Four Tips for Repairing Scratched Hardwood Flooring

30 Jul Four Tips for Repairing Scratched Hardwood Flooring

Hardwood floors are best known for their great looks and long lasting durability.  However, they are not indestructible.  Their weaknesses are a susceptibility to dampness and moisture and, depending on the colour and hardness of the individual species, a potential for showing scratches.  If you have a large dog in the house or you’ve done some heavy duty moving of furniture, you may find your hardwood marred by scratches.  However, all is not lost.  Scratches can be repaired.  To help restore your floor back to its original look, we provide these four tips for repairing scratched hardwood flooring.

Ease Of Repair

The type of repair you’ll need to make really depends on the type of scratch.  Correspondingly, the type of flooring you have will also dictate how you should proceed.  Site finished floors are generally easier to repair than pre-finished floors largely due to the industrial coating that exists on the latter.  Scratches that run with the grain of the wood will also be easier to repair than those that run across the grain.

Cleaning The Affected Area

Before you begin you’ll need to clean the affected area.  Sweep up any dust or dirt in the area and follow that up with a hardwood floor cleaning product.  You’ll need to ensure the product won’t leave any coating and doesn’t contain any waxes as you’re trying to remove these types of sealants, not add to them.

Shallow Scratches

Shallow and narrow scratches will require less detailed work and can often be repaired with some careful colour blending.  Depending on the colour of your floors you might be able to hide the scratch by rubbing a piece of walnut or a solution of olive oil and vinegar over the spot.  If this doesn’t work, test a suitably coloured resin based floor marker or a bit of wood stain on a hidden part of the floor to ensure it matches properly.  If you need to do any sanding to smooth out any rough edges, lightly use a piece of super fine grade of steel wool to buff out the margins.

Deeper Scratches

Deeper scratches will require filling.  If you have a large number of deep scratches over a wide area, you might consider sanding down the entire floor.  For an individual scratch carefully apply a bit of wood filler so that it stays within the affected area while quickly wiping up any overflow.  Allow it to completely dry before sanding it down to floor level without touching the floor itself.  Once set, you can colour the filler to match the floor.