| If you own a hardwood floor, you know just how | | | | After it is stained, apply wax coating and buff. |
| fragile your beautiful flooring can sometimes be when | | | | If, on the other hand, your hardwood floor scratch |
| it comes to spills, accidents, or scratches. In this | | | | repair needs to be more extensive, you have a |
| article, we're going to present some strategies for | | | | couple of options. First, you can do the work |
| repairing damage to hardwood flooring. Although you | | | | yourself, which will require an electric sander and is a |
| can apply our techniques to any hardwood floor | | | | little bit tricky. If this doesn't seem like a good option, |
| damage, we are going to be focusing on scratches | | | | you can ask the manufacturer of your flooring to |
| and gouges. | | | | recommend someone to help you with hardwood |
| When your hardwood floor receives a light scratch, it | | | | floor scratch repair. |
| is always possible that the scratch has not | | | | If you are going to do the repair yourself, basically |
| penetrated through the wax coating to the actual | | | | you will be stripping a single board (or more than a |
| wood. Examine the scratch carefully. If you see a | | | | single board, if the scratch is long) down to the bare |
| lighter color (the color of the actual wood) deep | | | | wood. First, strip the wax coating on your |
| inside the scratch, you've probably damaged the | | | | floorboards. Next, consult your flooring manufacturer |
| wood. If not, simply strip your wax coating and | | | | to find out the right way to strip any sealant, |
| reapply it, finishing with a good buffing. | | | | coloring, or varnish from the board. |
| Sometimes, even if a scratch has penetrated to the | | | | When this is finished, you can use an electric sander |
| wood, it has not cut into the subsurface wood. | | | | to sand the board smooth. If the scratch does not |
| Instead, it has just lightly damaged the wood varnish | | | | dig in too deeply, you may be able to get away with |
| or coloring. For repairing hardwood floors with this | | | | a light sanding of just the area surrounding the |
| problem, contact the manufacturer of your flooring | | | | scratch. Otherwise, the entire board will need sanding |
| to get a small amount of varnish or coloring that | | | | and leveling. Once the scratch has disappeared, you |
| matches your floor. Follow directions, except that | | | | can reapply varnish and coatings and then (after they |
| you will be doing your hardwood floor scratch repair | | | | have dried) reapply a wax coating and buff for a final |
| in miniature, using a q-tip to re-stain the scratch. | | | | shine. |