DH has ruined week old wood flooring

[Veraper]

I feel sick to my stomach.

We have splashed out on parquet flooring for all of downstairs (sick of renting a rug dr after every dog walk). Have been uber cautious with furniture pads etc.

DH saw ink-like black splodges on the floor last night and had to scrub very hard using the green side of the sponge to remove (still slightly visible tbh). And the floor now has white splodges the size of Xmas choc coins.

We are wooden floor newbies, can anyone save my floors? Has the varnish just come off? They are my dream floors and I didn’t even get to enjoy them yet (still doing up the rest of the house)

Rub a nut over it! Will vanish, I promise! Walnuts are best but any will do.

Don't worry your floors will be durable you just need to treat them with the right stuff . Find out what the builders put on so you know if you need to remove or can go on top. For me oiled floors have been better than varnish/seal. I rate Fiddes hard wax oil, but Osmo is pretty good. It's really not that hard to apply honestly, you need 3-4 layers.
To rectify the stained bits you need a very fine grain sand paper. Gently sand buff out, then oil the whole floor.
We have oiled oak in the downstairs and a dog, it's all good...(honest)

@Veraper so the same as using a light oil
Or, you could ask the wood manufacturer as they would know best. Beautiful flooring by the way

Don’t panic - same happened to us but bigger splodges - order Osmo oil tints online in a range of tints until you find the right one - the tester packet may even be enough. Don’t worry you’ll sort it and it won’t be visible after a while.

Yeah this wood hasn't been sealed (or not been sealed properly). Builder has swindled you and unfortunately until you sort it more and more permanent stains will appear. Ask builder exactly what they said they used. Then ask to replace stained wood and seal properly.

My DH did this to my new electric hob and a new wooden table and scratched my new American fridge so I feel your pain. I banned those green scrubbers from the house.

If it’s real wood parquet, it can be sanded and revarnished (it is usually done every 15-20 years) so should be fixable

It’s fixable , !!

Hi all, have spoken to a number of wood flooring people. All are saying they do not think the floors have been sealed properly. There are marks left right and centre. Yes, the dog dribbles but we are really taking droplets which are leading to permanent, non-removable stains. Some have also said the damage should not have occurred so easily with just water and sponge. DH spent a total of 3/4 mins cleaning - not hours and hours.

So many kind people have given up their free time to lend support, very grateful. Thanks all

This! I had a really expensive quartz worktop and my husband put a coffee pot on it and scorched it. They were brilliant lots of tips and the mark has all but disappeared, I was so upset! 😭 when it happened.

@Veraper get in touch with manufacturer. My husband sells flooring and he has said the white marks will need sanding down and then you would need to varnish or lacquer it depending what the finish was.

was it fitted by a flooring expert? My DH always only suggests his fitters who solely do flooring. He even only recommends one particular fitter for parquet.

This is all so familiar, I feel your pain. We have similar floors, and a dog. We got the dog a few years after having the floor installed, and it has not faired well! We just have an oiled wood, not varnished, in hindsight that was a mistake. It was mostly fine, until we got the dog, and now it's in really poor condition, scratches all over, and water marks like yours around his bowl. We'll need to re-sand and varnish eventually. It did take a while for those water marks to appear though, it wasn't instant, so yours does sound like it hasn't been sealed properly. I'd definitely get it redone with a really heavy duty varnish.

Just a word of warning. The Bessel hard floor cleaner we got recently has little plastic tufts sticking out of the brush/roller. We got it because we wanted a hard cleaner for our textured laminate. It does remove ingrained stains which I’d normally use a hard scrubbing brush on, so be careful with real wood. If you can bear the shininess, I suggest clear yacht varnish.

Slurpy dog tip - get a rubber/ plastic “boot tray” for wellies and muddy shoes. Get one with a lip round the outside and put the dog bowl on that.

Poor OP. I do think wood floors are beautiful even with wear and imperfections, that's part of their charm, but those first few flaws really hurt!

Generally you're going to have to choose between a pale/matte finish and durability though. The most hardwearing varnishes are glossy and also yellow the wood over time, especially where sunlight hits.

I would say: appreciate the imperfect beauty of your floors as they are, knowing that over time the flaws you see now will be added to and become less jarring.

You do have the option of putting a much more durable coating on it but it will still get scratches and dents.

I’m really sorry about your floors, unfortunately I’m clueless about wood flooring so can’t offer advice there. However I just wanted to give you this link, it’s a dog water bowl that really reduces the amount of water dropped by the dog. It really works for us!

Deal: ELS PET Dog Water Bowl, Non Spill Slow Drink Non Slip Vehicle Carried Pet Water Bowl for Dog Cat Puppy https://amzn.eu/d/dAZk7SY

@user1498809986 thank you for the link! Just bought it now!

@Cherrysoup may I ask how you are liking the bissel? Can see it is currently £100 off - liked the drying feature but if it’s crummy on wood it’s pointless as we already have a Karcher for kitchen/bathroom tiles

Go back to the Flooring Shop you purchased the flooring from for technical advice and to check the guarantee. This herringbone pattern is quite tricky to install so they may arrange for their fitter to replace the damaged sections or advise on treatments.

Took me several machines to find this one that actually cleans but it's only due to the plastic bristles which get into the texture of the lvt laminate (fake wood lookalike bought so dogs don't skid). It's quite harsh, not sure it won't wreck real wood!

We just gifted our bissell to my sister - it was too harsh on our oiled floorboards. Having better success with a vileda spin mop as it doesn’t get too much water on the floor.

Apologies, I've not had time to read the full thread and this has probably been said before. If the builders used a wax-type seal it would lift off when things are dropped on it such as oil or greasy food. These seals are fine in bedrooms but no use where you cook or eat.

You should be able to refinish the floor by using one of the machines with a huge sanding disk to take off the wax, they vaccuum up all the dust so pretty clean (any marks should sand out too, enough so that you should not notice them). Then you can use a more stain resistant seal.

Oiled floors are as vulnerable as waxed and can be treated the same way.

@Pinkrinse would love to know any tips you've been given for quartz. We have a lovely worktop but it has a lot of white. We have water stains near the sink and fine tea/coffee marks easily near the kettle. We were told just soap and water (and I also use Method granite) but if there's something stronger we can use then I'd love to know about it.

I suggested this too it’s what I would do.

A polyurethane seal doesn’t create such a sophisticated finish as a oiling, but it makes it totally dog, child & water proof.

It won’t be that expensive to fix. You just get it sanded and then sealed. But then you can stop worrying about it.