How to Fix a Scratch on Wooden Floor
Wooden floors add elegance to any room of the home. If you have hardwood floors, at some point you will likely encounter a scratch. Scratches on wood floors can stem from a variety of sources, ranging from shoes, to moving furniture, to dropping items on the floor. Save money by fixing wood floor scratches yourself. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Steel wool pad
- 180-grit sandpaper
- Soft rags
- Mineral spirits
- Premixed wood filler
- Plastic putty knife
- Hardwood floor finish
- Natural-bristle paint brush
Instructions
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Roughen up the scratched area of the floor. Rub over light surface scratches with a steel wool pad. Use 180-grit sandpaper for deeper scratches. Rub over the entire length of the scratch several times, applying moderate pressure and rubbing in the direction of the woods grain.
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Moisten a soft rag with mineral spirits. Wipe down the scratch and the surrounding area with the rag to smooth out the area and remove the dust and particles created from sanding. Allow the wooden floor to dry completely from the mineral spirits, which may take only a few minutes or several hours, depending on how large of a scratch you are dealing with.
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Use premixed wood filler to fill in the scratch. Choose a wood filler that matches the color of the existing floor.
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Dip a plastic putty knife into the container of filler to scoop out a generous amount. If the filler came in a tube, squirt a generous amount of filler directly over the scratch.
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Run the plastic putty knife back and forth over the scratch several times to smooth out the putty and fill in the scratch. Apply some force when running the putty knife back and forth so that the filler is forced down into the scratch. Continue this process until the putty is almost flush with the existing floor.
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Allow the filler to dry completely. Refer to the manufacturer's instructions for specific drying times as this may vary between products.
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Sand the wood filler using 180-grit sandpaper. Use care when sanding so that you are only sanding the wood filler and not the surrounding wood floor.
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Refinish the affected area of the wood floor because sanding and filling the scratch removed the floor finish. Dip a natural-bristle paint brush into a can of floor finish. Lightly brush a thin coat of finish over the affected area of the floor. Smooth out the finish by gently running a soft cloth over the area. Allow the finish to dry according to the manufacturer's instructions.
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Tips & Warnings
Use the floor finish that was originally used on your wooden floors when repairing a scratch. If you do not have the exact finish, choose a finish that is very similar.
For very light scratches, lightly rub the scratch with steel wool, and apply a thin coat of finish. It may not be necessary to fill the scratch with wood filler.
Only use a plastic putty knife when repairing your wooden floor. Metal putty knives may cause more scratches.
References
- Photo Credit Pattern of wood - can be used as background image by Elnur from Fotolia.com
