We've got a gap in the floor in our hallway, and we thought we'd loosen the shoe moulding and try to slide the flooring back together. (see attached picture) We can't get the flooring to budge. If someone glued it down, is there any way to tell and any way we can loosen it if it's glued down?
If that's not possible, are there any options for filling in that gap?
You will need to remove the baseboard too. On both sides I bet. Then they will slide together. Before you slide them back together, put some wood glue on the end of each tongue so that this never happens again.
XSleeper, How hard is it to remove the baseboards? Will it destroy them, or will we be able to reuse them? This might be above our pay grade. Anyone know of any options for filling in this gap that won't look tacky?
You need to be more worried about damaging the wall than the baseboard, by being careful where you pry. (Protect the wall with a wide putty knife and only pry between the base and the putty knife, not directly on the drywall. Only pry where the nails in the studs are... not between studs or you will punch a hole in the drywall.) I can't help if you don't think you're capable of doing it. And I'm not even going to reply to the filler question, that's absurd.
If it's too involved, call a handyman. It will require renailing the baseboard, caulking, touching up paint.
If you don't mind a couple holes in the flooring you might be able to temporarily fasten a block of wood to the flooring, then tap the wood with a hammer to bring those pieces together... if it works you would just have a small hole in each piece of wood flooring to fix. And that's doable.
Well, when I posted my filler question, I started to call my question idiotic, and then I remembered telling my students that the only dumb questions were the ones never asked.
fasten a block of wood to the flooring, then tap the wood with a hammer to bring those pieces together
You could try this with double stick tape or hot glue to avoid leaving holes in the flooring. If you press down on the block while striking it with a hammer on the side it will help keep the block from separating during the operation. If the flooring is not glued down (and it probably is not since it moved) light taps with the hammer should be able to get it back into place. You may have to move both pieces to avoid a gap at the shoe molding on one side. A little glue in the existing gap before moving the pieces should prevent this happening again.
I have engineered floor boards to replace my entire second floor rugs. I have done two rooms. Now I am starting on the hallway at the top of the stairs. I have removed the handrails and spindles to refinish them to match the floor board finish. The engineered floor boards are 11/16" thick which matches the bathroom ceramic tile thickness. The nosing at the top of the stairs is only 1/2" leaving a 3/16" difference. See Photo showing the nosing at the front, a piece of engineered flooring next to it, the subfloor plywood behind that and the rug/under pad cut about a foot behind that.
Initially I was planning to remove, refinish and put back the nosing raised by 3/16", to match the new flooring, but ran into a problem. The nosing piece runs about 22 feet in length, is curved, solid oak, about 1" thick and I expect fairly pricey to replace. It is glued to the framing lumber and subfloor and also attached with numerous finishing nails. Glue was allowed to run onto the subfloor on the rug side of the nosing piece which is going to make it difficult to properly fit the engineered floor boards to it, but I can deal with that by cutting the underside corners of the floor boards.
My problem is - how do I do this so that the nosing board is level with the floor boards? iI there some way of dissolving the glue without destroying the nosing piece? If it were just the finishing nails holding it in place, I think I could pry it up, but the glue complicates things.
Alternatively, would I be able to have a nosing cap custom made that would be 3/16" thick, curved to match the nosing now in place, 3.5" wide, and a facing edge to fully cover the current nosing piece?
Or, is there some solution I haven't even thought of yet?
[i]Natural finish is current nosing, brown board is engineered floor board, plywood is the light colored material, blue is under pad and grey is rug.[/i]
[img]https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.doityourselft.com-vbulletin/2000x1504/dsc00043_aa20a715dc2f7ec5aaeaae579eedae7949781aaf.jpg[/img]
I've seen posts saying you can install engineered wood over tile. I'm presuming you have to use glue. If so, do you need to weigh down the planks after to ensure a good adhesion?
or can you use an adhesive similar to tile adhesive?
08-15-21, 06:16 PM
