You Pinspire Me
I’ve never been a big fan of dark flooring. In our previous house we put down some light, neutral-toned vinyl flooring, and it was wonderful – it hid everything! Four kids plus a cat was no match for that floor! And then we moved to our lovely new home, where the owners thought that dark bamboo flooring would look nice. And it does – really nice. But you see every footprint, every crumb, every dog hair, and every piece of dust. I sweep twice a day and it sill looks dirty! The sadder part, though, is that it is a very soft bamboo, so it scratches incredibly easily. Just sliding a laundry basket a few feet leaves a multitude of scratches, as do HotWheels and dog paws. The lovely dark floor is full of tiny white scratches everywhere. I have put felt pads on everything, but we still get scratches. I tried those wood markers, but the colour was never a good match. You could see the colour from the marker around the wood, and it was kind of pinkish inside. Soo….I had to find out a different way how to fix bamboo flooring scratches….
Pinterest to the rescue. I had read about rubbing walnut into wood to repair scratches, but I never thought it would help with my floor. I was at the bulk food store and thought I’d give it a try – a couple of pieces won’t cost that much. I tried it in front of my fridge, where I have zig-zag scratches from pulling it out to clean. It instantly filled in the whiteness of the scratches, without leaving any sort of residue! I did the same by the stove, and it worked wonderfully! By this time the kids were wondering what thier mom was up to, rubbing food on the floor. I gave them each a piece of walnut (non-toxic, so no problem for kids to help with). They spent the next 30 minutes finding scratches and filling them in.
The entire floor looks SO much better now! I can’t get over it! Of course, if you didn’t see what it looked like before, you wouldn’t notice the change, but I definitely appreciate it! (So did the dog, as she followed the kids and ate little walnut crumbs).
I tried to show in a picture here. You can see the many white marks that came from our couch leg being moved back and forth.
Within minutes, the appearance of scratches had mostly disappeared!!! Like magic!! Obviously, the lines from the scratches are still there, but the colour is filled in perfectly.
I don’t know how long this will last – I imagine we’ll have to re-do it every now and then. I don’t mind though – it didn’t take very long, didn’t cost very much, and was easy for everyone to help with!
Have you ever tried this? Do you have a solution for how to fix bamboo flooring scratches? Have you had the same issues with your bamboo flooring?
Marya R
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Interesting. I did not know that you could use walnut to fix scratches! We have cheap laminate flooring in part of our house. It hides scratches and dirt very well, lol. Maybe plan a trip to a flooring store and ask them if they have tips to keep your bamboo flooring scratch free.
Hi there,
I have blonde (gold) bamboo flooring also in the house when I bought it. It is lovely except it gouges and scratches with ease. I have tried to repair these scratches, minwax putty, crayon wax etc. it just doesn’t work. I am discouraged, is there anything out there that will actually work. All products and ideas have to do with dark floors not light. HELP!!
So, how has this held up? The house qe bought has the rxact same flooring so we suffer the scratxhes quite a bit as well. If I sneeze the wrong way it scratches the floor.
If this lasts a year at a time great.
We found a marker that matches well, but not perfectly.
I am so disappointed in the floor. It is EXACTLY as you describe. It looks so worn and scratchy. If you come across a solution (other than a marker) let me know!!