Patch Gaps in Laminate Floors

When we removed the wall in our Master Bedroom closet, we were left with a large gap in the laminate flooring.  The previous homeowners had left some extra pieces of laminate, so we were able to cut a few to size when we rebuilt the closet.  Today’s post is all about how to patch gaps in laminate floors, just in case you wanted to attempt the same DIY!

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First things first, assuming you have extra pieces of laminate available, you will need a few additional materials.

Ideally, you would be able to install the laminate as normal and you wouldn’t get gaps.  But, if you’re like us and are trying to squeeze two sections together, you will likely end up with the same situation!

We also had some spots with scratches/dents caused by hammering the wall out.  If anyone knows how to cleanly remove some 2×4 frames, could you let me know for future reference!?

Anyways, so we have these little bitty gaps in between the different sheets of laminate and I thought of a quick-ish way to patch them.

Step 1: You’ll want to vacuum any dust out of the cracks and gaps, then wipe the surface with a damp cloth (or paper towel).  This is probably the easiest step, but don’t skip it or you’ll end up with gunk in your soon-to-be filled edges.

Step 2: Using a small putty knife, I squished the wood filler into the gaps, and also tried to even out any cracks too.

I would do about a 2 foot section at a time, then would go back and wipe up the excess with the putty knife, using this extra to fill in the other gaps.

Basically, I would scrape the wood filler in the same direction as the gaps so that the line was even along the top.

You’ll eventually end up with filled edges and a bit of extra wood filler on the top of your laminate.

USE A RAG TO CAREFULLY CLEAN UP THE WET WOOD FILLER BEFORE IT DRIES.

Did you get that warning?  Go wipe up the mess now!

Maybe you were lazy like me and let the wood filler dry completely?  No problem, except now you have to add an extra step of sanding all the wood filler from the top of the laminate.  And trust me, you’ll need a bunch of elbow grease for this job!

Step 3: Okay, so the gaps are now filled completely, but the colour doesn’t match the floors right?  Well time for staining!  I first did a couple of coats using this stain in Classic Oak Satin.  I would brush it on, then wait a bit, then wipe the laminate, and repeat.

Maybe I’m impatient, but the stain was not staining as well as I would have liked.  (You can sort of see what it looks like under my shoes in this post).

So a few days/weeks later I brought out the big guns (aka a much darker gel stain) and did the same technique.

Obviously, you’ll want a stain that matches perfectly (this one was a bit redder than I would have liked) but I had it left over from when I stained our kitchen accessories.

It did leave more noticeable stains along the top of the laminate… which were hard to remove as well.

My suggestion!?  Apply tape along the top of the laminate, and that way you can stain all you want, and then just rip up the tape when you’re done.  Easy-peasy and I wish I would have thought of that sooner!

I did a few coats of the darker stain as well because I wanted to wipe up the excess on the laminate as quickly as possible before it set.  If you go with the tape technique I just mentioned, you can probably let your stain soak in a bit longer and do its magic.

And this is pretty much how it looks now!  There are a few spots where the stain shows a bit more, but I plan on randomly trying to scrub off the extra stain in the next little while until it’s gone completely.

It’s much better than having the gaps and getting dirt and dust stuck in there all the time, and the edges aren’t too noticeable from a distance so I’m very happy with this project!  Because it’s located in the closet in the master bedroom, there isn’t too much foot traffic, but I will for sure update everyone how it holds up over the next few months!

Do you have to patch gaps in laminate floors?  Or maybe you’re one of the lucky ones that have perfectly installed floors with no gaps :)

I’d love to hear your thoughts – and maybe you have a suggestion on how to easily remove the extra stain?!

See you next time :)