i, I have caribbeam walnut hard wood floors, with an aluminun oxide finish. I purchased the product under the assumption that a flooring with a 25 year warranty the floor would be durable and a high quality product. It has turn out that any little scratch, turns white, as if it is etched glass. The white etching can not be buffed out or polished. The white scratches are very noticable. I understand that normal wear and tear on hardwood floors is standard as are scratches, but white etched marks are not. I feel that in the during the finishing process, the aluminum oxide coating is too close to the surface and every little scratch shows up a white on this ceramic product.

What do you know about this?

Randi Gibson
regibson@adelphia.net

I know 25 year warranties are not worth the paper they are written on. It is a false marketing ploy.

You should see the junk one company sells with a 50 year finish warranty!!! That junk flies out of the store faster then the customer can say, "I've been screwed"

Yep thats pitfall of a al oxide finish hell of a marketing gimmic is it not. The warranty is for the finish to wear completly down to bare wood. The catch is the floor is going to ugly out way before it gets down to bare wood and need some attention in the way of a new coat of finish. Put a new coat of finish on a prefinsed floor and bye bye warranty. Gives people that false sense of security that there floors finish will hold up for 25 years.

They will hold up 25 years but they are not going to look good. Urethane with AO is some durable stuff but it still dents and scratches. The only thing you can do to rid the white scratches is to either buff them out individually with poly and a rag or screen and refinish the floors with poly which will put some buffer between the AO and the surface. Unfortunately as has been said it’s not a warrantee issue as the finish is still there.

One thing you can try is wiping a matching stain over the scratch. This won't remove the scratch but it will take away the noticeable white. This is the only quick fix that I know of without stripping down the finish.

Simple and very efffective.

Try this:

Tibet Almond Stick
Scratch Retouching Tool

Good contractor friend of mine swears by this stick. One swipe and the scratches disappear (or are greatly diminished!) Great for touching up wood floors.

http://www.vandykes.com/product/02006063/