Hello All

I'm not sure if this or any message board here is correct for this question, but I thought I'd try.

I recently moved into an old house where the floors were redone about a year ago. I'm not sure what the floors or finish are. They are light colored, narrow planks (around 1940, I think) that are very grainy. It looks like it may be a satin finish. They are beautiful.

Anyway, a frozen pizza dough fell out of the freezer when I opened the door, leaving a small dent in the floor (about a quarter the size of a dime) and maybe an eighth of an inch deep (it's rounded, like a tiny meteor hit). The finish was not pierced. I'm probably overreacting this, but it bugs me when I open the refrigerator door and see the dent, which is illuminated by the refrigerator light.

Can this dent be touched up or minimized with anything - filled with clear nail polish, shellac, wax? Or does the floor have to be refinished?

Any ideas?

Thanks.

AJ Addison

It is a character mark. You will have fond memories of the day that happened, for a long time to come.

If you refinished that floor everytime you got a dent, there would be no wood left to refinish/sand in a year or two. Dents are a part of living on wood. All wood floors get them. It's like buying a new car. At first, you're so careful about where you park and you wash and wax it constantly. But after awhile, and a few of those parking lot door dings, you realize it is just a car that will get dented and dirty. So you just do the best you can. Same with floors. The newness wears off and you just live on it.

Thanks for the kind replies.

I guess I'll live with it again - though my 92 Explorer still has no dents or dings :O) Guess it's just the burden I bear wanting to maintain perfection in life (though the floor is not really perfect anyway.) I hope the woman I'm renting this beautiful little carriage house agrees with you both, though! (Yes, stone walls, horses and spectacular views of tree-covered rolling hills) I love these hardwood floors, but you sure do need to be careful.

Thanks again What a great message board.

Regards,
AJ Addison

In front of a fridge is a good place for a small throw rug that may help for the occassional with in/out of the fridge/freezer mishap. Would hide this dent and help prevent more as well.

place water in the dent. Maybe it will swell back.
It works,, sometimes.
Don't place too much water !!

something to try:

moisten a towel (cloth, cotton) and place it over the spot that is dented; place a hot iron over the cloth for 3 minutes.

it might do nothing but I use the same technique on pool cues with dents. (mostly maple)

First it was smart to ask, not everyone is that smart.

What I found worked was this, using a bath towel, and steam iron filled with water and set on steam setting, place the towel over the spot and rub the iron around the spot, don't let it sit still or it WILL cloud the finish. Keep checking to see if the dent popped back out, the one I did took 8 mins but had no cloudy finish.

Give that a shot and then once it's back to new put a throw rug to protect the floor.

I've had pretty good luck using the "iron" technique as well. It seemed to raise the dent better when I pierced the finish with a fine pin (two or three holes. The pin does leave very tiny holes, but they were the lesser of two evils because the dent was very noticeable.