Scratch Repair for Wooden Floors

Please note, we only provide scratche repair service to floors finished or installed by Floorworks™, but here is some DIY advice you can use for any floor and finish.

To avoid confusion, let's get things straight from start - it is best to avoid a problem, rather than trying to fix one. Protect your floors - make sure your furniture is equipped with felt pads or plastic covers, regularly re-coat your oiled floor and when you plan home improvement works or have a delivery company with bulky items for a visit, make sure your floors are well protected.

I Have Scratches, Where Do I Start?

First and most important is, what type of finish your wooden flooring has - is it lacquer or oil? It does make some difference if your flooring is finished with clear oil. Many people are buying "Oiled" or "Brushed & Oiled" floors because they are supposed to be easily repaired when scratch appears. True! but this applies only if you floor is sealed with clear oil and no colour is involved.

Second step is to define - how bad the scratch is? Are these scuffs on the surface of the finish or a scratch that goes through the sealant, exposing bare wood? Scuffs are easier to blend in, by wiping / rubbing small quantity of new sealent (see below) and deeper scratches may need filling.

Third step is also very important - how old is the scratch? Old scratches will change colour, go darker and on clear finished floors they will be difficult to blend in any longer. Fresh scratches will be easier to disguise.

Solution for Clear Finished Floors - Clear Hardwax-Oil

Wether your floors is finished with clear oil or clear lacquer, they can be both treated with some clear hardwax-oil. When surface of lacquer is damaged it will result white powdery edges caused by the plastic PU content of the lacquer.

Application of some clear matt Osmo Polyx oil into the scratch will discolourise the white PU powder and make the scratches less prominent. If the scratches are deeper and some filling is required for better results, the technique is the same as with treating scratches on colour floors.

Solution for Floors with Colour - The Wax Sticks

Best approach for deeper scratches or damage to wood floors, which finish involves colour comes with the application of melted colour wax into the scratches or indented surface. Find a selection of Liberon or Britwax wax repair stick in your nearest Screwfix or Toolstation.

Complete wood floor repair kit is available to buy from us as well at flooringtrade.co.uk.

The Complete Wood Floor Repair Kit

Choose the nearest colour to the finish of your floors and melt some of the wax into the scratches. Remove the excess soft abrasive and polish the surface of the wax with cotton or wool cloth.

That's all. 

Do not forget that by treating the damage to the surface of your floors you also seal it, which will protect it from expanding phisycally due to moisture from environment.

Planks Replacement as Solution

Before excercising the idea of having one or number of planks replaced on your floors due to scratches, make sure first that some spare planks are available. There are many floors on the market from various producers and relying on contractors to identify your floors and find a matching plank is rarely possible.

If spare planks are available, your floor fitter will need to know if the planks are "tongue-and-groove" or "click system". This is very important, as the "click" system planks are more complicated to replace. A photo of the planks will help you fitter identify this.

When Only Sanding is Solution

It is also important to note, that some damage to the wooden floor may be beyond repair. Multiple scratches, deeper indentations or very deep scratches will require complete sanding service for wooden floors.