Speaking of hardwood floors, scratching?

[strollerqueen]

I picked a shiny dark hardwood floor throughout the bottom of our new house. We haven't even finished moving in yet, and it is getting scratched up EVERYWHERE! It is already looking terrible! It was not installed like that. It is just happening from just normal moving in, moving around furniture, etc. (and we are trying to be careful!) Is this just the nature of the beast with the type of flooring I chose? Could it be defective somehow? Is there a sealant or coating I can put on it to preserve it? And is there something I can do to take out the existing scratches? (Some are clearly too deep, like the ones where the plumber dragged out the gas stove, without putting down cardboard or a rug or anything. Now HE was not careful! But I don't think he realized just how much damage he would do.) Thank you in advance.

[strollerqueen]

Any ideas? Am I doomed to a brand new, badly scratched hardwood floor?

[elektra]

We just moved too and our brand new wood floor is scratched as well. The culprit is not the movers though, it's our two dogs and their nails. Just bumping this since I would also love any suggestions on this same exact topic!

[BeachBum]

From what I understand, that is just what happens. Some floors deal with it better than others. I've been reading about this quite a bit on garden web as we are about to put something down.
We have bamboo--and while it was lovely when it was first installed it looks like total crap now. It has a high shine and a slightly modern feel--so now that it is lived in it just looks aweful. But my friends who have oak, or pine or whatever theirs of course scratches and dents too but it just looks natural/patina.

I do think you could hold your plumber accountable for the scratches he made, but I think that just depends on how big of a hardass you want to be, strollerqueen.

[veronica]

We put in all new hardwood last year and the first scratch felt like the "first scratch" that you get on a new car. Totally painful, but almost inevitable. You can get some wood putty (at Home Depot and the like) that matches your color floor and put in the larger scratches to try and smooth them. You can also buy what I call markers that basically match the color of your wood but you can fill in the sratch to at least have the color back.

Otherwise, that's all I have seen out there.

[thomma]

My sister had shiny dark hardwood put in her house when it was built. It looked beautiful...then they moved in. :) You can see e.v.e.r.y scratch. She regrets her choice.

Kim
ds&dd 5/03

[bethie_73]

I don't know of anything you can do except put pads on furniture to minimize scratching.

My in-laws sand theirs and refinish them every couple of years.

[ThreeofUs]

Just happens, and unfortunately dark stains show scratches much more than lighter stains.

Once you're all moved in and have pads on the bottoms of your furniture and furniture feet, call a floor refinisher.

IMHO, though, shiny wood floors look ... too new, almost flashy. I much prefer our floors now that they've had a few years to age gracefully and dull down a bit. But then, my floors aren't dark and don't show every scratch....

[Momof3Labs]

We've had hardwood in two houses now. The first house had natural oak floors and was sealed with a few coats of poly. They scratched, but it wasn't too visible to the naked eye (except for the deepest scratches). This house has dark-stained oak floors, and the scratches are much more annoying when they go down to the wood. If you have dark-stained wood floors, it is inevitable that you'll get visible scratches. I haven't explored a way to address it short of sanding and refinishing (not practical for us with almost 2600 sf of hardwood in the house).

[khm]

What kind of wood is it?

We have dark, high gloss Brazilian Cherry, which I guess is not related to American Cherry. It was here when we moved it and was about 5 years old then. I've read it is SUPER hard, and we don't really have much issue with it. There is a scratch by the fridge, looks like from installing or moving it. But, dropping heavy canned goods and other day to day life leaves it unscathed.

I think you need to go over to www.gardenweb.com or just google the type you have and learn what care for it involves. It's possible that you need more poly. I'd definitely wait until you get more settled, since moving us just hard on flooring.

[strollerqueen]

Thanks. I can't recall what type of wood it is. But I never expected it to look all scratched up so quickly. I have had hardwood floors before, and never noticed any scratches. But they were lighter colored, older, and very broken in. On this floor, you see the beautiful dark wood, and then white scratches all over the place. It looks awful. I wish I would have been forewarned. It makes me wonder why they even sell something that doesn't hold up well at all.

[khm]

Did you build this house, or, do you know the flooring installer? If so, I'd call them and (calmly :)) ask for guidance. There might be any easy clean-up remedy or there might be a problem that needs addressed. It wouldn't seem that your floors should look awful so soon after moving in.

If you don't know who installed them, I'd just call a local flooring company. You could possibly email them pictures and they could tell you what type it is and you can at least go from there.

[jayali]

We had wood put down in our kitchen and then we had it stained in a checkerboard pattern - but we kept one of the squares a light natural version and the alternate just a shade or two darker. American cherry is a very soft wood and it shows every little ding and scratch (wish someone would have told me that from the beginning). The man who stained the pattern for us told us to go to a furniture store and get those "scratch corrector" pens. I am not sure of the real name, but the people at the furniture store knew exactly what we were talking about. Anyway we kind of lucked out because we were able to get a very close match to the darker color. I only used them once and then used lemon oil over the area that I "fixed". It looks OK, but quite honestly after a few months I got used to the "lived in" look and I guess I don't see the scratches anymore.

Anyone reading this who is re-doing a kitchen - Note to self, either a very hardwood in the kitchen or go with something else!

[LBW]

I'd expect to see some scratches in the glossy polyurethane layer, but what you are describing sounds like scratches that go all the way down past the stain into the wood. That sounds a bit extreme, if you ask me, for a new floor that you are being careful with. Those kind of scratches should rarely happen on a properly finished floor.

Was this floor finished on site? or prefinished? If it's prefinished, it should have a warranty to cover this. If it was finished on site, I'd ask the installer to look at it and recommend a fix. They should have finished it with at least two coats of poly on top of the stain. Each coat should have been allowed to dry thoroughly before the next was applied.

For the scratches in the poly layer that do not go down to the wood, you can have the floor lightly screened (not sanded) and a new coat of poly applied. For the deeper scratches, the only real fix is resanding. You can only resand a floor a few times because each sanding takes off a layer of the wood.

On our wood floors I specifically requested a matte coat of poly on top of two coats of glossy poly. The glossy poly is tougher, but the matte finish hides scuffs and scratches. I also prefer the look of the matte finish overall. So, if you pursue refinishing, look into having a matte coat applied as your top layer.

Good luck!

[JMS]

It really depends on the type of floor and the finish. Scratches are inevitable but some floors will scratch more (depending on their hardness) and some will show the scratches more (depending on their color/stain). Mahogany floors are the most hard (scratch and dent less easily), then Brazilian Cherry, then Oak, then American Cherry (I don't know how other wood options fall into that list). With a naked wood (wood that has been polyurathaned (sp?) but not stained) the scratch will eventually oxidize to the color of the floors and therefore will be less visible. Scratches that occur on wood floors that have also been stained are always going to be lighter in color than the stain color and consequently much more visible.
HTH!

IMO, you live in a house and everything that goes along with that. Nothing is meant to last forever. Everything will eventually need to be fixed or replaced. :) Protect your floors from furniture scratched, don't let the kids push die cast cars around too much and then just accept the rest!