Hardwood Floor Scratch Repair

Yikes! Those nasty scratches on my new hardwood floors! What to do? Some scratching can easily be fixed with wax sticks sometimes offered with prefinished hardwood floor manufacturer care kits. Often with non

For minor scratching on most new prefinished floors a q-tip and matching finish sheen can be applied to the scratch, making sure not to over apply, otherwise you may see it in the right amount of light looking across the floor. It is important to check with the manufacturer to see what type of finish was used on the floor itself if handling larger problem scratches.

Major Scratches from Furniture or Appliance Movement

We see the emails often. The appliance guys pushed the new refrigerator back into place and left some very deep scratches in the new floor. In this case there may not be an easy fix. The only real solution to some floors if they are engineered for example, and cannot be refinished and stained successfully is removing and replacing the boards that are damaged.

In our serious case scenario, it is important when buying a prefinished floor to buy extra material in case problems like this occur. It may be a few years before the material is actually needed. However, a few years down the road you may find the product color or style has been discontinued. Finding an extra box can be extremely frustrating. Often you are left with three choices; live with the scratches, cover it up with a large rug that doesn't look right, or replace the entire area.

Site Finished Hardwood - Spot Sanding

Let's say we have an area that has affected two boards. Once again finding the matching sheen that was used for the original surface coat is important as any old finish type will not work well. Using 3M blue type tape, mask off the repair perimeter at the board seams. Hand sand gently and consistently over the entire area until the scratches are removed. Apply finishes in the same manner the original floor was done. Sealer, allow to dry, screen by hand sanding with a progressively finer grit, tack and apply finish coats. Always remove tape after coating.

Aluminum Oxide or Ceramic Type Finishes

These types of finishes will be much harder to repair by using the spot sanding method mentioned above. Better solutions lie in obtaining a matching finish sheen applied with a Q-tip or individual board replacements.