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)

He essentially scrubbed with a scouring pad. No finish is meant to withstand that.

We were told it was durable for a dog! Never had issues with wood at the many air bnbs we have stayed at with dog (7+). In fact quite the opposite, impressed us enough to put it in.

Hope you get your floor sorted out. I'm sure the daged area could be masked off and refinished, especially if you test an inconspicuous area first.

If it's any consolation my 'D'H once wrecked the paintwork on a car with a green scrubby sponge! Yes, you did read that right😫Car was pretty much destroyed - previously perfect paintwork!

I've used crayon in a similar colour and then bees wax on old furniture scratches before. Otherwise try YouTube for an answer.

I find when you get something new it often gets damaged early on but never again. I've had that with phones and a new fence. We got a new fence and a neighbour's free-standing scaffolding platform blew into our garden and damaged the fence FFS. Could have killed someone. The decorator (another neighbour) was really unwilling to fix it. I've never liked them since.

Yeah however you get rid of that stain you'll need to refinish afterwards because that's in the wood and the only way to shift it is by removing the finish as well. Easy to remove but you do need a tougher finish or you'll be forever sanding out watermarks. I think just accept that the colour will change slightly but you can get some great tough floor varnishes that will do a good job for you without affecting the colour too much.

Gah water is going to be an issue. The dog has his main water bowl on a towel but after a big drink he always leaves a bit of a trail from the kitchen to the living room.

Googling a better varnish right now!

Water marks can be reduced / removed with a hairdryer - worth trying to see if the marks fade. I'd then polish with whatever products the manufacturer recommends. Good luck.

No, the link you posted is to “unfinished” wood flooring - ie no lacquer or varnish seal. It needs to be sealed.

Water on parquet will leave marks like that. I think if your dog regularly trails water everywhere you need to put down rugs.

If you have a 35 kilo dog that floor is going to look ABSOLUTELY awful within 6 months. I mean TERRIBLE. It’s way too light and delicate. If it can change colour like that with a sponge, green side or not; then it’s a terrible quality and not fit for purpose as a floor. Does it have a warranty? Sorry but floors should be able to be cleaned without this level of stress and damage, it’s not like your husband used a garden rake to clean it!

Yeah but the black marks show that there's nothing really stopping the wood from being absorbent. That is quite worrying as any spill could even make the parquet warp if it's free to accept Moisture.

Are the tiles dry back LVT or is it actual proper wood? If it’s dry back LVT, the affected tiles can easily be lifted out by the fitter and new ones laid. We got bad scratches on about three tiles and did exactly this. It’s a bit more difficult if it’s click vinyl and can be more expensive to repair.

Stop panicking!!
I have no idea what the black dots are ….if you have had the floors sealed then water shouldn’t turn it black but the white marks are where your DH has removed the ‘finish’
Regardless of whether you had them oiled or varnished, the company that supplied & fitted them will know how to restore them or will know someone that does.
DO NOT try anything else or add any chemicals in the meantime.

THIS IS THE IMPORTANT BIT The benefit of real wood flooring is that they can always be restored …. It will be fine

They will have had some sealant like a polyurethane.

Sorry, I’m laughing at Xmas coins being used as a serious form of measurement 🤣

I understand how heartbroken you must be, I’m the same with anything new. I’m confident it can be resolved, they can be fully sanded down and re-finished if needs be.

my parents have a parquet floor and when they bought the house they had an Austrian guy come with a big sander to sand and varnish it, looked brand new when finished. Although he did say “no high heels and no dogs” 😬 (they did have a dog though, and he never did any damage to it!)

OMG who on earth has 'dream floors' ?
Find more important things to care about OP.

Off-topic, but I have seen people train their dogs to dry their chins off after having a drink, on a towel they keep next to the water bowl (if that's something you want to invest time into doing!).

@tabulaisrasa really? 😂

Sorry - misread - in that case it must just be oil.

Omfg. I think that’s a job for a French polisher, you could try staining it but that risks it looking more obvious.

Don’t panic! Any decent floor layer will be able to remove the floor ‘tile’ and replace with a new tile.

Is @Veraper sterilising the floors after every dog walk now they don't require the rug doctor daily?

Ah yes, men and the apparent magical qualities of the green scourer.

Last month DP damaged our shop's A board by trying to scrub off the chalk pen with a green scourer rather than the special cleaner that I gave him.

He has damaged the paint on walls and doors by using the scourer on marks rather than using a cloth first.

He has dented every single new appliance and then pretends that it arrived like it. He flooded our porch by using the hose to clean it despite me reminding him several times that the roof leaks if you use the hose on it. He broke our new dining table by dragging it across the room causing the leg joints to loosen and the veneer to splinter and break off.

But my biggest source of scourer sponge rage is the ceramic hob. I have Hob Heaven for it. It works beautifully and takes just two minutes to clean it to a perfect shine. Does DP use it? Nope. He scrubs the hob with his faithful green scourer and dirty washing up water. Every f-ing time. He is ruining it slowly but surely. If I say anything he will tell me to do it myself. He has watched me use the hob cleaner but he still persists with his fucking green scourer.