Fixing extreme wear in hardwood floor

[awldune]

Hello,

I wanted to get some ideas/advice on how to address an extremely worn spot in a hardwood floor. This is at my dad's house.

The flooring is salvaged heart pine and is probably 100+ years old. It was installed in its current home in 1985 and got super worn out from my dad's office chair, to where there are huge splinters and deep grooves where the harder rings in the pine are standing up. The boards are long (8'?) and about 3'' wide. Unknown board thickness, but presumably either 3/4 or 4/4. The biggest goal is just to get this smooth enough so it is no longer dangerous to feet.

The worn place is not huge, maybe 8x16 inches. The deepest wear might be 1/4''. It is pretty much in the middle of the floor.

Some ideas that occurred to me:

• Carefully cut out a section and insert replacement boards. We don't have any heart pine wood in stock, it might be difficult to find a good match. Also very tedious and difficult. I don't have a track saw but I have most other common tools at my disposal.
• Route out a 1/4'' deep rectangular mortise and inlay replacement wood. Seems easier than getting the whole tongue and groove board out, but I am not sure how well this will work and whether we would hit the nails.
• Pour epoxy to smooth things out. Not sure if we can control the flow of the epoxy so it doesn't all just run under the floor. I have not used epoxy before except to glue things together.
• Use epoxy paste. I'm not sure how durable this is and how ugly it would be.
• Put an office chair mat or other thin material over the worn section. Can't seem to sell my dad on this one.
• Just sand the worn section to where the splinters are not such an issue. Flap disk on an angle grinder maybe? Would leave an annoying depression to catch the chair casters.

Other ideas or advice?

Thanks,
Sam

 

[Mike Davis]

Inlay a design in honor or memory of your dad.

 

[awldune]

My dad is still with us, he built the house. TBH I am thinking more about, like, a piece of 1/4'' baltic birch. Looking for quick & dirty more than anything too artsy. But obviously a proper repair has its appeal too.

 

[Mike Davis]

The Japanese have a tradition of highlighting breakage and wear rather than trying to hide it.
That was my thought in doing an inlay design.
It could be a very simple design with only one or three pieces that have a nice shape instead of a plain rectangle.
A beautiful decoration instead of a hideous repair.

 

[bainin]

Get one of those hard plastic mats for him to roll around on while you figure it out

If the layer is reasonable level with the surrounding, I think I would try some light sanding/removal of anything completely loose and then filling with a hard epoxy.

b

 

[awldune]

I'll talk to my dad about inlay designs. Could be the way to go. A simple triangular pattern or maybe something Mondrian-like? But do you think I can route down to 1/4'' without hitting a nail? Or maybe we could get away with a little shallower. He says the floors were laid with old-school cut nails.

An epoxy pour seems possible and might not actually take more than 8oz or so, but I am not sure if it would all run down into the cracks instead of staying put. I could try to fill the cracks with medium CA glue before the pour? I haven't done poured epoxy and don't know much except you want to pop the bubbles with a torch.

 

[Cuprousworks]

I had similar issue with a house I rehabbed. Took a few boards from a closet as replacements and used scrap to fill in the closet.

 

[Berta]

If you’re going to try epoxy, get some inexpensive small brushes, mix a very small amount and brush on a thin coat and let dry one or two times before filling. That should seal it and solve the leaking problem.

 

[Martin Roper]

The Japanese have a tradition of highlighting breakage and wear rather than trying to hide it.

Wabi-sabi!

I think some well crafted Dutchmen would look great on a vintage floor.

 

[JNCarr]

If the same flooring runs into a closet, etc., steal a few pieces from there and replace with "current" pine.
You may also steal a few pieces from a distant corner or under a cabinet.
IMHO, as woodworkers, we should take pride in our craft, regardless of it being a "quick-fix" or not.

 

[Craptastic]

The Japanese have a tradition of highlighting breakage and wear rather than trying to hide it.
That was my thought in doing an inlay design.
It could be a very simple design with only one or three pieces that have a nice shape instead of a plain rectangle.
A beautiful decoration instead of a hideous repair.

I agree with Mike. Make it a point of honor instead of a point of wear.

As to routing it out you will want to use as thin of a router bit as you think can do the work. And as far as hitting a nail? Expect to. Have multiples of that thin router bit and a good multitool vibrating saw with bimetal blades (also have extras on hand) available. You can also use the multitool to square out/point out the routing for the inlay for less chisel work.

 

[Gboot]

If you Dad’s objection the the chair mat is looks, how about a clear glass chair mat.

 

[marinosr]

The "steal wood from a closet" approach is definitely the way to go here, if possible.

Re: office chair mats... make sure it's meant for wood floors. I learned the hard way that the little nubs on the bottoms of them to grip into carpet will dent up your floor.

 

[awldune]

He seems to be the most interested in an epoxy fill, so we'll see how that goes. Thanks to all who replied!

 

[awldune]

If the same flooring runs into a closet, etc., steal a few pieces from there and replace with "current" pine.
You may also steal a few pieces from a distant corner or under a cabinet.
IMHO, as woodworkers, we should take pride in our craft, regardless of it being a "quick-fix" or not.

I would do this if it were my house. As it happens, when I bought my house my dad used this very trick in fixing it up. But I think he just cannot be bothered and I only have so much opportunity to work on / help work on his house.

He had a stroke a couple of years ago and while it didn't really disable any function entirely, he seems to really struggle to get going on any project.

 

[Gofor]

I have hardwood floors and similar damage from the hard plastic rollers. I swithed out chairs to tones like these and haven't had a problem since. May want to convert.

https://www.amazon.com/Universal-Including-Hardwood-Rollerblade-Replacement/dp/B07FP56VND/ref=asc_df_B07FP56VND?tag=bngsmtphsnus-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80127027724191&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4583726554088207&psc=1

 

[Wilsoncb]

If you could get the board out with breaking it, you might be able to just flip it over.

If you want to try epoxy, you should be able to seal all the cracks before you pour it. I’m not an epoxy expert, but I think you could use silicone for that.

 

[awldune]

If you could get the board out with breaking it, you might be able to just flip it over.

If you want to try epoxy, you should be able to seal all the cracks before you pour it. I’m not an epoxy expert, but I think you could use silicone for that.

Removing the board intact seems pretty much impossible unless I instead break the board next to it.

The flooring was probably flipped over when it was installed in this house after being salvaged from its original home. Don't know if that makes any difference.