This is a great forum, and I hope one of your experts can advise me of the best method to repair my Mirage engineered maple. The flooring was burned by the builder during some repair work to a metal staircase (with a blowtorch, I think and the burn marks look like they were from flying sparks - even though they had covered up the area where the welding work was being done), and while I'm pretty sure they will repair, I want to make sure that its done properly.

Can these burn marks be sanded out, filled, stained and refinished, or should I insist that they get a flooring installer to cut out the damaged strips and replace? The flooring is glued over 2.5ml cork glued on concrete. If it makes a difference, the stain colour is charcoal - a midtone greyish brown with a semi-gloss finish coat.

They also scratched/dented the finish in some areas - how can these best be repaired?

Thanks for your help

It has been my experience that it is extremely difficult to spot repair a factory finished floor by sanding and restaining. The odds of anyone getting the repaired area to match the factory finish is about zero to none. It would be best to remove the damaged boards and replace with factory boards that match exactly. This is the normal way of spot repairing and factory finished floor.

Thanks Gary,

That is what I was afraid of - hopefully the builder won't fight me on insisting on replacement of damaged strips, as my unit is not the 1st one that got the wood floor burned during this work...

One more question - the baseboards and molding also got singed in a few areas (painted MDF). Can these burns be sanded off and painted over without the burn marks bleeding through?

If the builder sub contracted out the welding work and it wasn't done by one of his employees, then the company that performed the work is responsible for the damage and the builder shouldn't care that it may cost more to repair. Personally, I think it would be a wash regarding the costs of repair; one to replace the damage boards or two, to try and spot sand, stain and refinish. I believe the costs would be about the same. In regards to the baseboards, if they are discolored from burning, they needn't be sanded. All the painter needs to do is use a stain killer primer first and then repaint; really not a big deal. That MDF stuff is pretty cheap so I don't believe it would cost much even if it needed replacing. The builder probably has hundreds of feet of it lying around. Good luck.

Thanks again Gary,

I'll make sure to ask that they use the right primer before painting over the burns on the baseboard and molding trim. And hopefully, they'll agree to tear out and replace damaged boards - and will have it done by someone who knows how to do this properly. I'll find out what their plans for fixing this are tomorrow...