Question:
Can we use wood putty to fill in an indentation caused by a falling piece of equipment? If not wood putty, what product would you recommend?
Answer:
Dear Lee
Why don’t you try puffing it out with steam ? Use a small pin to poke a very small holes in the bottom of the hole through the finish. Wet a corner of a clean white rag. Press it to the dent, and apply the tip of a hot clothes iron. It should swell the dent back up to the surface in most cases.
But if this doesn’t quite do try a colored latex wood filler. I like the Le Pages brand at http://www.LePageproducts.com/ProductCatalog/detail.asp?catid=25&subid=56& plid=305&PID=687.
Be sure to use a color just a tad darker than the floor, and maybe mix two colors together. You may have to make deeper holes in the bottom of the dent for this stuff to key in. Fill to the top, but be sure to wipe off any excess from the surrounding wood, else a nasty smear will dry there. Use a wet cloth for this, then a dry cloth to make sure it’s all gone. It may take several fills, and drying overnight, to bring it up to the surface.
After it’s dried overnight you can touch it up with the floor finish, or use a artists brush and paint some grain lines and correct the background color. Then apply the floor finish to just that spot.
If this is a heavily used spot, and the puffing didn’t work, and the latex filler tends to crack out in time, I’ll have to teach you all about epoxy wood putty.
As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.