Is Repairing My Scratched Hardwood Possible?

[lisa.j]

Hi there! I'm moving out and will be renting my place out, and recently discovered my broken recliner did a number on my floors. Some people in my life have told me this is not fixable without replacing all of the hardwood.

Does anyone have any input on how I could at least make it look a bit better without replacing the floors? I plan to do that next year, but would love to have my tenants not have a practically 'gashed' floor!
Thanks!

[HayZee518]

Those gashes are pretty deep! You might be able to piece the boards in if you can find grain patterns close to what you have. Next would be matching the stain (s). Water based urethane would be a good finish.
Sanding is definitely out as you couldn't feather out a decent distance without noticing a "dent" in the floor.

[lisa.j]

Those gashes are pretty deep! You might be able to piece the boards in if you can find grain patterns close to what you have. Next would be matching the stain (s). Water based urethane would be a good finish.
Sanding is definitely out as you couldn't feather out a decent distance without noticing a "dent" in the floor.

Thanks HayZee! Do you think something like wood putty might works as a filler for now? It won't look 100%, but I'm hoping it looks liveable!

[HayZee518]

DURHAM wood putty may be a way out. Now if you can find a powdered stain to match.

[pushkins]

Nope, hate to be the bearer of bad news but there is no filler your going to get to be able to 1. stay in those scratches and 2 match the surrounding area in any way.
We have refinished 1000's of square feet of hardwood flooring and believe me we have tried many many "fixes" to solve issues just like you have. Are the floors solid hardwood or are they engineered ?
For solid hardwood I find that the best "short term" fix (as you are going to replace the floors anyway) is to lightly sand the area, feathering out the sanding as you move a little outside the damaged area, basically what your aiming for is to take the "edges" of the damaged area, then match as close as possible the stain, you will NOT match it exactly as age of the stain and hardwood will make this difficult even for a very experienced floor person. Once the stain has dried with a good brush or cloth apply a polyurethane that matches the same sheen, it looks like satin from your pictures, to the repaired/re stained area again your going to kind of feather out the application of polyurethane. It's going to be extremely difficult to cover the damaged and impossible to make it go away without re sanding and re finishing the entire area.