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 glossy floors a simple magic marker similar to the stain color of the floor can be used if the scratch has penetrated the finish and into the underlying wood itself.

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.

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, but 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.