I recently dropped a Hookah charcoal on my hardwood flooring and it caused some damage. The finish was damaged however the wood itself seems to be intact. I spoke with one contractor who said I needed to completely replace the floor however I’m interested in getting some advice on how to proceed. Here is what the damage looks like:
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Tape around damage area. Sand the damage spot with heavy grit sandpaper. Take a photo of finished floor to hardware store. Try to find a match preferably with a stain marker. Apply stain allow to dry for a day. Make sure you don’t fill the gap with the stain use a thin coat. Apply polyurethane to math the level of floor.Hope this helps.
It appears to be a Lam flooring of which the only choice you have is to remove and replace the piece, hopefully your installer left the remaining excess. If you need to purchase matching NEW the chances are that it wont match, color consistency changes with manufacture lots, you have to decide on if the damage is more conspicuous than a mismatched replacement. Good Luck
The best solution for this problem is to cut through the board and take it out without damaging the neighboring boards. Find a matching flooring piece (if possible), trim the tongue edge and slide it in place. Make sure to use a good adhesive or drill for fine nails and fill the holes. Other solutions will be noticeable if that is something the owner doesn’t mind dealing with.
Good Luck.
Hello. Since the contractor recommended replacing the entire floor, I am going to assume that you do not have any extra peices to replace the damaged with. There are couple of things to consider before investing in a new floor: 1.The age and condition of the rest of the floor, 2.The budget for the repair, 3.The type of floor, whether it is engineered or solid hardwood. In my professional opinion, the only way for the floor to be 100%, is to sand and refinish it. On the other hand, if the rest of the floor is in good condition and you feel that the damage is in an inconspicuous area, I would recommend, (as others have,) contacting either a floor or furniture repair company.
It’s a small ding, best advice is to sand the particular area stain and stain and color it. Take the sample to depot or equivelant store and they will match the colors.
If leftover flooring is available replace just the damaged board (ensure replacement board acclamates for several days) prior to replacing, if none is available just refinish the damaged board by removing the finish and re-varnish. You may have to mix stains to come up with correct color.
Looks like a prefinished wood floor. I would agree with others to contact the manufacturer if possible and get a touch up kit, although if that finish is factory applied it may be tough to match it perfectly with products allowed for use in the home (california esp). I would consider calling a furniture finish repair company to try to fix it. We have had those guys come out when custom cabinetry is damaged and they are amazing. I had a guy drill three holes for knobs and pulls in our finished cabinet doors right at eye level and nobody could find them when they were done. Dave
It looks to be a prefinished floor. I would simply replace the plank with a new one.
The best way to take care of the problem is to replace the piece with an exact replacement. This may take removal of more than one board. If you want a recommendation for a flooring contractor look on my web site at www.brasielsconstructioncompany.com You can e-mail my company from there or call the flooring company linked to my site. This may be a little costly but it is how we handled it when I worked for residential builders. People were very particular on the walk throughs. You may also want to call a furniture repair guy. Some of them are very good at this sort of thing. Gary F Brasiel (owner of Brasiel’s construction company.
Hello Claire
I think it looks like a (Bellawood Brazillion Cherry)?
first choice :
professional finisher they can be touched up but it is hard to exact match the 8-9 coats of baked on finish those floors have
try it and see
2nd choice :
have a professional floor installer replace some
boards for you more work than touch up.
good luck let me know how it turns out Jim
That is going to be a difficult fix. You can always do a half way job and sand it a little, wet it some so that the wood soaks in the stain better, then stain. After you stain it, I would put some of that clear epoxy on top of it because you won’t match the height of the existing clear coat.
From what I can see in the pictures, in my opinion I would also remove the finishes down to the natural wood on all the affected pieces. As long as it’s not into the wood you should be ok and be able to find a matching stain and poly topcoat. If you aren’t up for this I also agree that local flooring installer or furniture company.
Hello
This appears to be a very small repair (appx 1/4 inch square). If this is the case, I would suggest the following…
If there is an actual ding in the wood, repeatedly placing a drop of water on the ding can help pull the wood back to its original profile. Keep in mind that some woods such as oak will turn blackish as a result of contact with water, so I would avoid this if this flooring is such a wood. If there is not actual depression in the wood you may skip this step at any rate.
I would get a very small (model airplane type) paintbrush, and apply a cherry stain (again, this is what it appears to be from the pictures; it may vary in reality, but is probably very close). Let that dry for appx 24 hours.
Then I would use the same small paint brush to lightly apply lacquer thinner (available at Home Depot) to that very small section of wood. Simply dab the appx 1/4 inch area very lightly with the lacquer thinner and brush from the perimeter of the blemish in towards the center of the blemish. You are trying to melt the original finish and move it inwards to fill the chip.
Allow appx 24 hours again before contact. You can also try this without first applying stain. It may be that the coloring is in the original finish and it will all blend well without the addition of stain.
I have had great success with this.
KEEP IN MIND THAT LACQUER THINNER IS VERY VERY VERY FLAMMABLE. KEEP THE CAN OUTSIDE, AND DIP THE PAINT BRUSH BEFORE BRINGING INTO THE HOUSE. YOU NEED VERY LITTLE OF THIS MATERIAL. MAKE SURE ALL NEARBY PILOT LIGHTS ARE OUT. ALSO IF YOU DECIDE TO STORE THE REMAINDER SOMEWHERE AROUND YOUR HOUSE, MAKE SURE IT IS COMPLETELY CLOSED. AGAIN IT IS VERY FLAMMABLE. If you are a homeowner attempting to do this yourself, and will not likely use the stuff again, you are probably better off just returning the remainder to Home Depot, instead of keeping it around. You will only need a few drops.
Hope that helps.
Is this solid plank or engineered. On solid plank this can be easily repaired by any flooring installer. If it is engineered you have to replace it. Without seeing the rest of the floor, my first reaction is to have a flooring intaller come and replace the damaged boards. He/she will most likely need to replace 5 or so boards surrounding the damaged area but it is doable and much less expensive than replacing the entire floor. The original installer should have left some for just this kind of situation or you can check your invoice and if you are lucky you can get another box. The color will be different since the new floor has not acquired the patina that your floor has. With time if will change to match.
You have (3) choices listed in order of least expensive to most expensive:
- Buy a cherry hardwood stain pen for a couple of bucks and touch up the area.
If you still can’t live without the removal of the blemish, then you can do one of the following:
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Tape off the area and sand, stain, and seal the board. However, you will need to match the wood which could be difficult. A qualified contractor or painting subcontractor would be a good consultant.
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If you have access to the same pre-finished hardwood you can take the piece out by cutting and chiseling it out and then installing a new piece with face nails and cutting off the tongue. This might require removing and replacing multiple boards. This will probably be the best looking of the options provided you can get matching boards. However, this fix is best left to a hardwood contractor.
Good Luck!
I would just tape off around the plank with blue tape, sand, then restain to match. It might take a few tries, but you should be able to get it pretty close to a match, depending on how close the customer wants it and where exactly the repair is in the room.
I would sand the area lightly and apply a matching stain
Fill in the damaged area with a wood filler let sit for 24 hours. Sand the wood filler and stain to match very easy fix.
the best way to get this repaired to to remove damaged board(s) and replace with the same if available. the homeowner may have some left over from the job originally. Other wise find out the manufacture and install the same factory finish. a sand and match will look like a sand and match.