The original pine board subfloor (now finished floor) of a room in our 1918 home was refinished several years ago. During the refinishing a bolt came loose from the drum sander and gouged a large section. The finisher tried to sand out the gouge but left a large divot and some very thin and loose planks.
We’ve lived with the result for some time but now would like to add new flooring on top (material to be determined) and would like to level the affected hollow section.
Any ideas on how to ‘fill’ in the low section in preparation for a new overlay without replacing the section of original flooring?
Replies
There are a great many ways to do this, including 'proper' floor leveling compounds. Anything that is not going to break up over time will be fine.
A 'woodwork' way to do this would be to drive all the nails deep and then use a router sled to level the area and glue on a suitable thickness of pine. Nightmare for dust and missing a nail, but it does leave a very easy to maintain subsurface.
Pull 'em up and replace them. Any reminder of a quick patch job under your brand new floor will haunt you. It was generous of you to let the finisher leave it that way.
Ok, I admit I was the finisher.
Haaaaaaa, I should have gone with "let him live".
There are a lot of floor leveling compounds out there, but I wouldn't use them in this situation. Pull them up and replace them.
DO NOT use a gypsum based compound.
Thank you for your comments. @mitch912 I’m curious about your comment re gypsum based compound.
They are only good on rock-solid substrates, ANY flex and they crumble into dust. Leveling a concrete slab would be a good application.
Got it. Such challenges with a 100+ year old house. I tell people “our house is 104 years old. In another 10 it will be done!”
Mine's getting there... built in '38.
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