Wood floor with dents from high heels.?

Question

I Have a cherry wood floor, about a year old. It has taken on loads of dents from where we had guests wearing high heeled shoes. There are also various scratches. I guess I need to sand this down, but would I need to sand back to the wood, or will a light sand do the trick before finishing?
Is there any finishing products that will make the wood a harder glaze, so try and reduce the risk again?

Answer 1

x. you need to belt sander it to just below the dents, then there is a diamond hard varnish you can get. good luck its a lot of hard work just done my hall way with the same problem, cant give you the exact name of the varnish as i used it all, but ask where you hire the belt sander. x

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Been there, sorted that...... Sand the floor to remove the varnish as best you can, paint stripper in the dents.. Get an old iron, wet cloth, and steam the dents out. The steam causes the fibres of the wood to 'uncompress' and the dents come out most of the way. Long job, but spend a bit of time every evening, soon done. Then, hire a real floor sander, and sand the whole lot as one. Realisticly, varnish , however hard it is will not protect. BAN HIGH HEELS

Answer 4

I guess my question back might be is it hardwood or laminate?

Cherry is a hardwood, and unless a lot of Mariachi dancing was taking place on the floor; Dents would have to be pretty strongly "forced". Scratches are common; in that a floor endures more abuses than most other surfaces; but then there is the question of IF; or HOW it was clear coated.

DO NOT think WOOD fillers until you determine the scars.

Sanding a floor is a messy job; and best done by Pros. It equates to LARGE footprint sanders to alieviate the possibility of obvious DIPS over the surface.

We can't know how obvious, or even dangerous these dings might be to traffic over the floor; but scratch removal is the easier task.

If the floor looks like it was hit by a HAIL storm, I'd go to the manufacturer, for ONE, Then to the vendor, the contractors, and probably the company that manufactured the Clear coat as well.

On a light hearted note you might practice the Japanese tradition of shoe removal.

Steven Wolf

Answer 5

My wife had some heels that did that to a pretty new hardware floor in our house. I could not figure out at first what all these little dents in the floor until I saw her standing there and when shoe moved I noticed them. I had to call the hardwood floor guy out to fix them because they were all over the place. She felt pretty bad about it. But she did look damn hot in those stiletto shoes. Now she makes sure she takes her shoes off.

Answer 6

use three coats of polyurethane after sanding. That will stand up to a lot of abuse. If you are taking on the job yourself, be sure to talk to someone who does it professionally who's work you have seen, to get the best prep methods and what to do between coats of poly.

I have all my rental property wood floors done this way and its reasonably priced and extremely durable. Many floor refinishers use two coats of poly, but this guy does three and you can see a big difference in the shine and the durability.

My floors have always been oak, maple or pine, so double check with a pro to see if poly is right for cherry before you go forward with it, but I think it would be good.

Answer 7

Actually, before you sand the floor, you might try something that worked for me.
I have an old, old, cedar chest. I used to have a huge dog, who when playing with the kids, somehow skidded across the top of the cedar chest, leaving deep scratches.
I took a wet bath towel, rung out somewhat, and then took a steam iron and went back and forth across the deep scratches. It took about ten minutes and the scratches were gone. These were deep scratches.
It surely would hurt to try before you go to all the trouble of sanding.
As far a a finish to use to give the floor a harder glaze; I would go for a bar top type finish, but definitely check with a floor specialist first.
Good luck to you.

Answer 8

There is a way to reduce the depth of the indentations. This sounds drastic but it works. Dip a rag in methylated spirits. Squeeze it into the indent. Set fire to the meths the vapour will burn above the floor level the combination of moisture and heat draws the wood up. Please don't set your house on fire. If there are lots of indents it will be a laborious task but saves sanding gouges in your floor as it will only require a light sanding to finish.

Answer 9

Big sander, lots of dust, smelly stain and polyurethane, big mess, big bill. Good Luck

Answer 10

lightly sand any big holes fill with wood filler and stain and lacquer a few coats of clear varnish will make it stronger