I have dark cherry engineered wood floors and they are loaded with scratches. Mostly because of incompetent people who would clean my house every two weeks. The last straw was when they used my favorite free people blouse with buttons and embellishments and COMPLETELY ruined my floors. I am devastated as this is a new house and our first home together (newlyweds) and after only 6 months I feel it is ruined.

There is even a spot where the cherry finish is worn off and it looks a little whitish.

Is there anything I can coat the floors with to maybe fix the scratches and worn off finish or am I just stuck. Because the floors are engineered and not hard wood I can't sand down and re-polish.

Any other solutions??? I'm desperate and feel like my dream home is a nightmare :*(

I just want to say "what? they used your good blouse to clean the floor?" That's criminal.

I think some engineered floors can be refinished one or more times. If you didn't purchase the floor material so that you're able to know how many layers it is, etc., maybe you can call a company that does installation and refinishing of wood floors and have them look at it.
GL

Yeppp, my thoughts exactly. I didn't even realize it until I came home from work and saw the floor. I asked what happened and they said the rubber wheel on the coffee table did it. I went downstairs to wash the rags they use only to find my blouse in the mix.

I'm trying to avoid that entire process because we only moved in a few months ago and the floors are new. But the top layer looks to be pretty thin judging from the spot where the finish is off so sanding an refinishing doesn't seem like an option. :(

If anyone knows of any topical ointment or stain or solution that would be fab!!!

First of all I would fire these cleaners. They do not know what they are doing. Another thing is with your floors you do not wash them with rags and water along with who knows what chemicals. You use a mop and floor cleaner made for laminated floors. Only a damp spray or squirt of cleaner from the bottle with the mop works. Also you need a mop with the pad for laminate floors not a normal sponge mop. What were they using on the floors, what have you used in the past?
Bona mop, cleaning pad and spray work great and can be bought in any hardware store and some drugstores too.
If your cleaning people stripped the finish off the floor I don't know how it can be fixed. Perhaps go to the flooring store where you bought the floors and talk to the people who work there. Also you can call the manufacturer of the floor you bought and see what the company has to say.

I also know there are floor products that can bring back the shine to the floors, you squirt it on the floor and then mop but I am not sure if they work for laminate floors. My brother has laminate floors in his house and they still look new-they are probably about 8 years old or more. His wife only used the products made for the floors on them. Sometimes I wonder where these cleaning people come from because they don't know how to use the right products. My sister hired 3 older women to clean her house and they used bleach to clean it top to bottom. She had tile floors and carpet. But the smell was enought to kill you when you walked into her home.
For the mark that is showing white under it you might be able to cover it with gel stain. You can buy it in any hardware store. I would dab a tiny amount on a q-tip and rub it lightly on the floor then blot it with a paper towel. They come in tons of wood colors so it might work.
I hope you find a answer. Good luck.

Why aren't you going after the cleaning company to pay for this? It is completely unacceptable 1) for a cleaning person to use someone's GOOD BLOUSE and 2) Use something that very CLEARLY would scratch the floor.

Sure, you should be able to get it refinished fairly easily. But you should not being paying to r*** the floors in your new house. We lived in the house that we built for 7 years, and aside from some very minor places where something had been dragged across the floor, the wood floors looked brand new when we moved out.

I also agree the cleaning company should be held responsible that is if they are a real company and not people you hire off the street. Companies are bonded with insurance. I would file a claim against them. Take pictures and document what they did.

Originally Posted by dichka

If anyone knows of any topical ointment or stain or solution that would be fab!!!

http://www.oldenglishpolish.com/sf2_scratch.shtml

There are other products out there also.

Thanks so much everyone!!! I can't because it's a Brazilian lady off the boat who came highly recommended. I already fired her. The new woman we interviewed also mentioned the bona mop. I'm going to look into it.

Unfortunately the house came with the floors but they were newly installed when we bought so no idea who or what company :( but I'm def going to use all of your advice!

Originally Posted by dichka

Thanks so much everyone!!! I can't because it's a Brazilian lady off the boat who came highly recommended. I already fired her. The new woman we interviewed also mentioned the bona mop. I'm going to look into it. Unfortunately the house came with the floors but they were newly installed when we bought so no idea who or what company :( but I'm def going to use all of your advice!

Who in the world recommended her? I would most certainly hold her responsible for the damage - "off the boat" or not.

Is this something that your homeowners insurance would cover? Were you paying her under the table?

Yea it was cash. I didn't think anything of it because my old cleaning lady was the same concept and I had her for years but we moved and she didn't go this far.

The previous owners did not leave any extra floor pieces when you moved in? We always bought one extra box of wood and the installers left the extra pieces we didn't use. Is it possible to contact the previous owners, usually with real estate closings they may have their new address listed when you closed and usually a cell phone number. Can you contact the real estate agent to see if she could get this information for you. This way you can find out the manufacturer and where they bought the floors which can give you information tn help solve your problem.

Possibly I'll try to do that but I doubt the agent will give their contact info and honestly I wouldn't want my agent to give my contact info out either but hey it's worth a try

even if you got it, the floor has aged and the color will have changed, and you cannot easily replace a single board because they are tongue and groove. Best to use a wax pigment stick that is a similar color and try to hide it the best you can

Originally Posted by dichka

Possibly I'll try to do that but I doubt the agent will give their contact info and honestly I wouldn't want my agent to give my contact info out either but hey it's worth a try

Oh no :( our floors keep scratching too, but it's our 1 year old son that keeps dragging all his toys across the floor.

We have maple engineered floors that are pretty soft, but I've heard that cherry is really easily scratched and dented :( Not sure what the deal was with her using your shirt, but if she was using a regular vaccuum cleaner with the rotating bristles that scratches hardwood. So maybe it wasn't totally on purpose? :(

Our hardwood guys gave us a bottle of mineral oil and said we could that on small spots on the floor and for tough stains. Also they gave us some sort of oil crayon you can fill in white scratches with. I'm sure they carry it at home depot or lowes. For cleaning we use Murphy's Oil Soap, it adds a little bit of shine to the floor.

Good luck!

Thanks everyone!