Is it possible to repair scratched hardwood floors or will you have to replace them? The good news is that you can, in fact, repair scuff marks and scratches by resanding and refinishing your floor.

Unfortunately, that’s also the bad news. It’s a very daunting, difficult, and time-consuming job.

Nonetheless, it can’t always be avoided. And repair is still a better, and cheaper, option than replacing the entire floor.

For these reasons, we offer you these expert tips to make this troublesome task a little easier. If you must repair your hardwood floors, read these tips first.

1. Let a Professional Handle It

There’s no better tip we can give you than this. This is an expert-level repair job and it really should be handled by an expert.

As we said, this task requires a lot of difficult work. And you could easily botch the job. It would be a shame to finish all this work only to have your floor look just as bad as it does now or even worse.

If nothing else, at least get a price quote from trustworthy contractors, like Home On Call.

2. Prepare to Refinish Your Scratched Hardwood Floors

If you do decide to DIY your floor repair, you’ll need to prepare. First, understand that you’re going to be completely resanding the entire surface of the floor and then refinishing it as well.

If you’re still determined to go through with this, move everything off of the floor. Also, make sure all exposed nails are driven at least 2 millimeters below the surface of the wood. Otherwise, they could catch on the sandpaper or even damage your sander.

Next, get a drum sander and an edging sander (and learn how to use them safely). Decide which type of finish you want and purchase this, too. Now’s your chance to consider a different stain.

3. Sand the Floor

With your drum sander, start by smoothing out any really uneven spots. Continue on, evening out the entire floor. Obviously, use the edging sander to reach the edges.

Start with coarse sandpaper, like 16 grit. Then, move on to a finer grit, like 120 grit, to finish smoothing out the surface.

4. Refinish the Floor

The optimal method for finishing your hardwood floor depends on the type of wood, how you want the finished wood to look, and lots of other factors. If you aren’t an expert in such things, then you really need to recruit an expert to help you.

Furthermore, sanding and finishing are very different jobs. Just because you can operate a sander does not mean you can successfully apply the finish. 

In other words, this is not an appropriate project for beginners. If you’ve never done any wood finishing projects before, start with something simpler, like a table. In the meantime, leave this job to the professionals.

Remember These Hardwood Floor Repair Tips

You could do all this the hard way. But why not do it the right way? If you need to repair scratched hardwood floors, follow these tips.

We have plenty more tips where these came from. Check our blog for the latest tips on selling your home, choosing repair contractors, and more.