Scratches can happen to nearly every hardwood floor. It is inevitable with even the hardest of hardwood floors. What many customers don't realize is that is a scratch is deep enough, the entire floor is going to have to be sanded down and refinished. This is a very long and expensive process, so naturally other solutions have become possible. Things like wood filler and buffing a floor can make it so that most scratches are not noticeable anymore. Read on to see if any of these solutions might interest you.

Very minor scratches can be taken care of by using a floor cleaner and protective finish. Simply cleaning the minor scratches with the floor finish and covering it with a protective coat such as a shellac can make those minor scratches fade away. Be aware that we really do mean minor scratches. Anything that catches the finger nail is going to need a little bit more work.

"Anything that catches the finger nail is going to need a little bit more work."

Repair small scratches that catch the finger nail by buffing them away. We use a heavy duty buffer to get the whole floor fairly quickly, but a small area can achieve the same effect by using some metal wool. Clean the affected area with wood cleaner and wipe dry. Rub the affected area with wire wool and make sure that you are going in the same direction as the grain. Use the wire tool to very carefully blend in the surrounding area to the area you just buffed. Use a wax stick to cover the scratch and let the wax harden for 10 minutes. 

Occasionally, we'll run into a situation that involves very old wood splintering after we sand it. Something this drastic needs wood filler. The only other solution would be to redo the entire floor, but this would probably fail. Old wood splinters very easily. The best solution would be to get entire new floors, and this is a very expensive proposition. Wood filler blends in with the color of the wood and can even be stained to match the color even better. This really is the best solution for most noticeable splintering as the alternative can cost thousands of dollars.

"Old wood splinters very easily."

As always, let us know if you have any questions in regards to anything above. We try to make it short and sweet and sometimes gloss over some of the nit picky details. Happy sanding!