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Hole in Heartpine floor, what to do?

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  • Hole in Heartpine floor, what to do?

    I'm
    hoping that you may be able to give me a bit of
    advice. Here's the deal....My fiance & I just bought
    a house here in town. We live in central Georgia, by
    the way..The house was built in 1920, and when we tore
    up the carpet, we noticed that it had the original
    pine plank flooring.
    It had a couple layers of paint on it, but it was
    no match for the sander that I rented from the local
    rental store. After 3 days of sanding just the living
    room, I was happy with it. It was pretty yellow pine,
    with some heart wood boards mixed in. The final pass
    of the sander, I hit the floor with 100 grit paper to
    make it nice and smooth.
    It was getting late that night when we finished, so
    we swept up the sawdust and put it in the trashcan,
    along with the broom and dustpan. We then left to go
    back to our other home, since we haven't moved in yet.

    When we returned the next morning, I smelled smoke.
    When I walked into the living room, I just about went
    through the roof. I had a hole the size of the trash
    can in the middle of my floor! The floor that I
    slaved on for 3 days! At first we didn't realize that
    it was the trash can. Then I noticed the black
    plastic ring around the perimeter of the hole. My
    fiance at first thought that she might have dropped a
    cigarette in the trash can. It broke my spirits so
    badly, that I almost gave up on the rest of the rooms.

    We had several friends and family members come by
    to check on the floor that day. They all knew that I
    had been sanding the living room for days. Everyone
    felt so terrible about it, especially my fiance.
    Later on that night, one of my old friends who saw the
    hole earlier stopped by with some strange news. First
    he told my fiance that it was not her fault. He found
    out that when I sanded with the finer grit sand paper,
    the varnish apparently gives off some sort of gas.
    When we piled all the sawdust in the trash can, it
    didn't have air to allow the gas to escape, and it
    just started smoldering. We are very happy that our
    new home didn't burn down. That next night, after we
    finished sanding the dining room, we just left the
    dust on the floor!
    Now I'm trying to deal with the problem at hand.
    Luckily, my little brother just bought an old home as
    well, and he pulled up some flooring in his house
    exactly like the floor that I have. I can't decide
    how to approach the repair of this floor. I have
    experience working with wood, as I worked in
    construction for 5+ years. So I'd like to do the work
    myself. The boards are tongue & groove, and I just am
    not sure how to install the new boards without making
    the floor look like it has been patched. Any
    suggestions that you might have would be most
    appreciated, and if you need more information, please
    don't hesitate to ask.

    Thank you very much, and have a good day!

    Jake McNutt
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