How To Repair Dent In Hardwood Floor

Fixing dents and scratches in hardwood floors is not as straightforward and unproblematic a process as it may seem. There are numerous factors involved in correctly addressing the damage and restoring the floors to their original appearance, and a few problems can turn a simple touch-up job into a big project.

If you or your clients have hardwood floors that take sustained scratching and denting resulting from high heel use, furniture marks, or general vesture and tear, hither'due south a how-to guide for repairing the problems to the best of your power.

Your starting time step: Determine the extent and cause of the damage

First, figure out how deep have the scratches or dents take penetrated. Modest scratches on the uppermost layer of finish are easier to repair than scratches that have penetrated through the stop and impacted the wood itself.

In mapping out your repair plan, you should also consider the location and noticeability of the scratches. If the scratch crosses five floor boards and it'due south in a high-traffic area of the room, such as at the threshold of a doorway, you lot'll have to practise more extensive repairs that may crave a drum sander rather than but trying to fill it in with a bear upon-upward mark.

Once you have determined the extent and noticeability of the damage, you're on your way to figuring out which method of the post-obit three will be best to use in your situation.

Method #one: Mechanical abrading  for simple only less concealable repairs

To repair a scratch that doesn't fully penetrate through the finish, y'all may be able to mechanically abrade or buff out  the scratch.  Polish information technology out of the stop, and then lightly  recoat or impact upwards  the area. This is a very similar approach to buffing out a lite scratch on your motorcar and then waxing it.

For an oil-modified terminate, use a fine steel wool pad to gently buff out the scratch, taking intendance to motion the pad forth the grain of the forest.

You cannot utilise a fine steel wool pad if you are planning to apply water-based end. The steel wool will get out dust behind that will plow into rust when it interacts with the h2o in the finish. In this case, use a surface training pad (SPP) instead.

After buffing the scratch out of the surface of the finish, recoat the spot.

You lot may also be able to get away with using bear upon-up sticks that match the colour of the cease if the scratch is very low-cal and shallow.

For quick vitrify and sand jobs, shop our line of sanding screens.

Method #two: Wood filler or forest putty for deeper scratches

If the scratch is a flake deeper than surface-level,  fill up the scratch with wood filler that matches the color of the forest, and so recoat.

Like the previous method, this type of fix is only recommended if you are dealing with a small scratch in a small concentrated area. Wood filler is non a proficient product to use if yous're looking to conceal huge, deep scratches because it can't mimic the grain of the woods.

Method #iii: Replace the boards or recoat the floors

In cases where bare forest is exposed, all-encompassing damage is likely, and you lot may need to replace the damaged boards. If the damage is concentrated on one or two boards, y'all should remove and replace the damaged boards.

If you do determine to recoat an isolated area, it will exist difficult to friction match the sheen level in the new finish and thus to hibernate the repair. Very often, the repaired area of the floor volition stand out from the residuum of the floor, even if you try to achieve an exact lucifer between the sheen levels.

If the damage is spread out across the entire room, like dents resulting from high heel utilize, yous may want to consider a good clean and recoat.

This is as well expert method to employ for repairing  extensive scratches that are not deep enough to harm the forest itself—you can screen just deep enough to buff out the scratches while leaving the wood untouched.

If you have to recoat, make sure to clean upwards first.

Cleaning and clearing the floors of all dust before applying the finish coat  is essential to go a beautiful finish.

Later vacuuming up as much debris every bit y'all can, get over the floor with a rag soaked in pure mineral spirits if you are going to recoat with an oil-modified urethane finish. If you lot're going to use a water-based stop, soak the rag in h2o instead of mineral spirits to clean upward.

Brand certain to wring out your rags tightly. They just need to be damp to get those concluding dust particles off the surface.

Allow the floor dry completely earlier yous continue onto recoating the floor. Finish tin only be properly applied to surface that is completely clean and dry out.

Need to recoat? Browse our pick of hardwood flooring finishes.

Exist certain to allow for enough dry out time in betwixt coats as well.

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At present that we've described the possible methods you can apply to remove scratches from your flooring, here are a few pitfalls that y'all can come up across that may force you to alter your repair plan.

Problem #ane: Higher up boilerplate damage for elementary wear and tear? Perform an adhesion test.

If you notice that your floors are sustaining scratches from elementary article of clothing-and-tear usage, such as kitchen chairs scraping across the floor, finish failure might exist the cause of your scratching problem. This means that the finish is not properly adhering to the wood.

You tin test for floor-to-end adhesion by conducting what'south chosen a "tic-tac-toe" adhesion test.

In an inconspicuous surface area of the floor, apply a knife to cutting a cross-hatch pattern into the finish over several different boards. Put  scotch tape over the pattern and so rip it upwardly.

If a high pct the stop transfers to the tape, this ways that the end is not adhering to the forest, and you lot have to sand the whole floor downwardly to bare wood and refinish. If it's just one or two boards that are scratched upwardly and fail the adhesion examination, yous can supervene upon them.

Some other thing to consider is that some prefinished floors contain additives such as ScotchGard and or StainMaster to protect the flooring from stains, and their presence volition prevent new end from adhering properly to the previous layers of finish.

To check for the presence of additives in the previous layers of finish before attempting a recoat, use an inconspicuous spot on the floor to exam out your new finish. If an additive is nowadays, the new finish will bead upward.

If the previous stop contains an additive, you cannot just recoat the floor—yous must sand down to bare wood and apply new coats of finish in order to restore adhesion and eliminate the scratching problem.

Problem #2: Wax- and/or shellac-coated floors? Yous cannot use a simple surface re-coat.

Before you lot can motion on to repairing the impairment, you should do a spot test to determine whether there is wax, or shellac on the surface of the floor. Some of these may strength you to recoat the flooring with the same material rather than using a polyurethane.

You can practise a elementary spot test to determine whether whatever of these are present earlier recoating the floor.

To check for shellac, scratch an camouflaged area of the floor with a sharp object, such as the edge of a money. Flaking can signal the presence of shellac, and this ways that flooring must be refinished in a particular way.

You tin can besides apply denatured booze to test the area. If the denatured alcohol causes the finish to dissolve, it is shellac.

If shellac is the top coat you tin can use a 100 percent dewaxed shellac as your outset coat and and then put poly urethane over it or recoat with 2 coats of 3lb shellac.

To bank check for wax, apply mineral spirits to a clean, white rag. A slightly brown or xanthous colour on the rag indicates that the floor is coated in wax.

If the floors are coated in wax, you must use wax when recoating. If you're dealing with a small scratch on a wax-coated hardwood floor in an isolated expanse, tape around the affected board to isolate it. Rub off the wax, repair the scratch, and so rewax the surface area.

If the flooring isn't coated in wax or shellac, you can go alee and recoat with a regular surface finish.

Trouble #3: Dents and gouges usually require floor replacement.

Stilettos are not friendly with hardwood floors. If you lot detect that your floor is riddled with dents from high heels, you're not going to accept an easy time fixing them because they commonly damage the wood fibers.

Gouges resulting from incorrectly moving heavy furniture across the floor will leave you with a similar problem.

If the impairment is concentrated in a minor area, such as on a unmarried board or a cluster of boards, consider replacing the damaged boards and the surrounding boards to ensure a uniform appearance and a less noticeable repair task.

You lot can also consider sanding down to the blank woods and filling the gouges or dents with wood filler, and then refinishing the surface area that you've repaired. Only this is non likely to result in the nice, uniform advent that you're after. Unless you're uncommonly good at blending wood fillers to match the remainder of the floor, the repair will likely stick out similar a sore pollex.

If dents are spread out over the entire flooring and take impacted the wood itself, replacing the floor may exist the only solution to become rid of them.

The technique of applying a wear atomic number 26 to the wood to "buff out" the dent rarely works, and you can actually further impairment the floor if yous're not careful.

Forbid damage by taking precautions.

Prevention is e'er the best medicine.

Though information technology'due south best to recoat your floors every several years to keep them looking fresh and new, you tin can take a number of steps to preserve your floor's longevity.

To foreclose dents, take high heels off past the door. If you, your housemates, or your guests insist on wearing loftier heels around the firm, make sure that the protective caps on the heels remain intact.

Trim pet nails regularly to prevent them from scratching up the floors, banish pets from areas of the house with hardwood flooring, or live with the pocket-size scratches (similar we do).

Vacuum often to avoid a buildup of dirt and dust that will exist tracked over the floor and end upward scratching it. Put mats near doorways to minimize the amount of dust tracked into the house.Click hereto browse our pick of hardwood floor cleaning products that won't harm your finish.

Almost chiefly, affix furniture pads to the bottoms of chairs, couches, and other heavy furniture, and avoid dragging them across the floor when moving them.

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Feel free to contact us if yous need help repairing damage to your floor, determining what type of repairs will be necessary, or locating a hardwood floor professional in your area who tin do the task. You can reach united states at (800) 737-1786 or info@cityfloorsupply.com.

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(Image credits: freedigitalphotos.net; pixabay.com; "Shellac board" by Nuberger13 at en.wikipedia – Ain work. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons – http://eatables.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shellac_board.JPG#mediaviewer/File:Shellac_board.JPG)

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Source: https://blog.cityfloorsupply.com/repairing-dents-and-scratches-in-hardwood-floors/

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