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Nail holes in oak...

17 years ago

I filled a few holes this weekend, just to see how it goes. Not so good, perhaps.

{{gwi:1528635}}

The floors are 101-year old red (I've been told) oak. The image above links to others. Whomever put the carpet down decided to tighten the loose boards by driving finish nails through the face, even through the parquet. Weenies.

I'm going to be finishing with Waterlox, no stain. The potential problem (and my question) is that the filler doesn't match the wood very well. I used the Elmer's Woodworker's filler, and it's way too light. The red oak stuff they had at Home Depot is way too red - it doesn't match either.

I don't have any scrap to grind and make my own, so that's out.

My question - how much will it matter under the Waterlox? It darkens the wood considerably, though I've only played with it on fir so far. This floor has some un-reparable spots - you know, "character" - so I'm not concerned with perfection. I just want to seal up the holes that I'll eventually get splinters from the edges. I don't want it to look like crap, though.

So, I could use some advice - what do you suggest?

Thanks

Tim

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Comments (8)

glennsfc
17 years ago
It might be red oak, but my guess would be white.

It is very difficult to fill holes in wood flooring and get a good result. Most professionals today are using waterbased wood fillers...and there is no set standard as to when the filler is used...each finisher has his or her own sequence of application. Craft paint can be mixed with some of them to get just the right color.

As you are planning on using Waterlox, perhaps someone who finishes with the product will give some recommendations as to what to use when finishing with that.
mpedrummer
Original Author
17 years ago
Hmm...well, I bet that figuring out the correct species of wood might be a good start!

I really just wanted to avoid having bright shiny nail heads every 2". Also, I set the nails in because they were ripping the sanding pads a new one.

Thanks
Tim
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glennsfc
17 years ago
Is this thin slat flooring?
mpedrummer
Original Author
17 years ago
Not sure I know what you mean - the tongue and groove boards are about 2.5" wide, probably 3/4" deep. The parquet is 1/4" deep over a 1/2" foundation. I'll be sanding the parquet by hand so as not to go too deep.

Is that what you meant, Glenn? Or is "thin slat flooring" an official thing that I don't know of?

Thanks
Tim
glennsfc
17 years ago
Thin slat flooring is solid wood flooring only 3/8" thick at most and is usually installed by topnailing.
brickeyee
17 years ago
Finish the floor except the last coat and fill the holes after the fact using furniture repair methods. Mohawk has a lot of options.
Even just mixing up regular non-hardening floor filler to match works if there are not a lot of holes.
Shellac sticks are still available, and when protected by the final layer of clear finish hold up remarkably well.
If the holes are in conspicuous places, consider removing the boards and swapping in some others (new or from another spot).
bus_driver
17 years ago
I also recommend filling the nail holes AFTER at least one coat of finish has been applied.
mpedrummer
Original Author
17 years ago
Glenn - the parquet itself is very thin, seems like someone did an uneven sanding job at some point. It's as little as 1/8" thick in some spots, up to about 3/8" in others. The main floor itself is 3/4" tongue and groove with no subfloor - just directly nailed to the joists.

When I get to refinishing these (hopefully next weekend) I'll be sanding the parquet with a hand held random orbital and with normal sandpaper - even with the big random orbitals, I'm worried about removing too much material on the parquet - the center will be sanded with a rented random orbital.

Thanks!

MPEDrummer

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