How To Repair Scratches in Engineered Hardwood Floor

You have installed beautiful engineered flooring, maybe last month or maybe last year, only to realize that your fear of damage to the floor has come to fruition. But no need to fret there are answers to fix that scratch in your floor. Due to the fact that engineered floors are not completely solid hardwood they cannot be sanded and refinished indefinitely, so your options are a little more limited than with solid hardwood.

The best way to fix a scratch, or two, in your floor is to purchase a wax-based repair kit. These are available from your local hardware or home improvement store. Here’s a list of everything you will need to complete the repair

• Washcloth
• Rubbing alcohol
• Cotton swabs (like Q-Tips)
• Floor repair wax in a shade to match your floor
• Plastic putty knife
• Clean cotton cloth in white, or an old-fashioned style baby diaper

Here is a step-by-step guide to fix the scratch in your floor, and any future scratches you might come across in the lifetime of your floors

Step # 1

Wipe the area where the scratches are with the washcloth dipped in a small amount of the rubbing alcohol.

Step # 2

Next take the Q-Tip and dip it into rubbing alcohol as well, then run it along the length of the scratch to make sure it is completely clean of any dirt or debris that might have been pushed into the scratch during every day wear and tear.

Step # 3

Get your floor wax repair kit and mix it as per directions included in the kit. You can confirm your colour matches by holding a sample of the wax over your floor and compare the shade.

Step # 4

Take a bit of the wax and put it onto the plastic putty knife. Push the mixture and press it down into the scratch on a diagonal angle. You can push the flat end of the knife of the scratch to get rid of any extra wax that may have been on the floor.

Step # 5

Take the cotton cloth and lightly – very lightly – buff the floor to get rid of any excess material or wax that might be left on the floor. Make sure you are doing this very, very lightly so that you are not removing any of the wax that you just pushed into the scratch on the floor.

So instead of thinking that you have to refinish your engineered flooring once you have one or two scratches in you can purchase these repair kits to fill any scratches in your floor. Every day living can put serious stress on your floor, as they take the most wear every day. The best thing about these repair kits is they come in a variety of shades to make sure it matches your floor properly. You can refinish your engineered flooring, once or twice, but to avoid that large project this way of repairing scratches will ultimately save you a lot of time and money, and will also extend the life of your floors.