Hey everyone,
I recently moved into a new rental apartment and unfortunately, there are some tiny burn marks on the wooden flooring in the living room. I'm not sure how they got there, but I really want to fix them before my lease ends and the landlord notices.

I've done some research online, but I'm not quite sure what the best approach is. Some people suggest using a wood filler, while others recommend sanding and refinishing the affected areas.

Has anyone dealt with a similar issue before? What method did you use to fix the burn marks, and were you successful?

I want to make sure I handle this properly without causing further damage to the floor or violating any terms of my lease. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

by AssociationSafe6421

11 comments

  1. Are you sure this is an actual wood floor and not some vinyl or other laminate? Because in the latter case it would be easier to replace the damaged panels.

    If it is indeed wood, you can try wood filler to make the holes less obvious, but they are deep enough to definitely remain visible, no matter what you do.

  2. Were those there before you moved in or not?

    **Whatever you do, don’t try to fix them yourself.** You shouldn’t do any repairs yourself unless absolutely agreed upon with the landlord.

    You have two ways to approach this. Ignore and don’t say a word to anyone, hope that no one notices and deny involvement if they do. Or contact the landlord and deal with it. Home insurance might help you if the marks are reasonable (likely not though).

  3. Is that really wooden flooring? It looks like laminate in the photo? If it is laminate, it is rather difficult to fix. Sanding would do more damage and wood filler would be hard to get matching the color and pattern.

    I’d say leave it as is and hope it goes as normal wear and tear.

  4. I’d give 90% chance you will damage it more if you try to fix it. I would just leave it and hope for the best 

  5. The marks are so small, that I would say that is normal wear and you will not be punished for it. I think that covering or sanding would make it more obvious. Have you tried to clean it if it would give out color? And also it is possible that those marks were there before. My floor had quite many faults and marks even though it was completely new floor. 

  6. That’s vinyl floor, I think.
    Don’t do anything

  7. Coloring them would likely be the best choise if its laminate.
    There are i.e. quick fix pens designed specifically for that.
    https://www.bauhaus.fi/korjauskyna-clou.html
    Other methods will most likely ruin the floor even more.
    But what ever you do I’d first agree it with your landlord.

  8. There are some marker pens meant for covering wear and tear on floors that you could use. Filling isn’t likely needed since those marks seem to be mostly superficial. You’d probably need at least 2 colours and some artistic eye in order to not end up making it look worse. The pens I mean are like these ones: [https://www.k-rauta.fi/tuote/liberon-korjaushuopakyna-3-osainen-walnut/3282391051824](https://www.k-rauta.fi/tuote/liberon-korjaushuopakyna-3-osainen-walnut/3282391051824) (don’t buy those though, they’re brown colors when you’d need grayish ones from the looks of the photos).

    Of course, for all these kinds of repairs you’d need the permission of the landlord… but you make your own decisions.

  9. Carefully sand away the dark edge, then use a floor wax kit – color-match the light color and fill in, then color-match darker color and create pattern, scrape off excess wax, polish. Impossible to spot the area if done correctly.

  10. Whatever you do, don’t sand that laminate floor. Sanding will change the texture, and will make that area look very different in sunlight. It will look way worse. In fact almost any fix will make it look worse. Filler won’t stick and it will stand out. Not much you can do.

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