Gleaming hardwood floors are an asset.
When potential buyers step into your home, their natural tendency is to look down to see what they are stepping onto. This is where the condition of your floors can make or break the all important first impression.
As a home stager, clients often ask if I have encountered solutions to some of the issues they have with their home. I like to learn and pass on as much information as I can. Recently, a client asked me if I knew any way to repair scratches in hardwood floors. I did a little research and compiled the following.
First of all, is it a surface scratch or would it be more accurately called a gouge which goes all the way through the finish? Can you ascertain what type of finish has been used on the floor – wax, polyurethane, or varnish? To find out if there is a wax finish, drop a little water on the surface and let it stand for 10 minutes. If the surface starts to turn white, there is wax on it. Finally, is it a shiny, semi-gloss, satin or matte finish?
Your first step in any case is to clean the scratched area. A clean cloth and commercial wood cleaner is a safe bet to use. Home Depot has a product called Minwax Hardwood Floor Cleaner which should do the trick.
If the floor has a wax finish, light scratches can probably be hidden by applying paste floor wax and buffing it thoroughly. Caution, if you apply wax to a Polyurethane finished floor, you will have problems re-coating with Polyurethane in future as it won’t stick properly to the wax.
For other non-wax finishes which are dull or worn you can try the Minwax Hardwood Floor Reviver, available in both high and low gloss at Home Depot. No sanding is required. You just squirt it on the floor, spread it out thinly with a synthetic paint pad and let dry for a couple of hours as directed. Be careful to keep the coat thin and even. Do not shake the product because you don’t want to get bubbles in the finish. Altough the product literature mentions using it for scratches, a client of mine tried this product on light coloured pre-finished engineered hardwood where the main problem was a lot of small scratches from animals’ claws. The flooring looked somewhat better, but the scratches were still visible.
A product called Howards’s Restore-A-Finish was recommended and has many testimonials online. http://www.howardproducts.com/restora.htm There are a variety of colours so you select a match or the next lighter if you can’t exactly match. It’s a potent sounding cocktail of chemicals which dissolves a little of the existing finish and floating it into the scratches. I have not had time to hunt down a Canadian retailer of this product, but appears that you can order it from online suppliers.
For quick touch ups you can use stain markers in a matching colour. Run them along the scratch, then wipe off any excess.
For slightly deeper scratches you can use a wax stick especially for repairing furniture and floor scratches. Get one that matches the colour of your floor as closely as possible. You can use them in conjunction with the stain markers, applying the wax first, then tinting it with the marker.
Rub the stick into the scratches. Or, melt the wax from the stick and flow it into the scratch. When it cools and hardens, carefully scrape off the excess with a plastic scraper being careful not to cause additional scratches in your floor. After removing the excess, buff the area with a clean dry cloth and tint it with a marker if required.
For prefinished hardwood flooring, the gentlemen at Clayton Flooring in Kingston told me your best bet is to get a matching touch up kit from the manufacturer. This will ensure that the touch up product bonds properly with the existing finish. They also recommend replacing the scratched board, assuming you have one left from the original installation. This would be the only satisfactory solution for deep goughes or prominent scratches. The problem with these two suggestions is the lead time required to order in the kit or the time required to get an installer to do your replacement. It may not be a feasible option if you are in a hurry to get your house ready for showings. It you have numerous scratches all over the place, this will method may also not be worth it because of the labour and amount of materials required.
If you get a scratch refinish kit, consult the instructions that come with it. This is roughly what the procedure will be like. You will start by very carefully roughing up the finish around the scratch to accept new finish. Do your rough up with very fine sandpaper if your touch up product is water based. You can use very fine 0000 steel wool instead of sand paper if your touch up product is oil based.
Sand very carefully along the scratches, feathering out on each side. Go with the grain, or in circular motions if the scratch is across the grain or if you are working on a parquet floor.
After sanding, dampen a rag with mineral spirits and wipe up all the fine dust you have created. You can use a rag dampened with water if your touch up product is water based. In either case, allow the area to dry thoroughly before proceeding.
Next, take a small artists paint brush. Dip the tips into your touch up product and blot off any excess. Lightly paint the finish onto your scratch working along the grain. Feather out the edges of your paint work. Use thin coats to avoid having a puddle of touch up. Protect the area from traffic until thoroughly dry.
As you can see, these methods are not very quick or easy. However, since floors are such an important selling feature, some elbow grease could pay off on your sale.
Author, Martha Stanton-Smith, owner of Rearrangements, is a Certified Canadian Staging Professional who helps serious home sellers in Kingston, Ontario get full worth for their homes. She completed her staging training in 2006. Visit her profile here:
