Replacing a piece of nailed tongue and grooved engineered hardwood located in the middle of a large room

Question

I have a large room covered with engineered hardwood -- (specifically - Johnson hardwood forevertuff in canadian maple 1/2" thickness) It can't be refinished or sanded.

A very visible piece in the center of the room was damaged and dented by a dropped heavy object.

I was going to proceed in the following manner:

First, use my circular saw to cut along the nailed edge and tongued edges of the damaged piece and carefully remove it.

Second, get a new board the same size (The packages all contained boards in 5 distinct sizes and I have a box leftover). On the replacement board, I would cut the lower tongue portions off, then lay it on top of the opening, using floor adhesive to keep it fixed down.

Is this a bad plan?

My concerns are

Even though the pieces are the same length, there's enough discrepancy for the replacement to either be too big or too small despite appearing the same visually.

Will cutting the lower tongue off weaken the board structurally.

Should the adhesive be only in the tongues/grooves or should i remove the green underlayer of padding and expose subfloor where I should apply the floor adhesive.

The alternative is to take out a ton of boards to get to it and I don't envy that. At that point, I'll get a rug.

Answer 1

You are heading the right way with your first thought, although I rip out the middle 3/4" and chisel out the ends where the saw will not get to. Pulling out the center will allow the saw to stay away from the nails or staples holding the piece down and will let the groove side slip out. Use the chisel at an angle to get the remaining stapled in part by splitting the flooring at the same angle the fasteners go in.

Yes do remove the bottom half of the groove side and glue it in place. Apply wood glue to the tongue and set construction adhesive at the tongue of the board in place so when the new piece goes in the part where the cut off groove is will grab the glue and keep it there.

You new piece should go right on in there. The original one did. and as long as the new one has acclimated to the new area it will go in, that should fit too.