The surfaces of your home wooden furniture are often susceptible to all different kinds of damage such as scratches, marks, gouges and dents. This doesn't mean that you need to throw away your furniture or replace it in any way. Alternatively, we want to highlight that these damaged furniture pieces can more often than not, be fixed and quite often, by yourself. And so this blog will help you do just that by providing you with some much needed tips and guidance to restore and repair your damaged solid wooden furniture.
Repairing Scratches
Where shallow scratches appear on the surface of your furniture, use a hard paste wax that matches the colour of the wooden furniture and apply this to the scratch with no. 0000 steel wool or using a microfibre cloth. Gently rub the wax onto the scratch going with the grain of the wood. Then allow this to sit for several minutes before removing any excess wax and buffing up the surface with a dry, clean cloth until its smooth and polished.
If you have one or two deeper scratches, these can be repaired using wax sticks that can be bought from homeware stores or even supermarket stores. To use the furniture patching sticks, apply it to the scratched area by rubbing the stick thoroughly to ensure that the deep scratch is being filled with the wax. Remove excess wax by scraping it away and then once completely dry, the surface can be buffed up with a dry, clean cloth.
Repairing Dents
Whilst small and shallow dents are easy to repair on softwood furniture, they are much harder to fix when dealing with hardwood or when the dents are fairly deep. If the dent is rather too deep, then it will need to be filled using either wood filler or water putty so that the surface is smooth again. The process for filling these large dents are the same as repairing cracks and the process can be seen below within the repairing cracks section.
If you have smaller dents, then an alternative method can be used. If the surface is finished, then you will need to remove this layer first by using fine-grit sandpaper and gently sand around the dent about 1/2 an inch before adopting any of these techniques.
Apply a few drops of water into the dent and allow the wood to soak the water up over a day or two. Hopefully the wood will swell slightly and raise the dent. However, if this doesn't work, another technique would be to apply a damp cloth that has been folded several times over the dent and allow this to sit over the damaged area for 10-15 minutes. You'll then want to press the cloth down with a warm iron. In doing this, you will create a moist heat that raises the dent. Now if this doesn't work, then it's probably best to apply a manufactured wood swelling liquid and follow the manufacturers directions for use.
Repairing Cracks
Cracks are often a common problem with home chunky wooden furniture and so restoration techniques are needed to repair these defects. These holes will need to be filled so that the surface is level again and no more cracks are evident. Wood filler or water putty are the best two options to do this. Wood fillers are available in several different colours and can be matched to the colour of the wood, and water putty can be tinted to suit many different natural wood tones. Again, if the surface is finished, then you will need to remove this layer first using the fine-grit sandpaper, making sure to go sand with the grain of the solid wood.
To fill these large scratches, clean the hole of any dust and dirt and then push the filler into the hole, making sure to tightly pack it into the space and leave it slightly overfilling the hole as the filler will shrink slightly. After leaving it to dry and set for two days, lightly sand the area to remove any excess filler and to ensure a smooth surface. You then might need to stain the area to match the rest of the surface. Let this dry and then finally, you'll want to buff the area which can be done with a clean cloth or no.0000 steel wool and wax and polish.
