Repairing Scratches to a Varnished Wooden Floor

[nickldn]

I had my real oak wooden floor re-varnished a few months ago, but since then had to move a sofa which was really hard to get through the door and ended up scratching the varnish in a couple of places.

What's the best way to repair the scratches? I still have the tin of varnish which was originally used.

I would be very grateful for any suggestions.

Thanks,

Nick

 

[Chri5]

What is the current finish on the floor, natural + varnish or is the wood a colour or has it been coloured ?

Normal process would be to feather the scratch with some fine scratchy and using a fine artists sable brush build up the scratch with a few layers of varnish.

Use fine wire wool to even off the area prior to adding a diluted top coat.

If colouring up is required, same process but add some wood stain / dye 1st.

If the scratch is really deep then try mixing some decent quality fine wood filler plus dye to the dig.

Repair requires patience and a certain amount of skill if colouring required. If you have a off cut of the floor, mark it and practice on that 1st. Reason being that colour wet, filler plus colour may change shade when dry.

 

[nickldn]

Thank you for your reply Chris.

The floor was stained with wood stain and then had a few coats of clear varnish applied.

The scratches are just grazes really, they haven't made a dent in the surface of the varnish, but they have made it a kind of white colour.

Am I understanding you correctly by saying I should be getting some very fine sand paper (wet and dry type stuff type stuff?) rubbing the scratches for a bit, until I get back down to the wood, then getting a very fine brush and filling in the indentation? I might have to re-stain that area as well, if I sand off the top layer of the wood, which has been stained.

Is it necessary to get rid of the varnish all the way down to the bare wood, or is it adequate to just get rid of some of it?

Apologies for the non-technical language I have used, but I really don't know that much about this sort of thing.

Mnay thanks,

Nick

 

[WoodYouLike]

If they are only superficial scratches you could try first to "disguise" them with a suitable maintenance polish before you start sanding and risk ending up with a patchy floor.

 

[tall_tone]

I agree with WoodYouLike except that if your product on the floor is varnish/lacquer you need a lacquer refresher product rather than on oil refresher. Try http://bona.com/corporate/corporate/Products/Professional/BonaMaintenance/Bona-Freshen-Up/url][/url]