How to Fix Veneer That is Lifting

Don’t pass up a piece of furniture because you don’t know how to fix veneer that is llifting! We’ve got solutions on how to fix veneer!

How to Fix Veneer that is Lifting

Repairing veneer isn’t as scary as it seems. There are plenty of things to spook you, but how to fix bubbled or missing veneer shouldn’t be one of them!

I love to try new things and then pass that learning along to you but instead of my usual abundance of information all at once, I’m splitting this project into manageable chunks and will get to the final reveals another time! I promise, it will be worth the wait (there are links at the end of this post)!

When I stumbled on this Singer sewing table at Value Village, I thought twice about buying it, then couldn’t help but bring it home with us. Although the sewing machine was long gone, I could only imagine the wondrous things that were stitched together at this very table!

We always easily find the metal stands but bases with the original wooden top are harder to come by. I’ll bet that’s because most people only think the metal is salvageable; a table top in this condition usually ends up in the garbage because of all the veneer repairs it needs. Despite the water damage and missing/cracked veneer, I can’t wait to show you that there’s still plenty of life left in this ol’ gal – and the table too! 🙂

Singer sewing table for how to fix veneer that is lifting

How to fix lifting veneer on furniture

Water Damaged Wood Veneer

You really can’t go wrong for only $14.99, however we had a lot of veneer repair ahead of us and I’ve never personally tackled a project like this! Luckily I have a great teacher in Hubs!

With all the condition issues and variety of veneer repair scenarios, it’s a great practice piece but not a good candidate for stain because of the water damaged wood, so we moved forward with the intention of painting it.

Have you ever passed up a piece of furniture because you don't know how to fix veneer that is llifting? We've got solutions on how to fix veneer! Birdz of a Feather | how to fix veneer | how to fix veneer tabletop | how to fix veneer on furniture | how to fix bubbled veneer on furniture | how to fix wood veneer furniture repair | veneer repair | wood veneer repair | how to repair wood veneer | wood veneer repair | chipped veneer repair | how to fix chipped veneer | birdzofafeather.ca

How to Fix Bubbled Veneer

If your piece has a noticeable bubble or blister in the veneer, slice the wood along the grain and inject under the wood with glue. The lid of my table has this big bubble conveniently cracked down the centre. Were it not for the split, I would have to cut into the bubble to get glue underneath anyway, so in a roundabout way, this was a timesaver!

How to fix veneer that is lifting: bubble that is cracked

wood table water damage bubble; one example of veneer lifting on table

Alligator Finish

There were missing chunks of veneer as you can see in the top right corner of the picture below. The finish itself was alligatored. A piece of tape easily lifted off the finish!

Although the alligatoring looks bad, sanding will take care of it.

Peeling finish before how to fix veneer

Prep Work

Before we could tackle one problem at a time, Hubs removed the base and blew each piece with the help of an air compressor.

You could vacuum instead but the blown air gets into all the nooks and crannies to release years of accumulated dust that a vacuum could never reach.

We disassembled the rest of the table into manageable pieces so we could work on repairing each one individually.

Make sure to put any hardware into a sealable bag and label it. Take tons of pictures of the disassembly process so you’ll know exactly how to put it back together again!

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Look over each piece and apply a piece of green tape as a marker so you don’t forget to repair a spot. Nothing’s more frustrating than thinking you’re ready to move onto the next step, but there’s still veneer to glue or fill!

How to Fix Veneer That is Lifting

* [If you’re looking for some of the things we used, we’ve got you covered (disclosure): Clicking on the affiliate links below means we may receive a commission. But don’t worry, you don’t pay a cent more and it helps us make more unique DIYs to share with you! Thanks for helping to support our blog!]

Don’t waste your money on a glue syringe for veneer work unless it has a good selection of thin blunt needles to get into tight spots (we’ll show you what a good set looks like a bit later). I had this particular syringe in my craft stash and quickly discovered that it was useless for this purpose!

The Best Glue for Wood Veneer Repair

Use a good wood glue. Some popular ones are Titebond, Elmers or Gorilla Glue.

How to Reglue Veneer

In lieu of the proper glue syringe, the next best thing is to pour some glue into a plastic lid.

Use a thin piece of stiff material, such as this laminate edging, to scoop some glue.

Glue in a lid with piece of laminate shim to apply for repairing veneer

how to reglue veneer

Push it under the veneer as far as you can and move it around. Apply glue as many times as needed to get a good thin coat under the wood.

Veneer repair; glued bubble

Veneer repair before clamping

Wipe away any glue that oozes out with a damp cloth.

Cloth wiping away glue for repairing veneer

The best thing to put right on top of the repair is waxed paper before it’s clamped. We didn’t have waxed paper so improvised with paper and a piece of plastic wrap to prevent sticking to the weight (the glue will seep through). We didn’t have a long enough clamp to reach the middle, so used an antique iron instead.

Use a heavy weight, such as an iron, for repairing veneer

Fix Veneer Edges

On the edges, we used blocks of wood under clamps to prevent marks.

Piece of wood and clamp for repairing veneer

Once dry, the veneer is nice and flat again. The paper that is stuck to the surface will be sanded right off. Again, waxed paper is more ideal so use it if you have it!

Paper stuck to surface of veneer repair

Veneer repair after glue is dry

How to Repair Missing Veneer

For large pieces of missing veneer, you still must go through the process of gluing down the edges and clamping first as I did above.

repairing veneer on the edges

After letting it dry and removing the paper/plastic on top, it’s time to fill with wood filler!

Closeup of repairing veneer shows edge that needs wood filler

First tape along the edge with green painters tape.

Taping edge of veneer

Repairing Veneer with Wood Filler

Apply more green tape around the entire patch until it’s completely surrounded. Now it’s time for the wood filler. Famowood is Hubs’ favourite brand because it won’t crack or shrink; it also cleans up easily!

Wood filler and taped section for repairing veneer

For large pieces of missing veneer like this, Hubs scores the field of the repair to provide some tooth for the wood filler to stick to. Use a utility knife to cross hatch as shown.

Scoring a section before how to fix veneer

With a putty knife that’s as wide as the repair, scoop some filler out of the container and close the lid (which we forgot to do!).

Wood filler used in how to fix veneer

Start at one end and make a first pass with the putty knife.

Spreading wood filler with putty knife

Make as many passes as necessary to smooth it out to the same thickness.

Smoothing wood filler with putty knife

Hubs likes to feather the edges of the filler into the tape. Don’t worry if it’s a little high on the actual edge.

Have you ever passed up a piece of furniture because you don't know how to fix veneer that is llifting? We've got solutions on how to fix veneer! Birdz of a Feather | how to fix veneer | how to fix veneer tabletop | how to fix veneer on furniture | how to fix bubbled veneer on furniture | how to fix wood veneer furniture repair | veneer repair | wood veneer repair | how to repair wood veneer | wood veneer repair | chipped veneer repair | how to fix chipped veneer | birdzofafeather.ca

Remove the tape.

Removing tape from around wood filler for how to fix veneer

Famowood dries in 15 only minutes! Once dry, it acts just like real wood and is ready to sand. Apparently, Famowood is available in many different wood colours and you can stain it too. I’d be curious to see how it takes stain – another time 🙂

Have you ever passed up a piece of furniture because you don't know how to fix veneer that is llifting? We've got solutions on how to fix veneer! Birdz of a Feather | how to fix veneer | how to fix veneer tabletop | how to fix veneer on furniture | how to fix bubbled veneer on furniture | how to fix wood veneer furniture repair | veneer repair | wood veneer repair | how to repair wood veneer | wood veneer repair | chipped veneer repair | how to fix chipped veneer | birdzofafeather.ca

How to Fix Veneer Chips

For small chips on the edge, apply one piece of tape and use wood filler to fill in the missing veneer.

Small chips on edge with green tape before how to fix veneer

Put a piece of plastic over the container of the wood filler before closing the lid – or store it upside down – to help prevent the filler from drying out.

Wood Glue Injection Syringe

Using the proper glue syringe just makes things so much easier. I regret not purchasing glue syringes before getting started because they would have been the ideal tool to fill the bubble I showed you earlier. Sometimes I’m so excited to start a project that I jump ahead before I should!

Glue syringes

This set is great because it comes with several barrels and blunt-end needles in a variety of gauges.

Nothing is better than a needle-tipped syringe for applying glue in awkward spots or deep into cracks.

Glue syringe on top of how to fix veneer before

Just fill the barrel with glue.

Squeeze the glue under the veneer, wipe the excess off with a damp cloth and clamp as explained earlier.

syringe with glue above veneer repair

Remove the glue from the syringe. Clean and rinse thoroughly; this glue syringe should last a lifetime. Unless you’re like us and completely forgot to wash it out in time! Don’t be like us 🙂

With the repairs done, it’s finally time to sand!

Sanding

Sanding is best done outside where you don’t have to be concerned about kicking up dust. We arranged all our pieces like an assembly line and set up our workbench in the driveway.

For larger pieces like the lid (this is the one that had the ‘bubbled’ veneer), we used an electric sander to smooth it. Don’t go to town and sand too deep or you’ll go right through the veneer and have to patch again! Use a light touch to get things relatively smooth.

Sandling table top of how to fix veneer

We use old socks to get off the initial sanding dust. Then we lightly mist a clean cotton cloth with water to remove the rest.

Wood dust on sock

The drawers were in good shape. Because the knob was in the way (it’s glued in so can’t be removed), we hand sanded with a fine sanding sponge.

The goal is just to give enough tooth for the primer to stick to the surface. You don’t have to sand the finish back to bare wood.

Sanding drawer front with sanding sponge

Glue or Fill?

As we were sanding the drawer surround, a piece of veneer chipped right off the edge. If you happen to have the chipped piece, it’s really up to you whether you want to glue it back or replace it with wood filler. If you’re already at the sanding stage by this point, opt for wood filler. Gluing is a longer, more involved process so if you fill, after 15 minutes of dry time you’ll be caught up again.

Since we already had other things drying that we used the syringe on, we glued and clamped. In this case, Hubs just smeared the glue on with his finger; you don’t always need fancy tools 🙂

Have you ever passed up a piece of furniture because you don't know how to fix veneer that is llifting? We've got solutions on how to fix veneer! Birdz of a Feather | how to fix veneer | how to fix veneer tabletop | how to fix veneer on furniture | how to fix bubbled veneer on furniture | how to fix wood veneer furniture repair | veneer repair | wood veneer repair | how to repair wood veneer | wood veneer repair | chipped veneer repair | how to fix chipped veneer | birdzofafeather.ca

Other Veneer Repairs

How to Fix Veneer Furniture

So now that you know how to fix veneer that is lifting, the final prep before paint is to prime. But there’s more to learn about how to repair a veneer table top that has different issues than this one. See how to make wood filler look like wood grain!

Pin How to Fix Veneer

We’ll discuss primer selection in more detail when we reveal the sewing table! Until then, pin away and then check out the links below before you go!

Have you ever passed up a piece of furniture because you don't know how to fix veneer that is llifting? We've got solutions on how to fix veneer! Birdz of a Feather | how to fix veneer | how to fix veneer tabletop | how to fix veneer on furniture | how to fix bubbled veneer on furniture | how to fix wood veneer furniture repair | veneer repair | wood veneer repair | how to repair wood veneer | wood veneer repair | chipped veneer repair | how to fix chipped veneer | birdzofafeather.ca

Given what we had to work with, you’ll be surprised at how great this vintage sewing table looks now. The first reveal is our sewing table makeover. Then we got more creative with our Hudson’s Bay Point Blanket Inspired Upcycle and Ikea Hack.

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4 thoughts on “How to Fix Veneer That is Lifting

  1. Sara, I am truly amazed. I didn’t know this was possible. I have to pin it, because I see pieces like this often…and may even have a few that I’ve kind of written off. Great job…and thanks for sharing!!

    • You’re welcome and thanks for pinning Kim; it means a lot to me. And here I was worried that content without a beauty shot or reveal would go unnoticed! With the success of this project, I don’t think I’ll ever pass up another item in such bad shape again. I have two reveals planned for this one; can’t wait to share them 🙂

  2. Oh my I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a comprehensive tutorial on how to fix veneer. You explained every step so well and seeing the actual photos and how you repaired certain spots makes such a big difference. Just like Kim I’ve pinned it too. I’ll be coming back over and over and can’t wait to see what you do with this beauty

    • Thanks Michelle for your kind words and for pinning too! It’s always fun and challenging to try something new and Hubs is such a great teacher 🙂

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