The first thing to do is clean a spot with a wax and grease remover frequently changing rags. Then at one end or the other of the scratch brush a little satin floor varnish on it and see if it disappears. Let it completely dry and see what the sheen of the varnish looks like. If the scratch is gone and the spot looks too dull or too shinny you can tinker with the varnish adding gloss if it's too dull or flat varnish if it's too shinny. Measure everything as you go so you can keep a record of the sheen. From there you should be able to clean the floor and varnish any scratches that occur.

If the varnish didn't help try gently wiping the scratch with lacquer thinner and see if the spot goes away. Just don't rub the spot too long with lacquer thinner as it could do more damage to the finish than the scratch. If the lacquer thinner works you should be able to clean the floor, go over with lacquer thinner and when dry coat it with the floor varnish.

If neither works if you know the manufacturer you might contact them for suggestions. I just don't know what finish they used.

 

ooohhhh that's bad. How long has it been that way?

 

I don't think that there is very much that you will be able to do. A laminate floor is like a Formica countertop. It's a very hard plastic and whatever you put on top of it will not soak in. It will probably ware off with foot traffic. I would try cleaning the mark, at a spot near the wall, with a solvent such as mineral spirits, alcohol, lacquer thinner or anything else that you may have handy. It's possible that it could be a mark from a plastic furniture protector. You may have some luck trying to disguise it using permeant felt tip markers. Office supply stores usually have markers in different shades, but there are not many shades of brown. Sit down on the floor and lightly touch the marker possibly using your finger to blend it. Denatured alcohol can be used to remove the permanent marker. Test this in a small area first.
You may be able to get it to look perfect to your eyes, but when you get up and look at it from a distance it will look bad. All you can do is try.
Are you sure that this is a laminate and not an engineered wood floor?

 

What I mostly want to do is not make it more obvious. I didn’t do it and I don’t know how long it’s been this way.

 

I found a scrap in a storage room. It looks like there’s about 1/16” of real wood on the top with ply underneath.

Googling the mfgr’s name (American Spirit) doesn’t get any hits other than carpet stores. Maybe I’ll try one of those.

That should help finding a piece of scrap. Make a scuff mark on the end of the piece of scrap and tinker with trying to make it go away there instead of the floor. The scratches I see in the floor are only in the finish so that should make it easier. The only hard part is not knowing what kind of finish they use. It would make the floor slicker than snot but you could do a lot with the scratches with old english scratch cover for dark wood.

 

When you say "laminate", do you mean laminated plastic like Formica or laminated wood as in "engineered wood"? It looks like the latter.

 

I agree that it looks like engineered wood. Mine is 3mm Oak on 14mm Pine.
johnep

 

I found a scrap in a storage room. It looks like there’s about 1/16” of real wood on the top with ply underneath.

Googling the mfgr’s name (American Spirit) doesn’t get any hits other than carpet stores. Maybe I’ll try one of those.

 

I have used a brand of scratch cover "Tops" for years with success. Probably available from Amazon.

 

It looks like Topps may have been purchased by Old English. When I googled Topps Scratch Cover, everything comes up as Old English Scratch cover. That have it at my local Ace, so I’m going to give it a whirl.

 

Thanks for the suggestions gang.

If I could make this 50% less obvious, I’d be happy.

 

There was a time back in the 80's and before when what we call engineered flooring was called Laminate because it was made of layers of wood glued together. Pergo was the first brand of a high- pressure laminate that I remember hitting the market. That is when I remember the names changing to engineered. Here is some information that I copied from a Google search.
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History[edit]
Laminate flooring was invented in 1977[citation needed] by the Swedish company Perstorp [en], and sold under the brand name Pergo. They had been making floor surfaces since 1923. The company first marketed its product to Europe in 1984, and later to the United States in 1994. Perstorp spun off its flooring division as the separate company named Pergo, now a subsidiary of Mohawk Industries.[5] Pergo is the most widely known laminate flooring manufacturer, but the trademark PERGO is not synonymous for all laminate floors.[citation needed]
Glueless laminate flooring was invented in 1996 by the Swedish company Välinge Aluminium (now Välinge Innovation) and sold under the names of Alloc and Fiboloc. However, a system for holding flooring panels together was also developed in parallel by the Belgian company Unilin released in 1997 and sold under the name of Quick-Step flooring [nl].
The two companies have been in a great number of legal conflicts over the years, and today most, if not all glueless locking flooring is made under license from either Välinge, Unilin, or even a combination of both.
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Now that you have some scraps to test on, I have another suggestion. Try some paste shoe polish.

Mohawk has a wide variety of products that may help.
Mohawk Finishing Products (mohawkproducts.com)

 

There was a time back in the 80's and before when what we call engineered flooring was called Laminate because it was made of layers of wood glued together. Pergo was the first brand of a high- pressure laminate that I remember hitting the market. That is when I remember the names changing to engineered. Here is some information that I copied from a Google search.
----------------------------------------------
History[edit]
Laminate flooring was invented in 1977[citation needed] by the Swedish company Perstorp [en], and sold under the brand name Pergo. They had been making floor surfaces since 1923. The company first marketed its product to Europe in 1984, and later to the United States in 1994. Perstorp spun off its flooring division as the separate company named Pergo, now a subsidiary of Mohawk Industries.[5] Pergo is the most widely known laminate flooring manufacturer, but the trademark PERGO is not synonymous for all laminate floors.[citation needed]
Glueless laminate flooring was invented in 1996 by the Swedish company Välinge Aluminium (now Välinge Innovation) and sold under the names of Alloc and Fiboloc. However, a system for holding flooring panels together was also developed in parallel by the Belgian company Unilin released in 1997 and sold under the name of Quick-Step flooring [nl].
The two companies have been in a great number of legal conflicts over the years, and today most, if not all glueless locking flooring is made under license from either Välinge, Unilin, or even a combination of both.
---------------------------------------------
Now that you have some scraps to test on, I have another suggestion. Try some paste shoe polish.
View attachment 456412
Mohawk has a wide variety of products that may help.
Mohawk Finishing Products (mohawkproducts.com)

Thanks for that. I was lumping anything that not real solid wood all the way through as laminate.

I guess I’m my codger mind, it’s either wood or it’s not. I far prefer a real, T&G field sanded and finished floor.

 

So, just what is scratch cover and what’s in it that would make a slick spot?

 

It's some version of lemon oil. It makes furniture slick so I would think it would make a floor really slick.

 

I found these two products at the Ace.

Which would you try first?

 

If the scratch isn't down to the wood and only in the top coat this may work:

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

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- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

If the "scratch" isn't too deep, you may be able to buff it and level the surface a bit so it won't show as much.
If the existing finsh will accept a top coat (eexperiment first of your extra piece) then dtush on one of these products:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rust-Oleum-Transformations-Floor-Wood-and-Laminate-Renewal-Kit-269597/203527033?mtc=SEM-CM-F_D23-G-D23-023_011_LAMINATE_FLR-Multi-NA-NA-DSA-2996251-WF-New_Engen_PL3&cm_mmc=afl-ir-10078-456723-hunker.com&irgwc=1&clickid=V7gVDS3waxyPTVKXqw20BTAIUkFWzNVhs2OfQE0

Buffing Out Scratched Laminate Flooring - Hunker

If your laminate flooring is scratched, you can often buff out the scratches with a repair kit. For larger areas, you may want to use a floor buffer and screen.

www.hunker.com

 

Is this vinyl or "wood" laminate? I have vinyl plank floor that has scratches, but thin ones from a large dogs nails. I am in the process of using a palm sander with 220 grit paper. It is taking the scratches out, just watch that you don't sand through the actual laminate aka picture of wood. My floor has a matte finish. Have any extra planks or strips to experiment on?

 

I wouldn't be sanding on it. That would wear down the surface to where foot traffic would expose the printed part of it sooner. I would use touch up markers or graining pens to color the scratches instead.

 

Mine is real wood over ply. The actual wood layer is about 1/10” thick.

I think the scratch would sand out easily, but getting a match without re-sanding the entire floor is above my skill level.

The room gets a lot of sun, so any variation in sheen would be really obvious. Also, because of that sun, the floor is faded in some areas, so sanding would likely change the color of the wood.

One company said they wouldn’t attempt sanding it because the finish is too hard.
Another said they’d sand it, but if they sanded through the rather thin wear layer, I’d have a bigger problem.