In July we had brand new Maple floors put in our Kitchen and hall. This past weekend I had a friend over who was wearing high heals. Granted this friends weighs under 100lbs and had normal high heel shoes on. Well, now my floors are totally ruined. I don't mean one or two dents. She spent most of her time around the kitchen island and was only there an hour. There are now MILLIONS of dents. Every single step she took is visible in the floor.
I have done tons of research on this product, and they claim the floors are extremely durable and most commonly used for ballroom dancing floors. Surely this isn't normal. Does anyone have any suggests as to what we should do. When the floors were installed NO ONE told us this could happen. I would have never put such floors in such a high traffic area. How can a manufacture even produce a floor that can't withstand normal wear and tear. Could it be a bad batch of flooring?
I want to thank you all in advance for your advice. My husband and I saved for years to afford these floors, and we are both devasted!

If you want wood floors to wear like furniture, you need to treat it like furniture. That means don't walk on it.

It is normal for wood floors to dent. No species of wood floor can withstand the impact of spike heels.

Shame on that contractor for not supplying you with a maintenance brochure. I discuss maintenance and proper care with all my customers. That being said, it has been commonly known and cautioned for many years not to wear high heels on wood floors. You only have one choice to repair and that is to have the dents sanded out and the floors refinished.

Lets get this straight. The manufacturer didn't make that floor, they only cut and milled it. Good `ol mother earth made that wood.


In the old days some manufacturers of engineered wood had a high heel with the internationally known red circle and slash.


Live with it and call it character, or pay to have it sand and finished again.

Even with 100 pound woman, you realise how many pounds per square inch(or less in this case with a stiletto heal) is put on the floor??

Your learning the hard way.


Did you show your friend?

Well I would live with it IF it happend in other places. This same friend has hardwood floors in her house and she doesn't have this problem.We then walked across the street to my neighbors and it didn't happen on her floor either. We also had hardwoods in our old home and never had anything like this happen. So it clearly doesn't happen on all floors. Was I misguided when choosing a floor or could it be a defect?
I am also upset that no one ever told us this was going to happen.

I can appreciate your alarm and being upset but exagerating the situation helps no one.

There are 3,600 seconds in one hour (the time she was in your kitchen) if your friend took two steps every second for the entire hour (which I doubt she did), There would be 7,200 dents from the heels. Hardly MILLIONS!
About those heels. Did you look at them? I'll bet you ten that the small protective rubber bottoms are gone (on at least one of the shoes) and the hard nail the protrudes from the bottom is sticking out. My wife has heels and I'm always taking them to the repair shop to have those tips/caps replaced and repaired. Anyway, those nails are like taking a small hammer to the floor and giving it a good whack. Bottom line, wood floors dent from high heels and it's not the wood's fault. Should the salesperson given you instructions on proper care? Yes. But keep in mind, they are selling you something, not trying to talk you out of it.
About 25 yrs ago, I installed a custom milled, wide plank maple floor. A few months later, the mrs. calls me up to come look at it. I went out and saw thousands of dents in the kitchen. Seems they had an open house party and one of the guests was wearing heels! Wood floors dent, especially from high heels. I'm sorry it happened to you. Maybe make a claim with your insurance company.