LESLIE: Now we’ve got Margie in Delaware on the line with a flooring question. What can we do for you today?
MARGIE: Well, we had carpeting down here from the 70s, in this home that we moved into. So, we pulled up the carpeting and there’s beautiful hardwood floors underneath. Except wherever the wood strips with the nails were that were holding the carpet down, there’s a bunch of black holes where the nails were. So how can we clean that up?
TOM: Yeah. The strips are called “tackless” and what’s happened is the nails have oxidized, so you get some rust and other types of corrosion that form on the metal and react with the wood. And it leaves that sort of black stain. So what you have to do is sand the wood floors with a belt sander or U-sand.
You sand the wood floors, you’ll get rid of most of that black stain that’s showing around the top of the hole. And then you can fill in the holes with a wood putty that matches the floor. Sand it again and you’ll just about cover them. You’re still going to see a little bit of them but they will not be obvious.
Right now, they’re painfully obvious, I know. But if you sand the floors and then fill them in and sand it again and finish it, it will blend in.
MARGIE: That’s great. It’s got to be better than what it looks like now.
TOM: No, it’s nice. Think of that carpet as a beautiful drop cloth that protected those floors for all those years.
MARGIE: Yeah.
TOM: And now you get a chance to enjoy them again.
MARGIE: OK. Thank you so very much.
Leave a Reply