Why Are My Prefinished Hardwood Floors Scratching So Easily

How many square feet was stained.

Why are my prefinished hardwood floors scratching so easily.

In general the hardest flooring comes from the tropics as is prefinished at the factory with a baked on polyurethane or aluminum oxide finish. Installers can inadvertently scratch boards while installing them and movers can scratch them when shifting furniture. Duraseal quick coat which has a 2 hour drying time has ethanol denatured alcohol. Traditionally hardwood flooring was always installed as unfinished planks that were then stained and finished with a protective surface layer right on the worksite.

So we naturally get the question can you refinish pre finished floors the answer is generally yes as long as the pre finished or site finished floors are solid hardwood. The larger or sharper the worse or deeper the scratches. To deal with these and other scratches you should take into account their. For example quarter sawn flooring which has an edge or vertical grain has an even grain so it stands up to traffic well and won t show scratches easily.

But since the introduction of prefinished solid hardwood during the 1940s this newer form of flooring has become increasingly popular and today you may find that it s easier to find than traditional unfinished hardwood planks. The least durable flooring materials are softwoods and any flooring material is more scratch prone when finished on site with shellac oil or less than three coats of polyurethane. It could be something on the bottom of a shoe. The better the finish the more resistant to scratching.

A piece of grit on the bottom of a chair leg. Insufficient drying equals delamination and easily scratched floor. Scratches generally are from something which is abrasive rubbing across the finish.