Will Hardwood Floors Scratch?

There will inevitably come a day when the durability of your hardwood flooring comes into question. The finishes on wood flooring are more durable than ever before, but it still begs the question: will hardwood floors scratch? If you find yourself in a position with minor scratches on your floor, we will show you how you can touch them up at home (and how you can prevent a minor scratch in the first place).

Will Hardwood Floors Scratch? 

The good news is that you have plenty of options when it comes to the finish on your hardwood floor. Both solid hardwood and engineered hardwood are finished with durable top coats, especially in the case of our selection of prefinished wood flooring. Most of the floors in our extensive library of samples are going to be finished with an aluminum oxide finish which is highly durable.

That being said, no floor is going to be completely bulletproof. Everything will scratch under the right circumstances, falling under the purview of normal wear and tear. It might be a superficial scratch from a piece of furniture or in high-traffic areas like the front door where pets tend to hang out.

Fortunately, there are some great ways to fix scratches, so be prepared when you get your wood floors installed for when the day comes that you notice your first scratch.

Wood Floor Scratch Repair

While you could potentially replace a scratched board, this isn’t going to be the most realistic option for most situations. It can be time-consuming and challenging to try on your own, whereas the remedies for minor scratches are generally easy to apply for a homeowner with a keen eye.

The first thing you might want to do is touch up a superficial scratch on a solid or engineered wood floor. These might look like small white scratches that haven’t even penetrated through the durable finish on your floor. If this is the case, you can doctor them up by rubbing them with a Tibet Almond Stick which is cost-effective and easy for anyone to apply.

When a scratch penetrates through the finish, you may start to see the natural color beneath the wood stain you chose while shopping. This means you may need a stain pen in a corresponding color to touch up the area. These can be found in a wide array of colors at most local home improvement stores.

On the other hand, you may have moved heavy furniture and now have a deep groove on your floor. You can fill some of these dents and dings with a colored wood filler. Wood filler is designed to match your floor just like a stain pen, but it can fill in deep scratches better.

Whether you have superficial scratches or a deep scratch on your floor, you can touch it up until it looks like new again. Wooden floors tend to be fairly forgiving in this way.

If your floor has lots of wear and tear, you may want to consider whether hardwood floor refinishing will be an option for you. A solid hardwood floor as well as many engineered wood floors can potentially be refinished. Talk with our flooring specialists to learn more about how you can refresh your entire floor at once.

How to Prevent Deeper Scratches

Beyond knowing how to touch up your new wood flooring, you should take some preventive steps to keep them from becoming marred by scratches in the first place.

The first and best thing you can do is maintain them. This means that you will need to vacuum or sweep your floors regularly to reduce gritty substances like sand and dirt. These can abrade the surface of even the most durable finish and lead to scratches over time. After removing sand and dirt, you can mop them with a recommended cleaning product like Bona hardwood floor cleaner.

You should also take care to put felt pads under furniture that will be moved around frequently. This includes under dining room table chairs as well as heavy furniture like entertainment centers or sofas. Replace furniture pads as you notice them becoming worn or damaged, as well as if they fall off.

Last but not least, pets are one of the leading causes of scratches on hardwood floors of all varieties. Keep pet nails trimmed regularly and walk them on the pavement a few times each week to round out rough edges.

Get Insight from Woodboys

The best thing you can do for the longevity of your floor is to take care of it properly from day one. At Woodboys, we want to educate homeowners on how to get the most out of their wood floors and help them last for decades to come. Talk with our expert flooring professionals to learn more about proper care and maintenance or selecting the right floor from the outset. We have a vast showroom you can browse or we can come to you with our mobile showroom!