of knots or imperfections in the wood grain.
3) The gap filling adhesive needs to be the good stuff like ‘Grip Fill’, it sets rock-hard, and it may be worth taking advice from an informed timber or builder yard. You will need a mastic gun. Obviously the nozzle needs to be cut so that the end is just smaller than the holes drilled. As a nice pad of filler needs to be injected, the bigger the better, just keep gently squeezing until it squeezes no more. Remember to release pressure on the gun, or it keeps oozing out. After filling all the holes, not too long, thoroughly wipe the excess filler off the floor surface with white spirit. Ensure that the filler is not above about 1mm from top of holes.
4) Allow some time to partially or fully set, then with ‘Pollyfilla’ or the like fill the holes up to about 1mm from the top.
5) (We enter my area of expertise) Arm yourself with a set of wood repair waxes, there are loads on the web. As it is a floor, I would prefer hard waxes, but with those you need an implement like a soldering iron(which is too hot) to melt the wax, and a scraper for the excess. The holes being small, soft wax will no doubt suffice. They are cheaper, more readily available, and easier to apply. There are wax kits for all the popular woods. All the waxes will blend, so if in choosing a colour not quite right, put another in with it. The two or three together will be OK. Darker and knotty wood is easy, the plain light woods like ash, beech etc. are harder.
6) Remember that you are applying the wax at a distance of about a foot, but the normal viewing distance will be five foot or more, so don’t try for perfection. You are trying to match the main light colour of the wood, any grain lines can be painted in with a stain-pen, or stain with an artists brush.
7) If you have any that look like a drill hole filled with wax, make a feature of it and try to make it into a knot or a flaw in the grain. Let your arty-farty instincts rip. Try to use stain rather than paint. Paint reflects light differently to the finish of the boards and tends to be more noticeable.
8) The above applies to any imperfections in furniture etc.
Stormy, July 2010
