How To Repair Gouges In Wood Trim

• Floor & Stairs

How to Use Wood Filler to Repair Furniture, Flooring, and More

Use wood filler to finer and efficiently repair scratches, chips, gouges, and other surface imperfections in the woodwork effectually your home.

Photograph: istockphoto.com

Badly scratched hardwood flooring, rotted window frames, and chipped furniture are mutual bug that tin be time-consuming and expensive to repair. Or they can be dealt with quickly and affordably by homeowners who know how to utilize wood filler. If y'all've never worked with this stuff earlier, go excited: It might shortly be your favorite particular in the tool box. Simple in concept and easy to apply, wood filler works wonders to remedy surface imperfections in a vast and varied range of household items.

At starting time blush, using wood filler may seem like a messy process, simply precise results are not but possible, they are likewise in fact rather easy to achieve. It'south important to annotation, however, that wood filler is intended strictly for superficial bug, such every bit scratches and gouges. If the harm calls for a proper repair, wood filler is no substitute. That said, at that place'due south no shortage of ways in which to use wood filler to meliorate the look of both practical and decorative elements that accept seen better days.

Is Wood Filler Stainable?

There are a few dissimilar kinds of wood fillers, and the answer to which type is best to apply depends largely on the chore.

• Equally the proper noun suggests, stainable wood fillers are receptive to staining so that after it's applied, you tin can stain over it to ensure the repaired section matches the rest of the piece that you're fixing.
• Typically, h2o-based wood fillers may also exist stained (or painted), only dissimilar other products in the same category, these are peculiarly formulated for use indoors. Common applications are filling scratches and dents in molding, paneling, and cabinetry.
• Heavy-duty solvent-based wood fillers are meant primarily for outdoor use and perform well on exterior siding and trim.

Photo: istockphoto.com

6 Quick Steps to Repairing Forest Using Wood Filler

Our researched guide to the best forest fillers can help you select a product that'due south tailored to your specific projection. Once you take the right supplies, proceed with the post-obit steps for how to use woods filler so that your repair is nearly invisible.

Tools & Materials

• Sandpaper
• Shop vacuum
• Tack cloth
• Woods filler
• Wood stain preconditioner
• Putty knife
• See full list «
• Polyurethane sealer
• Paint
• Wood stain

STEP ane: Sand and clean the forest surface in need of repair.

Outset by preparing the damaged surface. Get-go, remove any loose chunks of wood or flaking pigment. Next, sand any crude edges in or immediately adjacent to the damaged area you wish to repair. Finally, clear abroad all lingering dust and droppings past means of a shop vac or moistened tack textile. If you use a clammy material, wait for the area to dry out completely earlier you proceed to the next step.

Photograph: istockphoto.com

Pace ii: Use a preconditioner on the damaged area to prevent color discoloration.

Wood filler is different from the wood being filled, and the surface of the wood that's in contact with the wood filler is susceptible to arresting the stain or colour of the wood filler. Protect the exposed parts of the wood by applying a wood stain preconditioner to seal the damaged expanse and surrounding surface. Let the conditioner fully dry out.

STEP three: Employ the wood filler using a putty knife.

Photo: istockphoto.com

Offset at the border of the damaged surface area, pressing the wood filler into the depression. Overfill slightly to allow for the fact that the filler shrinks as it dries. In one case you lot have applied equally much filler every bit necessary, smooth over the filled expanse with a make clean office of a putty knife.

STEP 4: Let the wood filler to dry completely.

Bank check the packaging for manufacturer recommendations on how much time is needed for the wood filler to dry. Depending on the depth of the application, it could take anywhere from 15 minutes to 8 hours.

Step 5: Sand the filled expanse so that its height is affluent with the surrounding forest.

Once dry out, work with a light hand to sand the area smooth. When you run your mitt over both the undamaged and freshly filled parts of the item you are fixing, yous should feel just the slightest difference betwixt the two.

Footstep 6: Consummate the project past applying your selection of stop.

In most cases, the goal will exist to make the repair virtually unnoticeable. If y'all've been working on a baseboard painted white, concealing the set is only a matter of painting over the filled expanse in the same color.

Photo: istockphoto.com

Stained forest is trickier to deal with. For the best possible match, information technology'due south recommended that you dab some wood filler onto a piece of scrap wood. Expect for information technology to dry out, then test the stain to see how it looks. Depending on the examination results, you may then choose to thin out the stain, employ a different colour, or (if yous got a close enough match) proceed to apply the stain to the item that you've now successfully fixed—cheaply, easily, and perchance in less than an hr.

Source: https://www.bobvila.com/articles/how-to-use-wood-filler/

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