Where to Find Laminate Repair Kits

• Hardware and flooring stores sell products made to cover up or fill in scratches made by your dog's nails. Some flooring manufacturers make repair kits specifically for their own products, and the best place to buy those is where you purchased the flooring. If the manufacturer does not offer a repair product, then look for a generic laminate repair kit.
  
  

Repair Kits: Contents and Types

• Repair kits contain a tube of putty or a wax-like repair stick. These materials serve as the scratch filler. In some repair kits, the putty is pre-colored and in others the putty is a natural color and must be tinted with the included paint. You will need to mix the tint with the putty to create a color similar to that of your laminate floors.
  
  Some repair kits come with a putty knife. If your kit does not, buy an inexpensive putty knife or use popsicle sticks or tongue depressor-type sticks to smooth the putty once it is in the scratch.
  
  A new product on the market, the ColorFill Flooring Repair Kit, comes with a color swatch booklet and mixing formula so you can match your floor color.
  
  

Preparation Before Repairs

• Before you try to repair the scratches in your laminate flooring, make sure the area is clean and dry. If your kit comes with paint, you will need to mix it into the putty to get the matching color.
  
  

Repairing Deep Scratches

• After you have prepared the putty or if your kit contains pre-colored putty, spoon the putty onto or into the scratch and smooth it with the putty knife or spreading stick.
  
  Remove all excess putty to create a smooth surface. Finally, while being careful not to interfere with the repaired scratch, wipe around it with a clean cloth to eliminate any putty residue. The putty repair material should harden and blend in with the laminate around it.
  
  

Repairing Shallow Scratches

• If the scratch is too shallow for the putty method to work properly, try a product called "ScratchAway," a spray-on treatment for small, minor scratches. With ScratchAway, you spray the area and buff until the scratch is less visible and the area is dry. The company claims that "ScratchAway reduces the visibility of scratches up to 80 percent."
  
  For minor abrasions in your laminate floor, use special colored pencils made to fill in the lightly scratched areas. You can also buy wax crayons made especially for this purpose. They come in various colors to match different laminate floors. To use, clean dust from the scratched area before applying wax crayon. Then, fill in the scratch with color until the abrasion becomes less visible. Wipe extraneous crayon marks with a clean dry cloth.
  
  

Ongoing Solutions

• The best way to minimize nail scratches on your floors is to keep your dog's nails trimmed or filed. According to the World Floor Covering Association (WFCA) laminate flooring only resists scratches and can be scratched. It will pay you to be especially vigilant about the nail length on large dogs. Because bigger breeds are heavier and have harder nails than small dogs, they are capable of causing deeper scratches and greater damage to your laminate flooring.