Scratches in Polish Floor

[wazzaAppleTree]

Greetings folks this is my first ever post.

I'd just like to say first of all that my wife is going to kill me.

Is there a way of polishing or resurfacing already polished floor boards?

I have polished floorboards throughout my house after some renovations there were some surface scratches in the finish. So I dutyfully got out the 1200 wet and dry sand paper to reduce the scratched and now I have dull grey patches on the floor.

Can some one help me?

Cheers

Warwick
[email protected] ([email protected])

[journeyman Mick]

Warwick,
when's the wake/funeral? :D Those dull grey patches are 1200 grit scratches. If you use even finer grits followed by a polishing compound like 3M's "Finesse It" you will end up with scratches that are so fine that you shouldnt be able to notice any difference between them and the rest of the floor.

Mick

[Gumby]

Even better, may I suggest Neil's EEE Ultra Shine. It's Brilliant!
http://www.ubeaut.com.au/ubhome.htm

[wazzaAppleTree]

Hi Mick,

I had a look at 3M's "Finesse It" on their website/ Aparrently it is used for boat polishing with 3M's "Perfect It" cutting compound.

Have you ever used it on a floor?

Cheers

Warwick

[wazzaAppleTree]

Hi Homer J

Have you ever uesd it on floorboards?
Does it come up with a wet look or a dry shine?
Do you now how to get it to a wet look?

cheers

Warwick

[Harry72]

Just use a car swirl mark removing polish, Meguiar's is good stuff as it contains no waxes just ultra fine abrasives.
Prob hit it with finer 1500-2000W&D first...

[rsser]

Just slop on some more of the finish that was on the boards originally.

If that doesn't work, you need to sand back down through the grades til the scratches you're making are like those you want to eliminate - then go back up through the grades (every one of the b*ggers). Though really, in my view flooboards and anything over 240 or 320 don't mix!

[jur]

You have several options:

1. Sand back lightly and finish the entire floor with the same stuff that is on it now. Last ditch option.

2. Put floor polish on: There are several brands of floor polish which are meant to be put on floors after the finish has been applied. This extra layer acts as a sacrificial layer, it protects the floor underneath, is dead easy and cheap to apply, is re-applied when necessary (perhaps twice a year), can be stripped back to the original finish just as easy as it is applied to start again. Feast Watson, Cabots and the like all have their various products under names like Floorshine. This is an option which is probably a good idea anyway; some finishes are actually meant to be used in conjunction with a sacrificial layer like this. However, if your finish is burnished pure tung oil, then stay as far away from this option as possible.

3. For local fixes, use an oil like tung oil; wipe over the scratches, the oil will hide the optical part of the scratch quite well, wipe off the excess. A small amount of oil will remain lodged in the scratch and harden there. This will work well for light scratches, even large ones that look ugly but still may be superficial. My wife did this just this weekend, hiding some really hideous scratches on our new kitchen floor so I can't find them. She used orange oil.

I would not recommend a local fix of the same stuff that you have on it now; most finishes are some sort of varnish with a definite thickness and any local addition will have an edge that wil remain visible. It might work to thin the stuff down with 50% turps or whatever the recommended thinning agent is and wipe on and off, with the small amount remaining behind in the scrath. Just be sure to wipe off thoroughly or you will have a patch that sticks out like dog's proverbials.

Experiment a bit.

For those sanded patches, polish them out with ubeaut EEE polish (personally I would not use car or metal polish for a timber job - the compounds may cause staining of the original finish. Case of the right stuff for the right job.)

This option may be a problem if your floor finish is a satin or matt type: The EEE will cause a brilliant shiny patch which will clash with the rest. In that case some 0000 steel wool may be used to dull the shine, but matching is going to be a challenge.