How to Repair Scratches on Wood Floors and Furniture

If you have wood furniture and flooring, you're likely to have scratches to your beautiful floors and furniture sometimes. You can either have a professional to do the repairs or save money by learning how to do them yourself.

Difficulty:

Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Crayons
• Markers
• Wood filler
• Wood burning knife
• Steel wool

1. Purchase a self-help book or borrow one from the library if you have no experience in repairing wood products and the damage is quite extensive. For small repairs or minor scratches, simple household items can really improve upon an otherwise unsightly blemish.

2. Borrow a crayon from your child. Crayons will work in a pinch for a really minor scratch. Simply find a close match in color and fill it in. Buff it to a nice sheen and it will stay.

3. Use a marker for deeper scratches. This is a bit trickier. Home improvement stores sell specialty markers for wood products that come in a variety of shades and hues of wood tones. This makes it easier to find the right shade, but they are really glorified markers that are over-priced. You can buy your own in any mass retail store for a fraction of the cost.

4. Purchase some specialty wood fillers and waxes for those heavily damaged pieces. This repair job, though it looks quite simple, is actually pretty difficult to master. You will want to match up the color of the wood with the stick of filler. Take a wood-burning knife and melt off the stick close to the table and fill it in and smooth it out. This takes a delicate touch as you do not want to burn the un-damaged surrounding area.

5. Use some very fine steel wool (size #00000) to buff out minor imperfections. Polish it up with over-the-counter polishing compounds that also fill in blemishes.

Tips & Warnings

• When filling in scratches using crayons, markers or fillers, always start with the lightest color first. If you use a cream compound that you can mix prior to filling, mix a lighter color to start. You can always darken up, but you cannot lighten up.

• Furniture stores usually staff their own repair technicians and will gladly make house calls for a price. They aren't cheap, but a good technician can restore a piece to mint condition.

• Be extremely careful with a woodburning knife. These get hot enough to cause severe burns and can start fires quite readily.