How to Replace Scratched Laminate Flooring

Laminate "floating" floors aren't nailed or glued down, but just snapped together like a puzzle. This gives you a big advantage if a floor board is damaged and has to be replaced, because the boards can be taken apart almost as easily as they were put together. One thing to watch out for is losing track of which boards go where, as they were laid in a staggered configuration and have to go back down the same way.

Hammer
Pry bar
Replacement laminated floor boards
Trim nailer

Instructions

- 1
  Take off the trim from around the perimeter of the room with your hammer and pry bar. Keep the trim intact as you remove it so you can re-install it later. The removal of the trim should expose a small space between the edges of the floorboards and the walls.
- 2
  Use your hands to push on the laminate floor boards along the wall closest to the scratched boards. Loosen the edge boards by wiggling them into the space along the wall. Leave them sitting loosely on the floor after they're disconnected.
- 3
  Repeat and continue, loosening the boards course by course. Leave the loosened boards in place, in the same order they were in. Work out across the floor, gradually disassembling all the boards until you get to the damaged ones.
- 4
  Remove the damaged boards. Set the replacement boards in their place, connecting them by their edges.
- 5
  Snap the other boards back together in the opposite order that you disassembled them, working your way back toward the wall course by course.
- 6
  Re-install the floor trim, using trim nailer.

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