If you take proper care to maintain your hardwood floor, it will retain its original beauty for years to come. In previous posts, we have given some tips on how to maintain your floor, as well as steps to take to reduce the chance of something scratching or denting your floor. Unfortunately, some things are completely unavoidable, and your hardwood floor may undergo small amounts of damage through everyday use and wear and tear.

If your floor does become slightly scratched or dents start to appear, chances are that they will be almost unnoticeable to visitors. You will want to take pride in your flooring though, so will probably want to fix any minor damage as soon as it appears.

If you do see a scratch or dent, the first thing you need to do is to assess the damage. If it is a large scratch or dent, trying to fix it yourself could cause more harm than good. If you don’t feel confident that you would be able to fix it, contact a professional. It’s not worth taking the risk to try and save money in the short term, when you could end up causing more serious damage.

For a small scratch, take some very fine wire wool and lightly rub it over the scratch. Be careful to rub along the grain or you could end up leaving more scratches! For slightly deeper scratches, swap the fine wire wool for some lightweight sandpaper.

Once you have gently sanded the scratched area of your floor, use a soft, clean cloth soaked in mineral fluids to remove any excess dust from the area, and then leave it to stand for a minimum of half an hour.

Next, take a premixed wooden floor filler and apply it to the scratch using a putty knife, again, to avoid causing new scratches. Don’t forget to make sure that the filler you have bought matches the colour of your flooring.

Wait for the filler to set, and then get a fresh piece of fine sandpaper and gently sand the excess filler, until it is in line with your floor. Finally, apply a matching wood finish to the area using a lamb’s wool cloth or natural bristle brush and leave to dry for an hour or two.

Following these steps, you can fix any small scratches or dents in your hardwood floor, bringing it back to its original beauty. However, if you do think that the damage is too severe to fix alone, or you feel you aren’t capable of fixing it, contact a professional for help.