When water damages your flooring, prompt repair is necessary to avoid further problems such as warping, damage to adjacent boards and the growth of mold and mildew. If only a few of the wood boards in your floor sustained water damage, you can repair the water damaged wood flooring yourself by sanding the damaged boards. However, if a large area of your floor was damaged by water, you will need to replace the entire damaged area.

You will need to gather the following tools and supplies in order to begin repairing water damaged flooring:

Razor knife

Flooring nails

Nail gun

Sharpened wood chisel

Circular saw

New wood flooring boards

Hammer

Safety goggles

Measuring tape

Wood filler

Sand paper

Before tearing up your flooring, try these steps to remove small areas of damage to wood floors.

1. Test the damaged area by seeing if sanding the boards removes enough of the damaged wood such that you can no longer see water stains on the board. If this process removes all of the damage.

2. Fill in the area with wood filler.

3. Allow the wood filler to dry.

4. Sand the wood filler down to match the level of the undamaged boards.

5. Stain the repaired boards to match the finish of the undamaged boards.

If the area of damaged floor is more than one or two boards, or if sanding did not remove the water damage, you will need to tear out and replace the damaged boards. Before you begin, place your safety goggles over your eyes to avoid getting injured by wood splinters.

1. Place your circular saw onto one of the new flooring boards.

2. Adjust the blade of the circular saw to match the thickness of your flooring board.

3. Use your circular saw to cut around the floor boards that are damaged. Make your cuts about 1 inch from the edge of each of the damaged boards.

4. Use your wood chisel to pull out the center of the board that you just cut out and pry the remaining ends out from the undamaged boards.

5. Measure the length of replacement floor board that needs to go in the hole in your floor.

6. Cut the replacement flooring board with your circular saw.

7. Use your hammer and flooring nails to pound the new flooring board into place.

8. Apply a small amount of wood glue to the edges of the new boards.

9. Allow the wood glue to dry.

10. Stain your new flooring boards to match the undamaged boards.…