How to fix Scratches on Luxury Vinyl Flooring?

Vinyl Flooring, or let’s be more considerate and call it Luxury Vinyl Flooring, is in no way less than a blessing for any and every place. With its extremely resilient structure and heavy-duty functionality, this flooring outperforms most of the high-end flooring options, too. Besides, the best part is the price, which is always really affordable and you can enjoy the aesthetics of super (otherwise) costly floors with this flooring treatment.

However, while Vinyl Flooring is one of the most serviceable floor treatments, it does come with somewhat of a downside of going bad or developing damage, at times. The most common example in this regard is surface scratching, which mostly occurs because of abrasive elements (cleaning tools, shoes, etc.) being on top of the floor or due to excessive furniture dragging.

Irrespective of what the root cause is, a scratched vinyl flooring, for sure, is the last thing you’d want to come across in your place. Moreover, it seems particularly displeasing if your floor features a lighter color or finish since that simply intensifies those nasty-looking scratches.

Dealing With A Scratched Vinyl Floor

First things first, any and every situation can be fixed, and you just don’t need to think about investing in another flooring system just because your good old home floor has now been scratched.

Vinyl Floor Scratching can be easily fixed, without a lot of effort and, most importantly, without spending a lot of money. All it takes is a little sound knowledge of what to go for and what to avoid, and you can easily repair your scratched vinyl flooring in the most seamless manner.

Let’s get to see how we can do this in an easy and effective way.

Things You’ll Need:

P320 Sandpaper
P500 Sandpaper
P800 Sandpaper
Car Wax (you can also use wax sticks for the purpose)
Clean And Dry Cloth
Dishwashing Detergent

Fixing The Scratched Vinyl Floors

This method is essentially aimed at addressing the deeper scratches, which is to say that you can also act upon a certain part if you’ve got a lighter version of the problem to deal with (light scratches).

Step 1: Cleaning The Area

Cleaning your floors thoroughly is the first step to literally any and every procedure of maintenance. That’s because any kind of buildup can simply worsen the situation, and you can never get the right outcomes, as long as your floors aren’t cleaned properly. You can start with making a basic cleaner by mixing warm water and dishwashing detergent, followed by thoroughly wiping your floors with it. Let them dry completely before you proceed any further. This will help lift all the dirt and accumulation, leaving you with a clean and well-prepped surface to work with.

Step 2: Sanding The Area

Start by sanding the entire problematic area with the P320 sandpaper (get the medium one) right in the direction of the scratches. This should fix most of the problems if you’re dealing with light scratches. When sanding the floor, be careful to proceed with lighter strokes so as to not damage the surface layer.

Step 3: Touching It Up

Next up, comes using the P500 Sandpaper and the P800 one to get a perfect finish with your sanding. Follow up by cleaning the floor once again to get rid of any residue.

Step 4: Waxing The Floor

Place the wax onto the floor, followed by applying pressure to cover up the entire scratch. This step is essential when you need to address deeper scratches since those can’t possibly be fixed with sanding merely.

Step 5: Buffing The Floor

Finish off by buffing the entire area for a smoother finish. Afterwards, go over the whole floor once again with a clean and dry cloth in mild circular motions to ensure a perfectly smooth and even surface.

Strive to have your strokes super gentle at each and every step and you should be able to fix your scratched vinyl floors successfully by now.

Caring For Vinyl Floors

With high hopes for you to not come across this serious problem ever again, we’ve got you a bunch of useful tips and tricks too, with which you can easily upkeep your vinyl floors and keep them from getting damaged, most importantly scratched.

The key to scratch-free Vinyl Floors is to keep them perfectly clean and decluttered. That’s because buildups and small particles often lead to floor scratching, as they get rubbed against the surface, causing damage to the wear layer.
Never drag the furniture (particularly anchor pieces) or other heavy objects atop Vinyl Flooring. Besides, ensure using felt pads for furniture legs, so that there is no abrasion taking place.
Do not walk with shoes (specifically the pointed ones, such as Stilettos) on top of Vinyl Floors. Besides, try to not walk atop Vinyl Floors with shoes or at least try doing so to a minimal extent. While this might not always be very feasible, you can still strive to keep indoor and outdoor shoes separate, so as to prevent the transfer of dust, dirt, and abrasive particles.
The surface finishes and coatings of Vinyl Floors specifically need to be taken care of. Therefore, be extremely careful with the choice of your cleaning equipment and never use any harsh or abrasive cleaning tools such as metal scrubbers, beater bars of vacuum cleaners, etc.
Be really gentle with your strokes when cleaning Vinyl Floors and always use mild and pH-balanced cleaners. The safest approach in this regard is to use the floor cleaner recommended by your flooring manufacturer.
Ensure placing door mats and welcome mats at all the entrances and exits to diminish the transfer of harmful particles to the floors. Using carpets and rugs is also a good idea to reduce surface scratching.

P.S. These useful tips and tricks can also be used for the perfect maintenance of soft floorings.

Conclusive Comments

How to repair scratches on Vinyl Floors might seem like a legit professionals’ thing in the first place, but you can always ace doing that yourself. The most important factor in preventing damage to your vinyl floors is to use them carefully. And you can achieve the rest of the flooring maintenance goals by learning how to address the occasional damage. Which, as a matter of fact, is the easiest to carry out most of the time.

This was our time with a simple yet effective fix procedure for a very common concern associated with Vinyl Floors. Hoping for it to be really helpful to you!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The most common cause of Luxury Vinyl Floor scratching is the dirt and dust particles carried along with shoes, as people enter and leave the living spaces. These particles or buildup is usually abrasive and causes scratches, as soon as it gets rubbed against the vinyl surface.

Dealing with Vinyl Floors requires extreme care regarding both the choice of cleaners and cleaning techniques. As for the cleaning elements, never use detergents, mop and clean products, solvent or wax-based polishes, Ammonia or even Ammonia-based cleaners and Mop and Shine commercial products.

Buffing can be considered as a fix for scratched floors, however, it only provides scratch removal at the surface level and not something very intense or effective. So if your floors are excessively damaged, you’ve got to take help from other procedures and materials, such as sanding,

Regular sweeping, mopping and vacuuming are the key to beautiful and well-maintained Vinyl Floors. As for mopping, you can make it more effective with the help of a mild commercial detergent at times. Besides, you can also consider the application of floor restoring polish, generally 2 to 3 coats.