# Forum Home Renovation Flooring  G'Day... I need some advice about repairing scratches on polished timber floors.

## djmckinney

Recently playing silly buggers with my 14 month old daughter I scratched our polished cyprus flooring.  I thought it would be a good idea to push my daughter around the floor in the plastic washing basket and whilst it was great fun at the time, I have left scratches all over the floor.  The scratches aren't deep, more like abrasions on the satin coating similar to what sandpaper would do but the 'Minister for War and Finance' is NOT impressed and my surfing credits are back to Nil (so hard to get... so easy to lose!).   
I was hoping that to fix the scratches it might be a simple case of giving the floor a good clean and then applying a coat of a floor polish or similar to take them out.  The scratches aren't deep so I'm looking for some advice as to what sort of products are out there that I can apply over the existing satin coating that will fill in the scratches and get me back in the good book with the Boss.  The floor was coated in a Feast Watson Satin product but the actual name escapes me at the moment.  Any advice would be much appreciated! 
Thanks, 
Dylan

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## Micky013

Depending on the extent of the scratches, it may be possible to tape of the board(s) along the edges and butt joins and give it a scuff back and coat with satin. If the scratches go across several boards, i dont know of any options that involve buffing out. 
In the experience ive had, you can either successfully tape of the area and touch up as above or you need to cut a larger area back (in some cases the whole floor) and re-coat. 
Hopefully someone has something more helpful. 
Michael

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## The Livos Lady

Typically, it will be hard to fix without altering the look of the floor. It will also be dependent on how long ago the floor was polished as the colour generally changes. Your best bet would be to ring Feast Watson and see if they can figure out which coating and then what to do about it. If you do not use a compatible product, or have contaminants, you may end up with a worst result.

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## ErrolFlynn

There's something advertised on TV for repairing scratches on the car paintwork. Sure, auto paint is not wood laquer. It may be worth a try on a small spot that's not generally visible.  On the same priciple I'd experiment with various thiners.  Maybe gently dopping a tiny amount into the scratch might 'soften' the laquer and allow it to fill the gap which could hide the scratch.  Maybe I'm in dream land.

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## Larry McCully

Mick has it on the button., When i do a repair, i will tape up the defect boards along the edge and at the ends. If it is over several boards i will include them all in the one taping. You can then use steel wool, or about a 300 grit paper as an abrasive pad to scuff the whole of the boards as well as buffing out the scratch. Vacum well and apply a coat of the same sheen level . Use waterbase polyurethane, its safer. But if you already know of the coating brand, then use that.  

> Depending on the extent of the scratches, it may be possible to tape of the board(s) along the edges and butt joins and give it a scuff back and coat with satin. If the scratches go across several boards, i dont know of any options that involve buffing out. 
> In the experience ive had, you can either successfully tape of the area and touch up as above or you need to cut a larger area back (in some cases the whole floor) and re-coat. 
> Hopefully someone has something more helpful. 
> Michael

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## djmckinney

Thanks for the input everyone!  Looks like the best option is to call Feast Watson and then probably recoat the boards after taping as suggested.  A lot of mucking around for 30 seconds of silly buggers with my daughter by we live and learn.  I really appreciate you guys taking the time to post a comment, cheers!

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## Larry McCully

Seriously, i dont think that Feast and Watson will be able to help you. They are manufactures and not creftsman. All they will do is look at you sideways and refer you to a floorsander. Send me a pm  with your details and i will have a look at for you if you like.  

> Thanks for the input everyone! Looks like the best option is to call Feast Watson and then probably recoat the boards after taping as suggested. A lot of mucking around for 30 seconds of silly buggers with my daughter by we live and learn. I really appreciate you guys taking the time to post a comment, cheers!

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## dazza71

Try O'cedar oil or Gully Stephenson have some waxes/oils that are worth a go before diving head first into a repair. If no luck it can be wiped off with turps-Better than a total recoat or resand

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## Larry McCully

I am a firm beliver in using as close to the original type of finish as possible. in any case of dought, it is always best to use Waterbase polyurethane over everything else. For a simple reason. if you need to recoat the floor in years to come, and you have done a repair using a wax or other oil type repair system, you will have monumental rejection problems at that location. Best not to go any where near a timber floor with wax or buffing oil. Nothing beats the same type of finish. When i am not sure of the type of finish used previously, and we need to refresh a old tired coatt, i always use waterbase polyurethane. Try putting a solvent base poly over a water based poly and see how far you get. But it is always possible to put a coat of waterbased poly over any other coating type including solvent based polyurethane. Without any problems.  

> Try O'cedar oil or Gully Stephenson have some waxes/oils that are worth a go before diving head first into a repair. If no luck it can be wiped off with turps-Better than a total recoat or resand

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## dazza71

Fully agree Larry, I'm thinking along the lines of a home handyman type repair and without knowing extent of damage,finish or amount of oxidation thats occurred. I come across a lot of clients who expect the seas to part as my van appears and the miracle is about to happen.
As an apprentice we used a product called Pulling Liquid, which my tradie told me was basically Metho & Thinners. We used it to pull/move urethane finishes on high class furniture-similar to Shellac finishing in French Polishing. I've successfully repaired surface scratches this way BUT they are jobs I have done and Poly finished. Unfortunately its only my hair being pulled during winter with Poly at the moment.

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## nww1969

Local community hall has a varnished parquetry floor and every three months 
mops over it with Gemini floor sealer which hides all the marks and scratches
from people dragging the chairs over it.
You can buy it in 1 litre bottles from Bunnings.
Had a look at it the other night and come up great, was told 3 coats of gemini.

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