Laminate has the hardest surface of any floor in the house and no repair path for it: a worn or damaged surface is not sanded, recoated or patched, it is replaced. That sounds worse than it is. Chips are filled, one board comes out at a time, and the failures that actually end a laminate floor — swollen joints, peaking — are water and expansion problems whose cause is usually simple to name.
A chipped corner or edge is filled with a color-matched putty, and the result is a hidden chip, not a new surface. A board that has swollen at a joint from water is replaced, because fiberboard that has swelled never shrinks back, and the replacement is only as good as the spare carton. A floor that is peaking at the joints — a ridge where two boards meet — is a floating floor with nowhere to expand, and it is fixed by giving it room, not by touching the boards.
The one thing not on this list is a worn surface. Laminate wear layers are rated AC3 to AC5 and last fifteen to twenty-five years in a home; when the pattern shows through in a traffic lane, the room is refloored.
DIY a realistic job for a careful person · Hire it the tools or the skill are the job · Replace a repair costs more than it is worth
A dropped object, a dragged appliance, or a corner that took a knock during installation. The melamine surface has broken away and the brown core shows.
A chip on a locking edge that leaves the joint loose, or a corner broken deep into the board, is a board replacement.
Water in the joint — a wet mop, a steam mop, a spill left overnight, a pet bowl, a dishwasher leak — absorbed by the fiberboard core, which swells and stays swollen. Standard laminate only; the sealed-core tier is treated against this.
Swelling along a whole run of joints — the raised, rough edges across a kitchen — is a floor that has been wet-mopped for years or flooded once, and it is replaced as a room. The next one should be the sealed-core tier.
The floor has expanded — summer humidity, a wet mop, a warm room — and has nowhere to go: no expansion gap at a wall, a cabinet or island fastened through it, molding nailed into the floor instead of the wall, or a long run without a transition. The boards push against each other and lift at the joint. The diagnosis, on Why Floors Fail →
A floor installed with no gap anywhere, peaking in several places, with joints that have crushed, is reinstalled rather than trimmed.
The reverse of peaking: a dry winter shrinks the floor and a pinned spot holds part of it, or boards that were never fully locked have crept apart. The diagnosis, on Why Floors Fail →
Boards whose click profiles have worn or broken from creeping open and shut do not stay tight; those boards are replaced.
Grit in a traffic lane over years, or a thin AC-rated product in a busy house. The wear layer is gone and the printed pattern is showing through.
A worn traffic lane is the end of the floor. The next one should be a higher AC rating in the rooms that wore this one out, or a rigid vinyl plank with a 20 mil wear layer.
Within limits. Chips are filled with a color-matched laminate repair putty; a swollen or badly damaged board is cut out and replaced; peaking and gaps are fixed by giving a floating floor the expansion room it was denied. What cannot be repaired is the surface: laminate is never sanded or refinished, and a worn traffic lane means a new floor.
Yes. Near a wall, the floor is unlocked back to the damaged board and relocked. In the middle of a room, the board is cut out with a circular saw set to its thickness, and a replacement with the bottom groove lip removed is glued in on its edges and weighted overnight. It is invisible only with a board from the original carton; laminate patterns and dye lots change.
You replace the swollen boards; fiberboard that has absorbed water and swelled does not go back. Find the water source first, let the subfloor dry, then swap the boards. If the swelling runs along most of the joints in a room, the room is replaced, and the sealed-core waterproof tier is the one to replace it with.
The floor has expanded and has nowhere to go. Somewhere it is touching a wall or cabinet with no gap, or something is fastened through it, or a long run has no transition strip. Trim the floor back to leave a 1/4 to 3/8 inch gap at the perimeter, free anything pinning it, and weight the peaks flat; most settle once the pressure is off.
Light scratches can be hidden with a laminate repair pencil or wax stick in a matching tone, which colors the scratch rather than removing it. There is no way to buff or refinish the surface, and rubbing at a scratch with anything abrasive makes a dull patch worse than the scratch. A board scratched through to the print is swapped.
A chip kit is $10 to $25. A board swap is free with attic stock, $30 to $80 for a carton if the product is still made, and $150 or more for a professional visit. Peaking is a $30 oscillating-tool blade and an afternoon. A worn surface is a new floor, which is the honest number to plan around when a laminate floor reaches fifteen years in a busy house.