How To Fix Scratches On Your Hardwood Floor

Hardwood is one of the most preferred flooring material that has lasted for decades in the flooring market. Due to its beautiful and peculiar nature, wood gives an authentic natural look that marvels many residential and commercial homeowners. Especially those who cherish a county floor-look like room space will never let wood out of their floors. Moreover, its ability to have a new look after refinishing justifies the cost of investment. Besides, hardwood floors are easy to clean and allergen free. However, the floors also have shortcomings, just like any other flooring material. Scratches on hardwood floor are a significant problem that may deteriorate the beauty of your floors pretty fast. Many homeowners are struggling with wood floor scratches of varying magnitudes because they do not know how to remove scratches from wood floors.

How to remove scratches on Hardwood floor

Since all the scratches on the wood are not of equal size and depth, they can be of different category such as:

• Mild surface scratch- The scratch exists only on the surface layer, and it is easy to repair.
• Minor scratches- Are scratches that have cut a little bit into the top layer of the wood flooring.
• Deep scratches- Is a relatively deep scratch that hasn’t penetrated the surface.

To repair the hardwood scratches, you need to have tools and materials such as wood filler, soft cloth, water, polyurethane coating, mineral spirits, hardwood floor cleaner, protective coating, wood stain fine steel wool, putty knife, wax repair stick, and scouring pads.

Mild/shallow scratches

It is the most predominant form of wood flooring scratch that may be caused by pets and human nails, grit or hard particles present on the underside of the shoes. The use of hard brooms to scrub the floor surfaces while removing stains and dirt can also result in scratches. You can fix the mild scratches through the following steps:

• Using a hardwood flooring cleaner and a wet piece of soft cloth, clean any excess debris and dirt. Ensure the scratch is clean and free from any form of trash. The practice prevents debris from being enclosed in the scratch. Leave the scratch for some times to allow drying.
• When the surface is dry, you can apply a sealant, protective layer. Alternatively, you can use wood stain on the spot and find out if it conceals the scratch. The dyes are readily available in the wood floor scratch remover home depot near you.

This is the best way to remove light scratches from wood floor.

Repair of minor scratches

It is another kind of scratch though not conspicuous. The scrapes commonly result from furniture movement on the floor surface. Dragging abrasive materials on the wood flooring can also lead to the damage. Below are the steps to fix the damage real quick.

• Use a clean moist piece of cloth, and if you notice that the floor finish has worn out, use a microfiber and a commercial wood floor cleaner to clean the spot. It mainly occurs in high traffic parts of the house. You can avoid the minor scratches by carpeting the major paths and rooms that experience high foot traffic.
• After cleaning the spot, allow it to dry and rub a stick of wax to re-fill the scratch. The wax acts as a wood floor scratch remover and polish. In this step, you can use a putty knife with a plastic tip to feed the wax inside the scratch. It is essential to understand that wood wax is available in a myriad of colors, but you should use the one that matches your flooring to remove scratches from wood floors.
• Allow the wax to acclimate for one to two days before applying any finish or sealant to the area. Afterward, buff the floor using a soft clean cloth to remove the excess wax and smoothen the surface to a shine.

Repair of deep scratches

The deep scratches can be a reason to worry as they make your floor weary and spotty. However, you can still restore the beauty of your wood flooring through the following steps

• Clean the scratch using a soft damp cloth soaked in wood cleaner. Use water to rinse the scratch area and allow it to dry.
• Treat the surface of the scratch using mineral spirit. Always, be sure to remove the wood coating if any before repairing the scratch. Wipe the mineral spirit on the scratch surface using a clean and dry cloth.
• Fill in the deep scratches using wood filler and wipe off the extra wood fillings using a putty knife after a day. This operation is done to make the surface smooth.
• File the excess filling around the scratch using sandpaper of fine grit and clean the dust.
• Finally, apply a sealant of the same color as the rest of the wood floor and apply polyurethane to protect the surface. Clean the repaired surface after the polyurethane dries.