Question: Linda Tuhacek Is there any way to repair a hard wood floor that has divots in it from dropping something on it? Answer: Dear Linda Yes, but you will have to remove the finish from that spot, by chemical stripping or sanding to the bare wood. Then use a hot clothes iron and a clean white rag wetted on a corner, and steam puff the dent back to the surface. Wait overnight for it to dry, and touch up the finish. Read my article in the Floored News section about floor maintenance, both parts, to determine your floor finish, and other methods for general maintenance. This may be all to much trouble, and you might instead just enjoy the character marks your wood floor is gaining as it ages, just like us humans. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: My husband & his friend, “the general contractor”, installed our Subzero fridge and when they rolled in over our new maple floor, the shear weight of the Sub dented our flooring. It doesn’t appear to have scratched through the finish, but rather just left a long dent from the wheels of the Sub. My husband’s friend said these dents might come up if we try gently steaming them with an iron and wet cloth. Have you ever heard of this and if so do you have any tips on how to do this? Shawn Answer: Dear Shawn This is especially difficult repair to do. The hot iron approach is valid but you will have to remove the finish first. You can do this by sanding the area, or applying a chemical stripper to expose the bare wood. Just the corner of the rag wetted will do, as you apply the hot iron. Use distilled water so you don’t cause a mineral stain if your water has iron in it. You can also try drops of rubbing alcohol and the tip of a hot new clean soldering iron. Rubbing alcohol contains enough water to puff out the dent (on bare wood) without damaging the finish too much. But now you have to touch up the finish, and most likely re-coat the entire floor. Be sure to wait until the spot has dried overnight before you touch-up. And know your floor finish. Most floor finishes will not blend in well, and you will have to re-coat the whole floor, and even then it will not perfect. I know, because I have to do such repairs for insurance companies, and even I have a hard time making the repair invisible. But it can be done. Sand well between all coats, and allow each coat to dry 1-2 days. I’m talking about the touch-up coats. Once the area is filled in with at least 2-3 coats of finish, let this cure for about a week, and sand level, with 120 grit sandpaper, then re-coat the whole floor. You might consider puffing out the dent, and having the whole floor re-sanded, instead. It’s called hardwood, but it’s still wood, be careful with heavy objects.

Question: How do I to repair scratches and dents in real wood floor? Hellen Answer: Dear Helen Scratches are dealt with in the floor maintainence article in the Floored News section. You may have to read both parts if you don’t know what your floor finish is. Dents are on the other hand an especially difficult repair to do. And after you hear what it takes to remedy the situation, you might well sand and refinish the whole floor instead. You will have to remove the finish first. You can do this by sanding the dented area, or applying a chemical stripper to expose the bare wood. Then apply a wet corner of a white clean rag to the spot, just as you apply the hot tip of a clothes iron. Use distilled water so you don’t cause a mineral stain if your water has iron in it. This should puff the wood back to the surface. You should let this dry overnight, and then fine sand and attempt a touch up. You can also try drops of rubbing alcohol and the tip of a hot new clean soldering iron. Rubbing alcohol contains enough water to puff out the dent (on bare wood) without damaging the finish next to it too much. But now you have to touch up the finish, and most likely re-coat the entire floor. You will need to know your floor finish. they may have use a sealer as the first coat. Most floor finishes, and especially poly will not blend in well, and you will have to re-coat the whole floor, and even then it will not perfect. I know, because I have to do such repairs for insurance companies, and even I have a hard time making the repair invisible. But it can be done. Sand well between all coats, and allow each coat to dry 1-2 days. I’m talking about the touch-up coats. Once the area is filled in with at least 2-3 coats of finish, let this cure for about a week, and sand level, with 120 grit sandpaper, then re-coat the whole floor. You might consider puffing out the dent, and having the whole floor re-sanded, instead. It’s called hardwood, but it’s still wood, be careful with heavy objects, and high heel shoes. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: Here’s my problem: About two years ago I dropped a hot iron on the hardwood floor in my apartment. Although I grabbed it as fast as I could (within seconds), it managed to leave an obvious brown scorch mark on the floor. I’ll be moving out of the apartment in a few weeks, so I really need to do something about this mark. Although it’s an old building (and the floors aren’t exactly in “pristine” condition to start with), I’m afraid if I leave it “as is” the landlord will use it to try to justify keeping my security deposit………. …and I certainly can’t afford to hire a professional! I’m just hoping I can do something to make the mark less noticeable, if nothing else. ………….I know very little about hardwood floors, but I assume that means it must have a laquer or varnish finish(??) Also, I’d describe the color as a medium honey blonde. Carolyn Answer: Dear Carolyn I must say you’ve left this to the last minute, but I’m sure you can do a pretty adequate finish repair. First thing to get is a proper wood scraper, and a sanding block (so the hand sanding is flat) and two grits of (Aluminum Oxide or Silicon Carbide) sandpaper 80 and 120 grit. You could go to a floor sanding machine rental shop to get all this and some finish to complete the job. The scraper is the most important tool, because hand sanding will take too long to remove all the burned layers of wood. I suggest you use the Richard Brand scrapers, as described in this link. Try to get the W-14 model or something similar with a long handle. http://www.richardtools.com/paint/paint_the_w_series.html You will need to sharpen this scraper right out of the box, as it is not sharpened by the factory properly for floor use. You need to buy a 10″ wood handled “mill bastard” file. Hold the scraper up to a strong light, sight down the blade and sharpen the blade so that the edges are slightly rounded. This prevents edges of the scraper from digging in on the sides, making marks in the wood. Follow the same original factory bevel but just a little off on the ends to round it a bit. I’ll include a picture here. You must get the scraper sharp enough to pull ribbons of wood off the floor, not just powder. The scraper alone should be enough to remove enough wood to eliminate the burn mark. Just keep sharpening it and press harder to remove more wood. Remove some wood from around the area also, so as not to make too much of a dip. Then using 80 grit floor sanding paper on your sanding block, hand sand the area to remove any scraper marks, and feather in this repair to the rest of the floor. Press hard with this paper so it does it’s job. Then switch to 120 grit (or 100 if only that was available) and sand again to remove those 80 grit marks. If you really want to be sure of the type of floor finish you have read and do the tests as suggested in the second half of my cleaning article. Here’s the link : https://www.woodfloordoctor.com/_how_tos/articles/cleanpt2.shtml But I’m going to make an educated guess for you right now to save you that trouble. Vacuum up and now for the finish touch-up: There is almost no possibility that the floor finish is the original from 1930. An apartment floor would have been sanded and refinished may times since then. And in the last 20 years or more most apartment floor finishes were done with a cheap lacquer sealer and one or two coats of polyurethane. It would be nice of you could find some lacquer finish, and use this as a base coat. You can tell if it’s a lacquer finish when you read the can’s “clean up of brushes instructions” suggest you use lacquer thinner. Paint on a thick coat of sealer only on the bare wood, don’t get much of this lacquer on the original finish, it will strip it off. Use a rag to wipe a small amount of lacquer on the edges. Don’t worry if you cannot find a lacquer sealer, you can just apply and oil based poly in stead. It may not blend very well in this case, and may darken the wood a bit more. But I guess this doesn’t have to be a perfect repair. With the oil based polyurethane (you will know it’s oil based when the can’s directions suggest clean up with mineral spirits or varsol) you should first wipe down the area of the repair and surrounding area with varsol to remove any wax. Apply the first coat of poly with a rag very thinly and keep within the sanded area only. But color it all in. Leave a fan running on this repair all night. The next morning sand the repair area and a 2-3 inch area surrounding it, gently with your used 120 grit sandpaper. This is not to remove any finish, just to scuff sand it so the next coat will stick. Make sure the area is really smooth after sanding. Clean up with a vacuum and wipe with the varsol again. Let this solvent dry. Paint on the next layer of poly with a brush, but don’t go past the two inch area where you scuff sanded around the original repair. Put a fan on this about 4 hours later, and let dry again OVERNIGHT. Don’t believe the directions when they say some of these finishes will dry in 4 hours. The finish has to be crispy hard. Now for the really hard part. Scuff sand and even larger area, and consider applying the last coat to the end of some individual boards. The trouble with the polyurethane is that the edge will always be visible unless painted to the end of a seam. But do the best you can. Don’t apply the last coat on any spots that haven’t been scuff sanded. I do hope the floor has not been waxed in the past, else the poly will not stick to the wood. Be sure that you have cleaned before an area fairly large around the repair with varsol. Feather this last coat and you will have “not very visible” paint line, I hope. If the surrounding original floor finish is very dull by now you really should be using a satin finish polyurethane. If you did manage to find a lacquer sealer, just scuff sand after the sealer and apply two more coats of poly over it, as suggested before. Don’t expect a perfect job, as you don’t have the skills to master all this in one week. But this is the way we pros handle these types of jobs. And speaking of pros, consider hiring one for just the sanding and sealing of the wood, expect to pay about 75-100 bucks. Then do the final coats and blending in yourself. On deeply burned floor we will use a floor edger machine to remove the burn, then do the rest of the job about the same. Sometime a pro will suggest you recoat the whole room, for a better blend of the final coat of finish. Good Luck.

Question: 1) Chemically stripping will be too expensive and time consuming. 2) The original floors are thick oak floors and won’t be damaged by another sanding as this is the first time they’ve been redone since the house was built in 1950. 3) Our contractor is more comfortable with sanding out the coats rather than chemically stripping. 4) No one is living in the house…………….. My contractor is recommending a water based polyurethane so it will dry faster. Is there anything I need to know before he starts this process? Does it have the same drying capabilities as oil based poly, Is the same 70 F degrees recommended? Can a water based polyurethane work with regular stain or does it need a special stain? He’s recommending two coats of the polyurethane this time so it will dry better, your opinion?……………. Rich Answer: Dear Rich Sorry about the delay in responding this time to your further inquiry, I was on a two week fishing trip. A major problem like yours is never solved by just a few emails. Anyway the reason I still suggest chemically stripping, is that the floor finish is still soft. Your contractor may find that the floor sanding paper will clog up too fast to make any real progress on the floor. Or he will have to use very heavy grit sandpaper to remove this gooey finish. This stuff heats up under the speed and pressure of the drum and can be a bear to remove. If sanding has to be the option you might wait a bit more time to let the finish harden a bit more. Every, very coarse sanding, does remove about 1/6 of the total life of the floor. If no dry more time is available, consider only doing a rough chemical strip using the fairly cheap to use Circa 1850 stripper. Or any stripper that has acetone, toluene and methanol (ATM) in it. It works quite fast and cheaply on poly finishes, but is a health hazard and quite flammable. Pour this stuff on and get out of the house, and ventilate. When the finish is fully blistered, it will then become easy to sand or scrape off. Thus avoiding that really coarse sanding operation. But either way once you have removed all the old finish, this time use a fast dry wiping stain. There is now one available nationally called Bona Kemi Dri Fast stain. Visit their web site at http://www.bonakemi.com/productspecs/drifast_stain_spec.html I think they are having a sale on this particular brand of stain until the end of August. I’ve used a local brand of fast dry pigmented wiping stains for years, and although a little tricky to use, they always dry overnight in even the darkest colors. Oh, ya, even let this stuff (Bona’s) dry overnight. The manufactures are way too optimistic, and don’t take high heat and humidity in consideration when making up those label instructions. And while you’re at it your could try their most excellent and durable Traffic finish. If you truly need a durable fast dry finish this is certainly one to use. But unfortunately water based finishes tend to turn somewhat opaque after about 5-10 years. And most folks have either moved, or now have to resand the floor. It depends how much light the floor is exposed to. That’s why I stopped using water based finishes, and still stick to the good ol’ oil modified polyurethane over my stain. I don’t want a dark floor turning opaque after a decade. I also don’t like the pale bluish white color of the water based finish film. I’ll send you a pic to help illustrate this. This is a photo of a newly completed floor. This a very subtle problem, and is difficult to capture on film. But if pointed out, most people see the problem. You might ask the retailer of Bona Kemi in your area, to see some jobs that are more that 10 years old, before you jump at using ANY water based finishes. They are not a panacea they are made out to be. So, in answer of your last question, yes stick to the stain and finish combo by Bona Kemi, accept NO substitutes. This company has at least done their adhesion and drying tests with these products. Traffic is generally applied in two or three coats over top of the dried stain. You can use any of the Bona Kemi finishes over this stain, including their own oil polyurethane. It generally takes three coats of water based to equal the build of two coats of oil poly. But their is no doubt that Traffic is the more durable. (but less appealing in my opinion) of the two types of finishes. You can apply up to two coats of water based finish in one day. But do make sure you have a flooring contractor who is very skilled at this rather tricky to use finish. Even water based finishes can be affected by the weather. Keep the AC going and ventilate just the same in either case. Good Luck.

Question: What is the best way to remove a small water stain from a non-waxed wood floor? Answer: Dear Jill Sometimes the best way is to sand the spot out by hand using 80 grit sandpaper, followed by 100 grit. Determine what your floor finish is (by reading the second half of my floor maintenance article). Use the search box at the top of the web page and touch it up with 2-3 coats of this finish. If it is one of the reactive finishes (polyurethane is one of these) it will not blend in well so on the last coat so you may have to re-coat the whole board involved or group of boards. But that depends on how fussy you are. If you find after the sanding the water stain doesn’t come out, try a spot treatment with oxalic acid. It’s usually the main ingredient in some deck whiteners. Wash after with lots of water after, then fine sand. Let the spot dry overnight and then touch up the floor finish.

Question: Hi, We have a hardwood floor with human urine on it. We are currently sanding it down, but even after removing the top layer, you can still see the 1’x1′ black spot where the urine really soaked in. The former tenant really went at this floor. It’s not our floor, but the landlords, and mostly, we just want to make sure the smell doesn’t resurface after we refinish it. Is there something we should apply to the floor before refinishing? Or should the refinishing process take care of that? If we could get the stain out, that would be great, but looking at it, I don’t think its possible. Thanks Joseph Answer: Dear Joseph I’m going to send you a rough draft of my new stain article. It deals with urine amongst other things. But as for the smell go to www.cleanreport.com and order some of their X-O odor remover. Read the article “How To Remove Various Stains and Smells From Wood Floors”

Question: I am remodeling a hard wood floor with tar paper on it. Currently I am using a scrapper and a heat gun to remove it. Is there a better way? Answer: Dear Craig You can try odorless mineral spirts, and if that fails lacquer thinner. And lastly Goof-Off (www.goof-off.com). Squirt the solvent under the paper and try pushing it off with a good quality putty knife. If all that proves ineffective try a safe paint stripper (Citristrip at www.cirtistrip.com). Also, read my article on this great stuff, which can be found at the top of the web page in the search box. But as a last resort you can use some of the more dangerous methyline chloride strippers, just leave the house as the stripper does its work. And you really must be diligent about removing all this tar paper. It may be glued with an asphalt cut back adhesive, and these can never be sanded off, because of the asbestos concern. It may be best to have it tested for asbestos before you get much further.

Question: I am remodeling a hardwood floor with tar paper on it. Currently I am using a scrapper and a heat gun to remove it. Is there a better way? Craig Answer: Dear Craig You can try odorless mineral spirtis, and if that fails lacquer thinner. And lastly Goof-Off (www.goof-off.com). Squirt the solvent under the paper and try pushing it off with a good quality putty knife. If all that proves ineffective try a safe paint stripper (Citristrip at www.cirtistrip.com). Also read my article on this great stuff in the Floored News section. But as a last resort you can use some of the more dangerous methyline chloride strippers, just leave the house as the stripper does it’s work. And you really must be diligent about removing all this tar paper. It may be glued with an asphalt cut back adhesive, and these can never be sanded off, because of the asbestos concern. It may be best to have it tested for asbestos before you get much further. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: Dear Doc, The subfloor is 3/4″ T&G plywood. An existing 1 1/2″ strip oak floor was removed, and 2 1/4″ grade 1 maple will replace it. The first 150 sq. ft of oak was pulled up with a crowbar. The previous owner had used construction adhesive and flooring nails to install it. The subfloor was badly damaged, so I had to cutout and replaced it. An expensive and time-consuming task. With this experience, I decided the last 100 sq. ft of oak would be removed a different way. I used a power saw with a carbide-tooth blade and made cross-cuts 1 1/2″ apart. The old flooring was chiseled out piece-by-piece. The subfloor faired much better. There are some narrow sections where the top layer of ply was removed, and some places where there is still glue sticking to the floor. I will plane-off the glue, but would like some type of synthetic material that I can spread over the top layer voids. Something like car body putty, that will spread, adhere, and cure to a texture that can be sanded smooth comes to mind. Would there be something made just for this task? Thank You Answer: Dear Dave I would hesitate to add anything to a nailing surface other than wood. You would best advised to add 1/2″ plywood, or if that is too thick try just 1/4″ underlay. If the 3/4″ plywood is sound and sturdy, all you really need is the thin plywood to smooth out the hollows. But if there are large hollows and the hardwood has to span a gap of more than 4-6″ you might consider installing the thicker 1/2″ plywood. I’m sorry but there are no quick fix compounds that will hold a flooring nail. Any epoxy leveling compound spread over the whole floor will be more expensive than the plywood. And these can take quite a while to cure, and cause quite a toxic stink in the house. These not used in the professional wood floor industry (except for concrete), only by uninformed amateurs. And just look at the amateur mess you had to clean up. But you know, as long as the gaps are not too big you can, in most cases lay the hardwood over this existing subfloor just the way it is. Just make sure that you don’t put a hardwood floor joint on these gaps in the subfloor, and be sure and nail the hardwood floor every 6-8″, crossing (at right angles) to the joists.