Scratches in Dark Flooring

[Carlo Urmy]

Hello,

I just discovered two long scratches (possibly from a vacuum?) in my bedroom floor. The floor has a black stain on it with a poly surface coat over it, and it seems like the scratches are very shallow, probably just in the poly top coat. In any case, they haven't scratched through to expose the bare wood They would be very low visibility if they werent so long, and in a place where the light catches them rather visibly. Most of the advice that I've found has been focused on fixing the discoloration issues associated with scratches in flooring, but I've found less on dealing with this where the scratch is very superficial (but still very visible). Ive tried just buffing in a layer of paste wax, which did nothing, and also using a black wax pencil, which helped only slightly.

Any advice? Is it possible to buff out the scratch in any way without marring the finish? Photo is attached. Thanks.

IMG_5795.jpg

[Ed Gibbons]

I’ve used a permanent marker. You can wipe the marker on your finger and immediately press your finger along the scratch. I had a wet towel to clean off the excess; wipe immediately after applying marker. Actually came out decent and unless I pointed out exactly where the scratch was, you would never notice it.

[Carlo Urmy]

I’ve used a permanent marker. You can wipe the marker on your finger and immediately press your finger along the scratch. I had a wet towel to clean off the excess; wipe immediately after applying marker. Actually came out decent and unless I pointed out exactly where the scratch was, you would never notice it.

Yeah, I'm worried that this issue is more with the texture than the color– there actually is no color variation between the scratched and the unscratched wood. Its just the way the light catches the scratch that causes the problem. It's annoying–The scratch is so superficial that it would be almost invisible if it wasnt so long....