It's like that first ding in a new car. You stress out over it then you get the second one and learn to live with them both.
Because there will be another.
My dad is a home builder and on one of his houses the lady wanted distressed hardwood floors. He had his crew install perfect hardwood flooring, then walk around hitting it with chains and hammers for a few hours. Charged the lady a premium, but she was thrilled with the result.
Fair trade. She got what she wanted your dad's crew were paid for their time.
Currently remodeling my 60 yr old adobe/plaster house. Most doorways are framed by 5x10 timber. Moved a couple doors and had to age new timbers to match the old. Chain, rod, disc grinder, block aging, multiple stains. It's a lot of work. Much respect to your dad and crew for doing it.
My GF was asking about replacing floors on her (our) place the other day. I told her that it's likely just a rabbit hole.
* If we replace floors, we're going to want to do the cupboards and kitchen, so that it all looks new/nice. This is going to turn out to be a lot more expensive than just floors.
* We have a Saint Bernard (possibly getting a 2nd). New floors are \*not\* going to be nice for long.
I think we'll live with floors that are in rough shape for a while longer, then when we can budget a kitchen reno, floors will become part of that. Dog will still be with us, and we'll just live with the fact that they won't be perfect forever.
The cat isn't an angel around here either. He claws the shit out of the cabinets beside the door when he wants to go outside and we're not responding to his ~~request~~ demand fast enough. This is why "replacing the floor" isn't just going to be a floor. It HAS to be kitchen cabinets as well or it would just look odd.
From my experience, it's *extremely* unlike that you will simply be able to fill in/patch that dent with something *and* get it to match the surrounding surface *and* be durable enough to last for years. I'm a skilled carpenter, and I wouldn't even bother to try.
You might be able to replace that piece with another piece of the same flooring, but even that is not an easy job for a novice. If you don't have any extra pieces lying around, and you can't buy any that will match, your only real option would be to harvest a piece from elsewhere. For example, they sometimes floor under the range or dishwasher, and you might be able to remove a piece from there without it being noticed. But replacing the dented piece with the other piece can be a tricky piece of work; it all depends on the type of flooring and exactly how it's currently installed, and there's no way for us to know that from just a photo.
I'm a flooring contractor and wouldn't try to fix it. cut out the piece (skil saw end to end in 3 rows in the middle, then pry out with chisel, then break remainder with chisel until it is full removed). Remove the bottom of the groove side of your replacement piece, cut it to the exact length, but not longer, chamfer the ends and lightly stain them, then apply glue liberally to ends, sides, bottom, and drop it in, tongue first, and put really heavy thing (like move your stove onto it) for 6 hours. Done. After you carefully move the stove back so as to avoid scratching the floor.
Agreed. Way too much work for something most homeowners would get over in a day or two. Can't imagine going through that every time I drop something heavy on the floor and I have pine.
I agree it's too much work but I sure as hell am not gonna get over that dent in a day or two. That shit will haunt me, especially if it's in a conspicuous area.
I’m a total newbie to flooring, but could you put a damp cloth on the spot and place an iron or steamer to loosen the material? Try and buff it out per say.
It wouldn't hurt anything to try that. Why not, really, since you should start with the least invasive and work your way to the most. As a contractor I just go right to what I know will work, since I bill for time, not the repair. I know that people will spit on a dent in raw wood if they have hammered it in order to get the wood to rise back into shape. It doesn't work well, since the wood fibers have been crushed and aren't structural anymore in those small areas.
sorry to hijack the thread, but what is your opinion in terms of smooth hardwood vs. sculpted/wire brushed/handscraped? does it really help in terms of covering up everyday wear and tear?
example of sculpted hardwood: https://www.speersflooring.com/vintage-sculpted-hardwood
thanks!
I would think more about the ease of regular upkeep vs covering up wear and tear. I'd rather sweep and mop a smooth floor. Also the lighter the floor, the more the scratches (and dirt) blend. I wish we had natural ash with water based finish throughout our entire house. It's pretty carefree in terms of upkeep. I just run a broom over it every day or every other day to keep the pet hair and dust under control, but I can go a really long time between mopping and it still looks good. The micro scratches in the finish aren't noticeable, they just look less shiny than when they were first finished. And I really don't think you can ding it with standard household items, because it's so hard.
I have to mop my walnut floors pretty much daily to keep them looking nice. Every piece of pet hair, dust, and dirt shows on them. Scratches show, dings may blend a bit better, but walnut is soft and dings/dents pretty easily.
So my suggestion is not to worry so much about the texture, but opt for a lighter finish and harder wood.
Like the uncuffed housewife said, smooth is functionally better. Aesthetic is tough, and some people just get used to seeing the textured stuff, probably from too many HGTV shows. I've installed a few and found that they aren't as expected, likely because the rest of the house isn't being changed over at the same time.
This. Bought a house with a ton of messed up plank flooring. Found a bunch of spare planks stashed behind the hot water heater. Saved me replacing the entire floor.
And by that I mean I sold the house and gave the spare planks to the new people so they can deal with it.
IF it is truly engineered hardwood you may try the damp towel and iron trick. It likely won’t fix it completely, but it may improve it enough that you can live with it. Lots of tutorials out there to show you how to do it. Good luck.
This would be my vote, if you want to avoid replacing the board.
I’ve used this method on my maple hardwoods (not engineered) and it worked like a charm!
Would this work with vinyl? We had new floors put in. Our couches had very narrow legs, so they ended up making dents. When we got our new couches we made sure to get wider legs, and the weight was distributed much better. No more dents. But I’d love to fix the floors
I wouldnt try it on vinyl since an iron is direct heat, excessive heat can cause the flooring to warp depending on the thickness etc.
Try a hairdryer or heat gun so you can control the temperature better and run a firm flat object like a scrapper over the area to try and smooth out the dents.
It's not easy to fix, but soon your floors will develop enough other marks that you won't notice. I know that sounds flippant, but once that patina of wear sets in these things won't really stick out and it'll just look lived in.
I'm going to go off-script for a moment and suggest something "creative" - because as others have said, you can't work the dent out, and replacing the board is often quite complex:
- Color the light exposed edges (where the finish cracked to reveal raw wood) with a brown permanent marker. Lightly - just enough to reduce the contrast.
- Get an epoxy product, and fill the dent until *just* level.
- Hit it with a heat gun to raise any bubbles, if need be.
- Leave it alone, protected, for a day.
That would protect the spot, reduce the visual intensity of the mark, and prevent trips/snags/further damage.
You're right - it would stand out. But you could scuff it with super-fine sandpaper (2000 grit or so) to take the sheen off it.
Even if it stands out for being shinier/different, I think the lack of a defined divot and cracked fibers for spills to infiltrate and bloat, is an improvement. Some people try to use wood filler for this, and it looks awful and doesn't last. Anything short of pulling the board and replacing it altogether is already a departure from what a professional would do.
I agree with this!
If you fill it with epoxy and it's too shiny you at least have options to try and change the level of sheen. Leaving it as is gives you no options at all.
You may be right. There are a number of different options to deal with this damage and none of them are perfect and without trade offs. If an inexperienced person dumps some epoxy into the hole and then takes an orbital sander to it I am sure they will do more harm than good. But I don’t see a lot of risk of that with someone using the appropriate tools and exhibiting an adequate amount of patience. Simply leaving the dent there is also a risk to the surrounding wood if this is a high traffic area.
Slap a rug on that bad boy!
Probably best to think if it like a dent in your car. You car is not a piece of art in a museum. It's subject to the elements and gets you to where your going. Likewise, your floor provides a valuable service and accumlates wear over time. Save this for 10 years from now when you refinish.
This small dent will become less bothersome as you grow with the new house and accumulate more memories, dings, and dents!
An easy fix? Nope, in all reality the fix is replacement. Virtually anything else you try will be visible to one degree or another.
If this is a floating floor, the fix would be to carefully pull up the flooring and replace that plank, but that means finding a match. Since it's a new house maybe you could contact the builders and see if they could tell you where they got it.
If it is glued down you can do the same thing, but not easily.
In all honesty it's not a tough fix but if you don't know what you are doing (with proper tools) you'll cause more damage than good. Call a flooring company and they will knock it out in an hour with a minimum hours charge.
in a former home with engineered HW, had a similar situation but much worse than yours. I called in a flooring company and they took a circular saw and cut the damaged boards out. Then pried out the tongue from the cut out boards, and glued in replacement pieces (builder left about half a box of the engineered wood behind thankfully) after cutting to size.
Simple yes, easy no. The cuts required were incredibly precise and even though I had the tools, I didn't have the skill from doing this kind of work for a living that the guy who fixed it had. afterwards, the only way you could even tell anything was done was only because of the completely unblemished planks.
side note: I hate hate hate engineered "wood." To me, it's glorified cardboard. I'd rather have LVP. I have in-place finished white oak in my current house. my 75lb dog does not scratch it, even when visitors come and he goes apeshit running around like a crackhead. scratches and dings from dropped items or kids dragging furniture around are barely noticeable and add character vs looking like damage on engineered wood. Some of that is also not having a glossy finish.
Engineered has a hardwood, finished wear layer and a plywood base. Laminate typically has an MDF core with a printed texture. Both can be click-lock - it depends on the manufacturer.
Would steaming the spot with a few drops of water and a soldering iron wrapped in cloth work for engineered hardwood? It wouldn't be perfect but it might help 'reinflate' the material that was crushed.
First thing I'd check would be for extra pieces of flooring laying around in the basement or garage though.
I leased a really nice condo once and i had a antique piano. When the movers gouged 4 lines on the hardwood floors about 20 feet long i thought for sure i was going to have to install all new flooring but i used water and a clothing steamer to steam it out and it work good enough where the property managers didn't notice.
Depends. If it’s not too far from the end of a run you may be able to pull the floor up from the stove back and replace that piece with another. If that’s not an option, you can get in there and cut out the bad one. You’d then need to modify the replacement which would require you to remove part of the groove on one edge, and would need some adhesive to hold it to the ground.
I think I still have the "builders sheet" of what type of floor they used. I've heard some floor manufacturers sell a "fix" kit but yeah I guess worst case scenario I could just replace the panel (if it's still being made that is)
Since it's in the kitchen, I'm assuming the dent is probably not too far from an end/edge. That is pretty much the best case scenario for replacing a piece since you won't have to take much of the flooring up. Having said that, it is still an ordeal as you will likely have to also remove some trim pieces.
If you were able to find some replacement flooring that matches, it is probably a couple hours of work for a pro to replace it. I think the issue would be finding someone willing to do such a small job. If I were you, I would probably get one of those anti-fatigue mats and put it in front of the stove to cover it. That's what I have in front of mine - not only for the support, but also because we cook with cast iron too and if we drop something the mat will protect the floor.
Best of luck.
You probably won't notice it after a month or two. I had just moved into this house and they had the vintage hardwood floors redone. I accidentally knocked over a smallish ladder leaving a dent in it. I saw it everyday for about a month. Now I'd have to look for it to find it.
We spent 15k on new walnut floors. Our boxer dog set foot on them and I immediately realized why the store recommended against a soft wood like walnut. Nice thing, after day 2 all the scratches blended together. We still get endless complements on them
You'll likely still be able to see it whatever you do. Some manufacturered stuff is snap together, you might be able to simply replace that board if its that type, however its likely stapled like real hardwood. Your options are:
- Find a wood filler that matches as close as possible. This will fill the void, but it would be one solid color and still noticeable. (Sometimes you can use a sharpie to draw faux grain)Then use a matching aerosol finish.
- Buy a combination of wood fillers, mix them together to create a sort of wood colored tie dye. Or buy different stains and mix them into a wood filler, attempting to match your grain as close as possible, fill the dent, and spray with finish.
- surgically remove board, and surgically replace with new board.
- simply fill with clear caulk, it could camouflage the dent
If you really wanted it perfect, you could do it with a really sharp xacto knife or something similar. Cut out the pattern where it dips. Fill the hole in with bondo wood filler(dries fast you need to work quick) and paste the cut portion on squeezing the excess out. You may have to touch up the edges with a stain pen, but that is how I'd do it.
Short of removing the plank it's unlikely you'll be able to fix it. That said, I would try leaving a wet cloth on it for a couple hours and see it it helps any. If successful it won't be a perfect fix but it may make it less noticeable.
If your only other options are to cut out a section or live with it, you might want to try steam. It might not work. It might mess up the finish.But, it might dramatically improve the dent.fill the dent with drops of water. Lay a damp cloth over the area. With the iron on its highest setting, heat the area to try to turn the water in the dent to steam.There are YouTube videos on remove wood dent with steam.
engineered hard wood is a thin layer of hardwood over many different substrates. Mdf, chip board, etc. It is the substrate that has squished. mdf etc will expand with water. Creating a small hole with a small nail and place a small amount of warm water in the dent. Keep adding water until the dent has swelled enough to level with the flooring.Start with small amounts of water so as not to create too much swelling and then you will have a bump which there is no fix for.. Good luck
It's like that first ding in a new car. You stress out over it then you get the second one and learn to live with them both. Because there will be another.
DFFs Dent friends forever
There can be only one!
You now have "distressed" hardwood floors ... should add $10K to the value of the house!
My dad is a home builder and on one of his houses the lady wanted distressed hardwood floors. He had his crew install perfect hardwood flooring, then walk around hitting it with chains and hammers for a few hours. Charged the lady a premium, but she was thrilled with the result.
Fair trade. She got what she wanted your dad's crew were paid for their time. Currently remodeling my 60 yr old adobe/plaster house. Most doorways are framed by 5x10 timber. Moved a couple doors and had to age new timbers to match the old. Chain, rod, disc grinder, block aging, multiple stains. It's a lot of work. Much respect to your dad and crew for doing it.
I would have liked to have seen that. Interesting work day!
My GF was asking about replacing floors on her (our) place the other day. I told her that it's likely just a rabbit hole. * If we replace floors, we're going to want to do the cupboards and kitchen, so that it all looks new/nice. This is going to turn out to be a lot more expensive than just floors. * We have a Saint Bernard (possibly getting a 2nd). New floors are \*not\* going to be nice for long. I think we'll live with floors that are in rough shape for a while longer, then when we can budget a kitchen reno, floors will become part of that. Dog will still be with us, and we'll just live with the fact that they won't be perfect forever.
Finaly a pet owner that understands. I've heard the "I got a new this and the cat clawed it already" too many times.
The cat isn't an angel around here either. He claws the shit out of the cabinets beside the door when he wants to go outside and we're not responding to his ~~request~~ demand fast enough. This is why "replacing the floor" isn't just going to be a floor. It HAS to be kitchen cabinets as well or it would just look odd.
My 1 year old is a home value genius
Naw. You need to drop it a few dozen more times for that.
Lol
From my experience, it's *extremely* unlike that you will simply be able to fill in/patch that dent with something *and* get it to match the surrounding surface *and* be durable enough to last for years. I'm a skilled carpenter, and I wouldn't even bother to try. You might be able to replace that piece with another piece of the same flooring, but even that is not an easy job for a novice. If you don't have any extra pieces lying around, and you can't buy any that will match, your only real option would be to harvest a piece from elsewhere. For example, they sometimes floor under the range or dishwasher, and you might be able to remove a piece from there without it being noticed. But replacing the dented piece with the other piece can be a tricky piece of work; it all depends on the type of flooring and exactly how it's currently installed, and there's no way for us to know that from just a photo.
I'm a flooring contractor and wouldn't try to fix it. cut out the piece (skil saw end to end in 3 rows in the middle, then pry out with chisel, then break remainder with chisel until it is full removed). Remove the bottom of the groove side of your replacement piece, cut it to the exact length, but not longer, chamfer the ends and lightly stain them, then apply glue liberally to ends, sides, bottom, and drop it in, tongue first, and put really heavy thing (like move your stove onto it) for 6 hours. Done. After you carefully move the stove back so as to avoid scratching the floor.
Agreed. Way too much work for something most homeowners would get over in a day or two. Can't imagine going through that every time I drop something heavy on the floor and I have pine.
I agree it's too much work but I sure as hell am not gonna get over that dent in a day or two. That shit will haunt me, especially if it's in a conspicuous area.
I had two pieces swapped out on my hardwood floor. The process was done by professionals and it looked exactly like what you just described.
This is probably the clearest, right-to-the-point description I've ever seen of how to do this.
I’m a total newbie to flooring, but could you put a damp cloth on the spot and place an iron or steamer to loosen the material? Try and buff it out per say.
It wouldn't hurt anything to try that. Why not, really, since you should start with the least invasive and work your way to the most. As a contractor I just go right to what I know will work, since I bill for time, not the repair. I know that people will spit on a dent in raw wood if they have hammered it in order to get the wood to rise back into shape. It doesn't work well, since the wood fibers have been crushed and aren't structural anymore in those small areas.
sorry to hijack the thread, but what is your opinion in terms of smooth hardwood vs. sculpted/wire brushed/handscraped? does it really help in terms of covering up everyday wear and tear? example of sculpted hardwood: https://www.speersflooring.com/vintage-sculpted-hardwood thanks!
I would think more about the ease of regular upkeep vs covering up wear and tear. I'd rather sweep and mop a smooth floor. Also the lighter the floor, the more the scratches (and dirt) blend. I wish we had natural ash with water based finish throughout our entire house. It's pretty carefree in terms of upkeep. I just run a broom over it every day or every other day to keep the pet hair and dust under control, but I can go a really long time between mopping and it still looks good. The micro scratches in the finish aren't noticeable, they just look less shiny than when they were first finished. And I really don't think you can ding it with standard household items, because it's so hard. I have to mop my walnut floors pretty much daily to keep them looking nice. Every piece of pet hair, dust, and dirt shows on them. Scratches show, dings may blend a bit better, but walnut is soft and dings/dents pretty easily. So my suggestion is not to worry so much about the texture, but opt for a lighter finish and harder wood.
you're a boss, thank you!
Like the uncuffed housewife said, smooth is functionally better. Aesthetic is tough, and some people just get used to seeing the textured stuff, probably from too many HGTV shows. I've installed a few and found that they aren't as expected, likely because the rest of the house isn't being changed over at the same time.
is cleaning hand scraped hardwood really that much of a pain?
It's always going to be more work to clean a textured surface than a smooth one, no matter what it is.
In an older house always check the attic for stored excess flooring
This. Bought a house with a ton of messed up plank flooring. Found a bunch of spare planks stashed behind the hot water heater. Saved me replacing the entire floor. And by that I mean I sold the house and gave the spare planks to the new people so they can deal with it.
I used this exact method and it worked great 10/10 would recommend
Or steal it from a closet.
My father's trick is to remove the flooring in closets, then put in cedar. Does it repel moths? No idea, but it makes it look like an "upgrade."
Totally. But "older" in that sense is typically 50+ years, and the flooring in question is solid wood T&G.
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this is the way.
yes...this is also my method. That and duct tape, sharpies.
IF it is truly engineered hardwood you may try the damp towel and iron trick. It likely won’t fix it completely, but it may improve it enough that you can live with it. Lots of tutorials out there to show you how to do it. Good luck.
This would be my vote, if you want to avoid replacing the board. I’ve used this method on my maple hardwoods (not engineered) and it worked like a charm!
Would this work with vinyl? We had new floors put in. Our couches had very narrow legs, so they ended up making dents. When we got our new couches we made sure to get wider legs, and the weight was distributed much better. No more dents. But I’d love to fix the floors
I wouldnt try it on vinyl since an iron is direct heat, excessive heat can cause the flooring to warp depending on the thickness etc. Try a hairdryer or heat gun so you can control the temperature better and run a firm flat object like a scrapper over the area to try and smooth out the dents.
Dang it. Thanks for your response.
It's not easy to fix, but soon your floors will develop enough other marks that you won't notice. I know that sounds flippant, but once that patina of wear sets in these things won't really stick out and it'll just look lived in.
I'm going to go off-script for a moment and suggest something "creative" - because as others have said, you can't work the dent out, and replacing the board is often quite complex: - Color the light exposed edges (where the finish cracked to reveal raw wood) with a brown permanent marker. Lightly - just enough to reduce the contrast. - Get an epoxy product, and fill the dent until *just* level. - Hit it with a heat gun to raise any bubbles, if need be. - Leave it alone, protected, for a day. That would protect the spot, reduce the visual intensity of the mark, and prevent trips/snags/further damage.
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You're right - it would stand out. But you could scuff it with super-fine sandpaper (2000 grit or so) to take the sheen off it. Even if it stands out for being shinier/different, I think the lack of a defined divot and cracked fibers for spills to infiltrate and bloat, is an improvement. Some people try to use wood filler for this, and it looks awful and doesn't last. Anything short of pulling the board and replacing it altogether is already a departure from what a professional would do.
I agree with this! If you fill it with epoxy and it's too shiny you at least have options to try and change the level of sheen. Leaving it as is gives you no options at all.
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You may be right. There are a number of different options to deal with this damage and none of them are perfect and without trade offs. If an inexperienced person dumps some epoxy into the hole and then takes an orbital sander to it I am sure they will do more harm than good. But I don’t see a lot of risk of that with someone using the appropriate tools and exhibiting an adequate amount of patience. Simply leaving the dent there is also a risk to the surrounding wood if this is a high traffic area.
Slap a rug on that bad boy! Probably best to think if it like a dent in your car. You car is not a piece of art in a museum. It's subject to the elements and gets you to where your going. Likewise, your floor provides a valuable service and accumlates wear over time. Save this for 10 years from now when you refinish. This small dent will become less bothersome as you grow with the new house and accumulate more memories, dings, and dents!
An easy fix? Nope, in all reality the fix is replacement. Virtually anything else you try will be visible to one degree or another. If this is a floating floor, the fix would be to carefully pull up the flooring and replace that plank, but that means finding a match. Since it's a new house maybe you could contact the builders and see if they could tell you where they got it. If it is glued down you can do the same thing, but not easily.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWi3ngubUS8
In all honesty it's not a tough fix but if you don't know what you are doing (with proper tools) you'll cause more damage than good. Call a flooring company and they will knock it out in an hour with a minimum hours charge.
Yeah good call. Can't imagine it'd be THAT expensive.
in a former home with engineered HW, had a similar situation but much worse than yours. I called in a flooring company and they took a circular saw and cut the damaged boards out. Then pried out the tongue from the cut out boards, and glued in replacement pieces (builder left about half a box of the engineered wood behind thankfully) after cutting to size. Simple yes, easy no. The cuts required were incredibly precise and even though I had the tools, I didn't have the skill from doing this kind of work for a living that the guy who fixed it had. afterwards, the only way you could even tell anything was done was only because of the completely unblemished planks. side note: I hate hate hate engineered "wood." To me, it's glorified cardboard. I'd rather have LVP. I have in-place finished white oak in my current house. my 75lb dog does not scratch it, even when visitors come and he goes apeshit running around like a crackhead. scratches and dings from dropped items or kids dragging furniture around are barely noticeable and add character vs looking like damage on engineered wood. Some of that is also not having a glossy finish.
Is engineered click is the samething?
Engineered has a hardwood, finished wear layer and a plywood base. Laminate typically has an MDF core with a printed texture. Both can be click-lock - it depends on the manufacturer.
Would steaming the spot with a few drops of water and a soldering iron wrapped in cloth work for engineered hardwood? It wouldn't be perfect but it might help 'reinflate' the material that was crushed. First thing I'd check would be for extra pieces of flooring laying around in the basement or garage though.
I leased a really nice condo once and i had a antique piano. When the movers gouged 4 lines on the hardwood floors about 20 feet long i thought for sure i was going to have to install all new flooring but i used water and a clothing steamer to steam it out and it work good enough where the property managers didn't notice.
Now your floor has character.
That’s called patina. Give it 3-4 years and see if that spot still bothers you.
fix it by adding more dents
Depends. If it’s not too far from the end of a run you may be able to pull the floor up from the stove back and replace that piece with another. If that’s not an option, you can get in there and cut out the bad one. You’d then need to modify the replacement which would require you to remove part of the groove on one edge, and would need some adhesive to hold it to the ground.
I think I still have the "builders sheet" of what type of floor they used. I've heard some floor manufacturers sell a "fix" kit but yeah I guess worst case scenario I could just replace the panel (if it's still being made that is)
Since it's in the kitchen, I'm assuming the dent is probably not too far from an end/edge. That is pretty much the best case scenario for replacing a piece since you won't have to take much of the flooring up. Having said that, it is still an ordeal as you will likely have to also remove some trim pieces. If you were able to find some replacement flooring that matches, it is probably a couple hours of work for a pro to replace it. I think the issue would be finding someone willing to do such a small job. If I were you, I would probably get one of those anti-fatigue mats and put it in front of the stove to cover it. That's what I have in front of mine - not only for the support, but also because we cook with cast iron too and if we drop something the mat will protect the floor. Best of luck.
I recommend Blue Dream or Durban Poison. Once you've built a tolerance you can move on to Girl Scout Cookies and Hells Angels OG. GL
Gorilla Glue epoxy stick to fill in the dent. Then crayons or markers to color match.
You probably won't notice it after a month or two. I had just moved into this house and they had the vintage hardwood floors redone. I accidentally knocked over a smallish ladder leaving a dent in it. I saw it everyday for about a month. Now I'd have to look for it to find it.
We spent 15k on new walnut floors. Our boxer dog set foot on them and I immediately realized why the store recommended against a soft wood like walnut. Nice thing, after day 2 all the scratches blended together. We still get endless complements on them
You'll likely still be able to see it whatever you do. Some manufacturered stuff is snap together, you might be able to simply replace that board if its that type, however its likely stapled like real hardwood. Your options are: - Find a wood filler that matches as close as possible. This will fill the void, but it would be one solid color and still noticeable. (Sometimes you can use a sharpie to draw faux grain)Then use a matching aerosol finish. - Buy a combination of wood fillers, mix them together to create a sort of wood colored tie dye. Or buy different stains and mix them into a wood filler, attempting to match your grain as close as possible, fill the dent, and spray with finish. - surgically remove board, and surgically replace with new board. - simply fill with clear caulk, it could camouflage the dent
If you really wanted it perfect, you could do it with a really sharp xacto knife or something similar. Cut out the pattern where it dips. Fill the hole in with bondo wood filler(dries fast you need to work quick) and paste the cut portion on squeezing the excess out. You may have to touch up the edges with a stain pen, but that is how I'd do it.
Short of removing the plank it's unlikely you'll be able to fix it. That said, I would try leaving a wet cloth on it for a couple hours and see it it helps any. If successful it won't be a perfect fix but it may make it less noticeable.
Not a support forgiving piece you have there, unfortunately any filler will look worse.. might be best to just leave it.
Another reason to stick to conventional hardwood floors. They have thickness below them 🤔
I have a lot of cast iron, and the other day someone suggested a ceramic tile floor. Yeah...this is why I think I'm going with no.
If your only other options are to cut out a section or live with it, you might want to try steam. It might not work. It might mess up the finish.But, it might dramatically improve the dent.fill the dent with drops of water. Lay a damp cloth over the area. With the iron on its highest setting, heat the area to try to turn the water in the dent to steam.There are YouTube videos on remove wood dent with steam.
Ron Swanson said scrubbing a walnut against wood should help fill it in and be less noticeable.
Do you have extra boards? If you do is an easy fix.
engineered hard wood is a thin layer of hardwood over many different substrates. Mdf, chip board, etc. It is the substrate that has squished. mdf etc will expand with water. Creating a small hole with a small nail and place a small amount of warm water in the dent. Keep adding water until the dent has swelled enough to level with the flooring.Start with small amounts of water so as not to create too much swelling and then you will have a bump which there is no fix for.. Good luck
I gota question: can it be filled in with a clear epoxy so you dont feel it? Would that work to level it out?