How to Make Hardwood Floors Look New Without Refinishing

If you have hardwood floors in your home, then you know that they require a little different care than other types of flooring. You also know that sometimes your hardwood floors need a little extra TLC to look new. You may not want to spend the money to have your floors refinished every time they’re looking a little worse for wear.

We have some handy ways on how to make hardwood floors look new without refinishing:

1. Prevent Hardwood Floor Scratches

The best way on how to make hardwood floors look new without refinishing is to prevent preemptive damage. This isn’t always possible, but there are some things you can do to preserve the beauty of your engineered hardwood flooring.

Scratches come from a wide variety of sources. From chairs and other furniture pieces, make sure to add those felt pieces to the legs and bottoms to stop them from scratching your floor. If you have pets like cats and dogs, make sure to keep their nails short at all times. This will prevent them from scratching your hardwood floor as they walk on it.

If you have small children, place a mat on the floor where they play. This will give them a surface to play on that they can scratch up without it being your floors. You can find these at most baby stores and online. Of course, you can’t prevent them from throwing their toys (although you probably try), but the mat will be a good start and absorb most of the destructiveness.

2. Remove Permanent Marker

Speaking of children, are there areas on your hardwood floor that have permanent marker on them? If this is the case in your home, you’re in luck because there is an easy fix!

All you need to do to get rid of this headache is to apply a dab of toothpaste to the affected area and rub it with a damp cloth. This should effectively remove any permanent marker stains from your hardwood floor. Who knew it could be so easy?!

3. Tackle Small Dents

If you have some small dents here and there on your hardwood floor, there is a simple fix. All it takes is water and an iron.

To start, pour about an ounce of water into the dent. Make sure you have enough water to cover the dent, as well as a small area around it. It’s important to ensure that the dent is completely wet and that the water is pooling inside the dent.

Once you have that, place a damp towel directly over the dent. This will add some additional moisture while creating a safe way to apply the heat from the iron. Let this sit for a while. The more moisture the floor absorbs the easier it will be for it to soften and become pliable (which is exactly what you want).

Now, set your iron to the highest setting. Once the iron is hot, press it into the towel above the dent while using slow circular motions. Do this a few times, gradually widening the area. Once the cloth is dry, check to see if the dent has been fixed.

If it worked, you can go ahead and apply a finish to the whole area of flooring so it all looks the same.

If this didn’t fix the dent, go through the process again.

4. Use Floor Cleaner

Sometimes all your hardwood floors need is a good cleaning to get it back into tip-top shape. Purchase a floor cleaner that is safe for hardwood floors and then with a little elbow grease, you should have your floors looking brand new (or close to it).

5. Get Rid of Scuffs

We all have hardwood floors that are scuffed up. Luckily, there is an easy solution to this common problem. All you need is to purchase a magic eraser

6. Use Black Tea as a Floor Cleaner

You may be shocked to hear this, but black tea is actually a very effective cleaner for hardwood floors! Since black tea contains compounds that make it anti-microbial, it’s a great way to get germs off of your floor.

Black tea also has tannins in it which will add a nice shine to your floor.

A bonus? Black tea is much less acidic than white vinegar, which makes it less harmful on your hardwood floor’s finish.

The best part about this is that most of us have some black tea on hand so all you need to do is steep some and you’re good to go!

Use these tips and your hardwood floor will look brand new without needing to refinish it! What could be better than a few simple tricks that cost almost nothing?!