Need Northern Virginia Floor Repairs or Replacement? Here's the Info You're Looking For

There are so many variations in how a building can be designed and built in Northern Virginia, but they all have the basics that define a lovable structure such as walls, a roof, and, of course, floors. While the flooring in your home is undoubtedly a critical element of the overall structure, it also plays a huge role in determining the design aesthetic of your home. After all, floors take up so much visual space that you can't help but notice them—and if they are in rough shape, they attract negative attention.

If your flooring has been subjected to damaging elements such as cracks, missing pieces, excessive moisture, and other ugly problems, it's not just an unappealing eyesore. It's also failing to properly protect your home, lowering your property value and creating a potential hazard that could result in tripping, cuts to feet or paws, and other possible injuries. Northern Virginia floor repairs by an experienced service professional can eliminate those worries and restore your house to attractive, fully functioning condition.

Tired of looking at unsightly, scratched up, chipped, stained, damaged surfaces in your home? Get the expert floor repairs you need from your local Northern Virginia handyman. The experienced service professionals at Mr. Handyman of Northern Virginia - Arlington to Haymarket offer reliable Northern Virginia floor repairs and replacement services, along with dozens of other popular services to enhance your home.

Floor Repairs Vs. Replacement: Which is Best for My Northern Virginia Home?

This is one of the questions our repair and installation team often hears from Northern Virginia homeowners, which makes sense. Most people assume that floor repairs would be less time-consuming than a complete replacement, and therefore less costly. However, that's not always the case. In our years of professional experience, that old question of repair or replacement tends to come down to two important factors for floors in Northern Virginia: the type of damage and how extensive or widespread it is.

If the damage is limited to one area with relatively small problems such as scuffs, scratches, hairline cracks, chips or small gouges, a couple of little floor repairs are likely all your handyman will need to do to give you back a beautiful, durable surface that looks just as good as when it was first installed. Or, in some cases, you may have more severe damage like a smashed tile or a couple of planks of wood that have rotted. If matching pieces of material are available, your handyman may be able to carry out your Northern Virginia floor repairs by replacing just the damaged tile or plank.

But replacement may actually be the most long-lasting, cost-effective, and attractive option if you're dealing with more serious issues or small problems that cover a large percentage of the overall surface area. Some types of problems in Northern Virginia homes, such as a sagging or heaving surface, are related to issues with your subfloor, joists, or foundation. Those underlying issues need to be corrected before professional service for Northern Virginia floor repairs or replacement can be carried out. We'll explain some typical issues that call for floor repairs, so you can make an informed decision about what is best for your property.

Common Northern Virginia Floor Repairs

There are a lot of material types used in Northern Virginia installations, and naturally, each type comes with its own set of common problems. Regardless of what is happening with your surfaces to make them less attractive or functional, you can count on our Northern Virginia handyman professionals to come up with the perfect repair, maintenance, or installation solution for your unique property.

Hardwood Floor Repairs

Wood floors are a classic for a reason. Whether they're solid hardwood or engineered wood, they fit perfectly into a wide range of interior design schemes in Northern Virginia homes, from rustic and old-fashioned to modern and sophisticated, and wood just exudes a natural charm that can't be replicated in synthetic materials. That being said, it does have a couple of major weaknesses. It can be scuffed or gouged fairly easily, and it is susceptible to rotting, swelling, and warping when exposed to excessive moisture.

Typical wood floor repair issues we fix include:

• Scuffs and scratches
• Gouges
• Peeling, flaking wood stain.
• Patches that have been bleached by sun exposure.
• Boards that are warped and either bulging out or buckling in
• Rotted planks or small patches of wood rot on the surface

Only dealing with a few minor scuffs on the surface of the wood? You may be able to “erase” them with a few dabs from a furniture marker. These are essentially special type of marker that matches the colour of your wood stain. It can help those scuffed patches blend in again, so they are effectively invisible, but finding the perfect colour match could be difficult. Test your furniture marker on an inconspicuous part of the floor before you start going after prominently placed scuffs.

Northern Virginia Floor Repairs for Vinyl Planks or Vinyl Tiles

Luxury vinyl planks (LVP) and luxury vinyl tiles (LVT) are relatively new flooring types that have dramatically increased in popularity over the past 10 years. They are made from the same material and the main difference between the two is just the shape of the pieces. LVP are long rectangles that mimic the look of natural wood, while LVT are often square or shorter rectangles made to mimic the look of natural stone. They can be incredibly convincing, and many people can't tell the difference between LVP or LVT and actual hardwood or stone, so they won't compromise the style aesthetic of your home.

Vinyl is inexpensive, water resistant, extremely durable, and almost maintenance-free, which is why it is so popular in bathrooms, kitchens, mudrooms, hallways, playrooms, and other high-traffic locations that are prone to moisture exposure. It doesn't have many drawbacks, though it can be difficult to repair when it does get damaged. It's also essentially made of plastic, which means it's not the most environmentally friendly option.

The vinyl floor repairs we can take care of include:

• Stains
• Cracking
• Peeling
• Scratches or gouges
• Crumbling edges (this usually occurs with very old material)

Laminate Floor Repairs

Laminate flooring is found in homes across Northern Virginia and the rest of the United States. It's a composite material that is popular for its durability and low cost. While laminate has a bad reputation with some people for being old-fashioned, it has actually come a long way from your grandma's kitchen floor in the 1970s. Laminate consists of a base layer of plywood or high-density fibreboard, an image layer that contains a high-resolution image to give the surface its appearance, and a highly durable, transparent top layer to protect the image and absorb wear. The possibilities for that image layer are extensive, so laminate can look like its retro counterparts or be pretty much indistinguishable from other types of modern, synthetic materials.

Common laminate floor repairs that we can handle for you include:

• Bubbling
• Staining
• Faded colours
• Discoloured patches
• Peeling or lifting sections

Tile Floor Repairs in Northern Virginia

There's at least some tile in most buildings around the country, and with good reason—it's attractive, durable, and comes in a huge variety of colours, shapes, sizes, textures, patterns, and materials. Because there is such a wide array of options available, tile can really go a long way toward defining the style of your room or house. Some types, such as the ever-popular porcelain or ceramic tile are very long-lasting, resistant to damage, and virtually maintenance-free. Some kids do involve more maintenance, however. Natural stone tile such as slate or marble is stunningly beautiful and can serve as a conversation piece for the whole room, but it needs to be sealed regularly to keep it looking good and it's more prone to issues like chipping or staining. That's why luxury natural stone tiles are best used in decorative installations.

Tile flooring problems we can repair include:

• Crumbling or cracked grout lines
• Dirty, dingy grout that never looks clean no matter how much you scrub
• Minor cracks and chips
• Heaving tiles
• Replacement for impact damage to one tile

Need more information? Check out our tile repair 101 guides.

What's Better in Northern Virginia, Solid Hardwood Flooring or Engineered Wood?

If you need (or want) a new wood surface installed, one of the most important choices is whether you want solid hardwood or engineered wood. They are both excellent options with their own pros and cons to consider, so one isn't necessarily better than the other—it just depends on the particular requirements in that area of the house, as well as your personal preferences.

As the name suggests, solid hardwood is made with planks of solid wood. They interlock with a tongue and groove system on the side of each plank. Engineered wood, on the other hand, is a thin veneer of genuine hardwood bonded to a premium plywood backing. They look exactly the same on the surface, so there's no way to tell them apart visually once the floor is fully installed.

Solid hardwood is more difficult to install because it needs to be nailed to a subfloor or vapor barrier and it is vulnerable to water damage such as warping and rotting if it is exposed to excess moisture. However, it can be sanded down and refinished many times to make it look brand-new again. Solid hardwood can last for more than 100 years with adequate maintenance and a little TLC, so needless to say, replacement expenses are low.

Engineered wood can be directly installed over top of a concrete subfloor, and it is much more resistant to moisture problems such as wood rot and warping. On the downside, it can only be sanded and refinished once or maybe twice. Well-maintained engineered wood will last about 30 years before it needs to be replaced, which is still a pretty decent span of service time. If you're interested in having radiant floor heating installed, engineered wood is a good choice to go over the top. Ceramic or porcelain tile work well too, and are probably the superior choice in rooms like the bathroom or kitchen.

Can Rotted Wood Be Repaired?

Yes and no. There's no way to restore rotten wood to its former condition once it has been decayed by exposure to excess water, so rotten hardwood floor repair services generally involve removing the affected material and replacing it altogether. If there are only a couple of tiny patches of rot on the surface, your handyman may be able to get them taken care of by scraping out the rotted parts, filling the holes with epoxy wood filler and painting over it to conceal the repaired area. This works best on the parts of homes in Northern Virginia that are inconspicuous or tucked out of the way, and that area will need to be monitored for future problems.

Wood rot is a form of decay that occurs when timber has a moisture content of 20% or higher. So if you're seeing patches of the rotted floor inside your house, something is wrong. You may know where the moisture came from—maybe the damage is located near a door and people are constantly tracking water inside on their shoes, or maybe there was a hidden plumbing leak under the floor that caused the decay. Wherever the moisture is coming from, it's important to find and stop the source before you get service for Northern Virginia floor repairs, or the problem will just keep reoccurring over and over again.

Time for Northern Virginia Floor Repairs? Mr. Handyman Has You—and Your Floors—Covered!

Whether you are in Lorton, Occoquan, or another nearby part of Northern Virginia, you can rely on the team of professionals at Mr. Handyman of Northern Virginia - Arlington to Haymarket to provide the highest standards of quality workmanship and excellent customer service.

Pick up the phone and give us a call today at to find out more about our dependable handyman services such as floor repairs, or to speak with our friendly customer service staff and book an appointment at a convenient time.