How to Repair Plastic Laminate Flooring

Though often designed to look like other flooring types, such as hardwood, plastic laminate flooring is a composite material treated with protective coating. Plastic laminate flooring generally comes in planks that install to a floor's surface in rows. Since plastic laminate flooring has a nonporous surface, traditional fillers, like wood filler and joint compound, won't be effective for filling in holes or cracks in the flooring surface. Instead, you should use filler that sets up similarly to plastic.

Things You'll Need

• Touch-up kit
• Plastic laminate flooring plank
• Pry bar or flat-head screwdriver

Instructions

1. Get a plastic laminate flooring touch-up kit from the company that manufactured your plastic laminate flooring. Order the same color in the touch-up kit as your flooring. The touch-up kits made by laminate flooring manufacturers provide an exact match for the color of your flooring, allowing you to repair the flooring so that it isn't noticeable.

2. Apply the plastic laminate flooring touch-up epoxy to the floor using the provided applicator. Fill the hole or crack in the flooring until the epoxy sits level with the flooring surface. Follow all recommendations on the product packaging for the best results.

3. Get a new plastic laminate flooring plank that matches your other flooring pieces if you have a large area of damage that the touch-up kit can't repair, damage more than 2 or 3 inches in size. Set the new plank in the room in which you need to replace the plank for three days before installing so it will acclimate to the atmosphere and won't expand or shrink after installing.

4. Remove the baseboard on two adjacent walls of the room to provide access to the edge of the flooring. Generally, you can pry a baseboard from a wall with a pry bar or a flat-head screwdriver.

5. Take the floor apart, starting at the first row against the wall. Lift the first plank of the first row and pull it toward you to unlock it from the planks in the next row. Lay the plank aside where others can be stacked on it, such as on the floor against a wall. Continue removing planks in this manner, stacking each one on the prior one, until you reach the plank that needs to be replaced.

6. Pull up the plank that needs to be replaced and place the new piece of plastic laminate flooring down in its position. Then, return each of the planks to their original positions in the floor by pulling from the top of the stack. Glue or nail the baseboards back to the walls.

Tips & Warnings

• You do not have to buy a touch-up kit from your flooring's manufacturer to repair the floor: You can buy epoxy, hardener and paint separately. If the color of the paint does not match exactly, though, the spot may be noticeable even after it's repaired.

References

• Shaw Floors: Laminate Care
• Armstrong: FAQs Laminate
• Floor Expert: Laminate Flooring -- Repairing Locking Laminate