Holes in Hardwood from Tackboard – how to fix?
I have a perfect, mint floor underneath the rug in my house. It must have been put down when the house was built because the rug goes right under the baseboards. I am getting rid of the rug and pulling up the tackboard (the stuff that holds the rug in place on the edges – I am not sure what it is called). Now my question is – the tackboard is nailed down and when I pull it up, there are holes in the floor. How do I fix this? What is the necessary steps to fix it so it blends in the with the rest of the floor ?(which is perfect under the rug)
Replies
net
Usually, in an invironment that has humidity, you'll find a darker halo around the nail hole. And most usually, even sanding and refinishing won't make it disappear entirely.
Best be for a fill the hole and call it done-the jars of colored wood putty-NOT the cans of products like Famowood, that will harden and need sanding. These are a soft waxy type that you push in with a finger and rub back and forth-finishing off with the buff of a rag.
They'll slightly harden and can be mixed one jar with another to get the color right. Usually two different jars will be enough to get close by mixing. Often, you can get the right color in one jar if you have a good memory.
Pain in the rear as there's a nail every 6 inches or so..........
Tackstrips are what is used to hold the carpet in palce
The guy you hire to refinish the hardwood can take care of the holes and fil them for you with a paste made from the sanding dust as he sands the floors for you
I don't think his plan is to refinish...........
" What is the necessary steps to fix it so it blends in the with the rest of the floor ?(which is perfect under the rug) "
You're not going to make them disappear, though you could experiment with a Q-Tip dipped in oxalic acid for bleaching the inevitable rust ring. Then the soft putty as someone else described.
Consider it "character". (Note that there will be other areas where the carpet has abraded the finish, and these areas will likely at least need recoating.)
net
If you decide to try and recoat without sanding, be warned that prior to wall to wall carpet, these wood floors were often waxed. This could cause a problem with a new finish adhereing. Test in a closet.
And, as far as killing yourself trying to blend in tack strip repair, look around the room-where does the furniture end up?
you can make this as hard as you want.......
A shoemold of 3/4 cove or quarter round might cover a substantial part of the holes.
If there are not too many holes exposed some sort of unsanded filler [either soft putty or homemade] might not be very noticeable.
I often use zar or elmers [waterbase] filler tinted with acrylic latex paint, specifically the little bottles of craft paint from wallymart.
One can make the holes seem to disappear but to do so is very time consuming. The idea is to use shellac, or similar, sticks that melt with and are applied with a hot iron. Furniture refinishers use these a lot. Since the sticks come in a wide variety of colors, some are even transluscent, they can be used in combination to create multicolored patches. Its the round shaped blob of color that stands out on most filled nail holes, not the color itself. Further masking is possible by drawing in "grain" lines using colored liquid shellac. Like I said, this technique isn't easy, and I'm hardly an expert. But, taking my time, I've patched holes that saved the day for friends who had an "oops" or two during an install. (Not to mention my own botch-ups when building furniture.)
Otherwise, using color putty, as Calvin suggested, is the best approach.