Timber floor and wall repair · Northern Rivers NSW
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Too expensive to get wrong.
Homesmith repairs timber floors, gyprock walls, skirting and joinery across Byron Bay, Bangalow, Lennox Head, Alstonville and Ballina. Scratched and water damaged floorboards, holes in walls, damaged skirting boards and door frames, all repaired and colour matched into what is around them.
These are the jobs where a mistake costs more than the job did. Sand back the wrong floor and you are recoating the whole room. Patch a wall badly and you see it every afternoon when the light comes across it. Most of this work reaches us after somebody else has looked at it and said it cannot be fixed.
Send the job list and we tell you how many days it looks like. Time left over goes to whatever else you point at.
Finishing and repair work is quoted above the standard day rate.
12 month workmanship guarantee · Fully insured · The place left cleaner than when we arrived
What's included
Every floor and wall repair booking covers
- Timber, engineered and laminate floor repair, including single boards replaced or made good
- Scratched, dented and water damaged floorboards repaired and colour matched
- Gyprock and plaster repair, filled, sanded and textured to match the wall it sits in
- Skirting board, architrave, door frame and stair tread repairs made in the timber rather than replaced
- Scribing and fitting into walls and alcoves that are out of square
- Renovations somebody else stopped halfway through
Detail
Why the repair is the hard part
Anyone can fill a hole. The difference is what it looks like a week later, in daylight, from the doorway. Most patches announce themselves, either as filler sitting a shade off the timber or as a flat spot where the rest of the wall has texture.
We tell you what a repair will end up looking like before we start it. Most disappear. A few can be made much better without ever being invisible, and it is fairer to say so at the quote than to hand it over at the end and let you notice.
What makes this work expensive is not the hole, it is what surrounds the hole. A bad patch on a plain wall is a nuisance. A bad patch on a floor that cost tens of thousands is a resanding job for the whole room, which is why the safe answer from most people is that it cannot be done.
Water damaged floorboards
Water damage is the most common floor repair in this region and the one most often acted on too early. Boards that have cupped or lifted after a leak or a flood keep moving as they dry, so a floor sanded flat while it is still wet will dip once it settles.
What decides it is the subfloor and the moisture, not what the surface looks like, so that is what we check first. Plenty of floors come back with a repair and a recoat. Some are past it, and we will tell you that rather than take the money to patch it.
What it costs
Pricing is $420 + GST for a half day or $760 + GST for a full day, for one smith. That covers standard work. Finishing and repair work is often quoted above the day rate, because it is skilled work and it takes as long as it takes. Whatever we quote you before you book is the number on the invoice.
This is the one part of what we do where we would rather see photographs before quoting. Not because the price moves afterwards, it does not, but because how much of the list fits inside a day depends on what the damage actually is. A photo taken in daylight is worth more than a paragraph describing it.
How we work
Floors go under cover before any tools come into the house, and walls are scanned before anything goes into them.
Every repair carries the same 12 month workmanship guarantee as the rest of our work. If a repair we made lets go or lifts inside the year, we come back and put it right.
Where we work
Finishes and repairs across the Northern Rivers
We cover Byron Bay, Bangalow, Lennox Head, Alstonville, Ballina, within roughly a 50km radius of Byron Bay. Same prices everywhere, no call out fee.
Common questions
Finishes and repairs questions we get asked
Can a scratched timber floor be repaired without sanding the whole room?
Usually, yes. Individual boards can be repaired or replaced and colour matched into the boards around them, which is far cheaper than resanding and recoating a whole floor. It depends on the finish and how deep the damage goes, so send a photo taken in daylight.
Can water damaged floorboards be saved?
Often, yes, and the usual mistake is acting too early. Timber that has cupped after a leak keeps moving as it dries out, so a floor sanded flat while it is still wet will dip once it settles. We check the subfloor and the moisture before deciding anything. Some floors come back with a repair and a recoat, some are past it, and we will tell you which one you have.
Is it cheaper to repair a floor or replace the boards?
Repair, in almost every case, and by a long way. Replacing boards in the middle of an existing floor means finding a product that may not be made any more, and then sanding and recoating the whole room so the new section does not sit brighter than the rest. A repaired and colour matched board is a fraction of that. Send a photo taken in daylight and we will tell you which one your floor needs.
Will the repair actually be invisible?
Most are. On a textured wall or a heavily grained timber, a good repair is one nobody finds without being told where to look. We will tell you before we start which of those two you are getting, rather than after.
How soon can we walk on it, or put the furniture back?
A wall patch is usually done the same day, once the filler and the paint are dry. Most floor repairs want overnight before furniture goes back on top. Coatings keep hardening for a week or two after they feel dry, so rugs and heavy pieces are worth holding off on. You get the actual times for your job before we leave, not a general rule.
What if you open something up and find rot or termite damage?
You get told and shown before anything else happens. Damp and termite damage turn up often enough behind skirting and around wet areas in older Northern Rivers houses that we half expect it. Old dry damage we can usually repair. Live termites are a pest controller before any carpentry, and in that case we stop rather than close it back up and hand you a clean looking wall.
Can you fix something another trade has left behind?
That is a lot of this work. A renovation that stopped, joinery that does not sit against an old wall, a finish that was never completed. Send photos and we will tell you what can be done.
Do you repair expensive or unusual floors?
Yes. Twenty years of high end residential carpentry is where the colour matching came from, and the more expensive the floor, the more it matters that the repair is right. It is the same care on a laminate.
How does pricing work?
Send the list and we will tell you whether it is a half day or how many days it looks like, from $420 + GST for a half day or $760 + GST for a full day, for one smith, fixed before we start. If there is time left over, we keep working down whatever else is on your list.
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