Replace a Carlisle floor plank? Follow this advice from our experts

Janel, in our Washington Showroom, had a customer who wanted to know how to replace one of the planks in his pre-finished Carlisle floor. The board that needed replacing was in the middle of the floor (visible) and this particular floor had the Carlisle hand-scraped edges. Erik Boos, from our Chicago showroom, and Rick Menard, from the Stoddard, NH showroom, weighed in with their advice on this project. Probably you won't ever need to use this technique, but things can happen. Here's advice from our Erik and Rick on replacing a plank in an existing Carlisle floor:

1) Start by making two cuts in the board that needs to be replaced. Each cut will be approximately ¼ inch from the side and will run the length of the plank. This frees up the middle of the plank for easy removal because it frees the flooring nails on the tongue side and will also remove the grooved side from being locked in place.

2) Another diagonal cut running the length of the board from one side to the other will also help in removal. This makes it possible to easily pull the board from the tongue and groove side without damaging the edges of the surrounding planks.

3) Next, any glue on the sub-floor underneath the removed plank should be scraped out as much as possible.

4) Taking a new plank of the same width, rip the tongue off, cutting from the bottom and just through the top of the tongue, not touching the top edge of the plank. Cut to the correct length, back-cutting the ends a little bit without touching the tops.

5) For the new plank, cut a length of ribbon or piece of Tyvek ®, and staple it to the back of the plank and bring it around to the top. This will give you a handle to use when you drop the new plank in place as a test.

6) If the fit is good, add plenty of glue to the back of the new plank, tap it into place and weigh it down for a few hours.

As Eric says, "Replacing planks is never fun or easy, but when done right, no one should ever be able to pick out the replaced board(s)."

Posted on February 24, 2009 at 01:09 PM in (0) Comments

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