OK, it might be my mistake (not nailing a row end close enough) or maybe the strip was slighty thicker, warped, whatever, but is there a way to fix this after the floor is complete?

To be more specific, I have one board that sticks up slightly at one end. I suppose I could face nail it down with a finish nail, counter sink, and then touch it up (wood filler, etc), but is there a better way? Its in the middle (of course) of the room. What about locating the faulty board underneath and driving a screw up to it to fasten it down better? Is this doable?

Thanks for any advice.

sounds like you have one problem, so remove it and put in another strip/plank. possible milling or maybe debris in the groove could cause a ONE PLANK problem; I suppose many possibilities, so take it out and see what is under that one strip of wood. Could be a high nail in the sub-floor?

You mean cut it out and replace it right? I've not yet "repaired" floors. What is the standard process? I assume I'll need to cut some neighboring boards pr the whole row as well to remove the one?

Set your skil saw to the same depth as the thickness of the floor. CAREFULLY saw the length of the board, 3/8" in from the sides on both sides. DON"T saw into the next board. Make a diagonal cut in the board connecting the two parallel cuts. Use a 1" chisel and lift centers out. Carefully knock sides toward center and lift out. Clean up dust. Remove bottom of groove of replacement board and cut to EXACT length. Test fit. You may need to plane off some wood off the BOTTOM of the new board next to groove to get it to rotate into space. Glue down new board and tap into place with scrap blocks. Weight it down till glue dries.

Thx Gary. This helps a lot. Couple follow-ups...



What kind of glue do you use in this situation? Do you use the flooring adhesives or just standard wood glue for hardwood?



OK. The next challenge would be duplicating the bevel because it was a pre-finished with bevels at the butt end (Now I see the advantage of pre-finished products like Somerset that have flush end butts). I guess I could file it down and urethane it. Thoughts?

You can use yellow glue on T&G but should use flooring adhesive on bottom of new board. Some use 5 minute epoxy with a gun and mixing nozzle. Select replacement board prior to removing old board for color, grain pattern, size. If exact size cannot be located, keep groove end and cut off tongue end (back cut 2 degrees) then make your new bevel and finish it to match the floor. You will need to remove the bottom of the groove on both the side and end of replacement board.

Hey Gary, I found some pretty good instructions on a DIY site for replacing a plank. What do ya think about this one? I have seen others but this one is pretty good.


http://doityourself.com/wood/plank_replacement.htm

Ernesto
It is a good site and a well thought out and described plan for removing and replacing LAMINATE planks. This would not work with thinner, narrower hardwood strips. The condensed version I gave is the prescribed method for replacing 3/4" hardwood strip and plank floors. Laminates are treated differenty and are somewhat more difficult. The methods are similar however. I learned first hand from Daniel Boone of Florida, the one time technical director of the NWFA.

Update on this Guys:

I ended up borrowing a very strong magnet tool, and then scrapped around for a nice metalic disk-like piece to use as a localizer. Basically, I was able to line up the disk with the magnet from below the floor (in the basement) to localize a center point on the propped-up strip, and thus was able to shim and drive a wood screw up into the floor to pull the strip back down flush. I essentially now have an adjustable strip dialer for that board . I figured I'd try this before ripping it up and replacing the bad strip. I'm amazed at how well it worked out. Phew!

Thanks for the "how-tos" on replacing a strip anyway. I'm sure I'll be faced with this at some point and it will come in handy.

I too took a class from him a few years ago. Nice guy.