Strand Bamboo Flooring – Repair Scratches
Strand woven bamboo flooring is the most durable and dense of any type of bamboo flooring available on the market today. Even so, life happens – we drop things, forget to add furniture pads before moving that table, or drag in a bunch of sand from the beach that makes scratches and nicks on the floor boards. Luckily these are all types of repairs that are fairly simple for the average person to complete simply by using products and tools from your local home center or the flooring center where you purchased the bamboo to begin with.
Small shallow scratches are the most common type of damage that you will need to repair. For the most part, these scratches generally only penetrate the top layer of the finish on your floor and don’t go all the way down to the bamboo itself. Before beginning to repair scratches on your floor, take stock of the damage and make sure there aren’t any deep gouges that you will need to take care off.
Generally you have three options for dealing with scratches in your bamboo floor – these are the so called “miracle scratch remover” products that you see frequently at home improvement centers and even the grocery store. Second is to purchase a scratch repair kit from the floor manufacturer you purchased the materials from. Third is to use common wood floor fixers like stain pens or fillers like wood putty.
“Miracle scratch removers” are generally considered useless by most reputable home construction specialists. Its best to avoid these types of products all together. It is highly likely that the product with contain harmful chemicals that will stain the strand bamboo flooring – repairing scratches will be the least of your concerns.
Scratch repair kits – sometimes referred to as bamboo floor scratch remover – made by the bamboo manufacturer are the best method to use as they are designed specifically for your type of flooring. They will not stain or bleach out the bamboo. Depending on where you obtained the flooring from – whether it was local or via the Internet – it may be relatively more or less difficult to obtain one of these kits.
Probably the cheapest way to repair scratches on strand bamboo is to use a stain pen or putty. You can generally easily find a color match at the local home store. If the scratch is very shallow, a stain pen will work nicely. If its a little more deep, the filler is generally the way to go. After applying a filler you will need to buff up the surface to match the rest of your finish. If the scratch is just a little too deep, you can also wet-sand the area and then apply the filler. If you do sand, though, you will need to go ahead and seal the area up with another coat of polyurethane. Not doing so can leave that area of your bamboo flooring much more vulnerable to liquids.
DIY home improvement is another excellent resource for information regarding floor repair and home improvements in general.
