DIY Tip – How To Repair Hardwood Floor Scratches

Getting scratches and scuffs on hardwood floors is unfortunately inevitable, especially if you have a busy family. If your floors are looking less than stellar, you don’t need to panic right away! There are a few simply ways you can fix small problems to keep your floors looking great.

1. Use Crayons & Sharpie

Try rubbing on stain-matching crayons and Sharpie pens to hide scratch marks. Wax sticks, such as Minwax Stain Markers, are great scratch busters because they include stain and urethane, which protects the floor’s finish.

Mix and match a few colors till it blends in. And don’t worry if the color is a little off. Real hardwoods mix several tones. As long as you cover the contrasting “white” scratches, color imperfections will match just fine.

2. Sand Deep Scratches

It takes time to repair wood gouges: Sand, fill, sand again, stain, and seal. Here are some tips to make the job go faster.

• Sand with fine-gauge steel wool or lightweight sandpaper.
• Always sand with the grain.
• Use wood filler, which takes stain better than wood putty.
• Use a plastic putty knife to avoid more scratches.
• Seal the area with polyurethane, or whatever product was used on the floor originally.
• Apply the polyurethane coat with a lambs wool applicator, which avoids air bubbles in the finish.

This will help any big spots, at least until you feel like getting your floors repaired.