Does Heavy Furniture Dent Vinyl plank Flooring?

Your vinyl plank flooring is definitely a beautiful but affordable quality in your house. While it is more affordable than real hardwood flooring that doesn’t mean that you want to have to replace it right away because you didn’t know how to take care of it.

Vinyl plank flooring can keep its beauty for up to 20 years, provided you take steps to protect from dents and scratches and follow a cleaning routine. Let’s explore tips, tricks, and product recommendations to leave you feeling confident doing what it takes to have your vinyl plank floors looking great for a long time.

Does heavy furniture dent vinyl plank flooring or leave any Marks and Scratches?

Furniture can cause dents, marks, and scratches to vinyl plank flooring. It is overall considered lower maintenance and much more durable than real hardwood floors. It can have really nice and natural look so we do recommend it to those who have kids and are in search of something less prone to damages. However, vinyl plank floors are still susceptible to dents, marks, and scratches so we need to protect our furniture right way.

How Do You Protect Vinyl Plank Flooring from Scratches and Dents?

There are few steps you could follow and minimize dents and scratches on vinyl plank flooring a lot.

• Take off your shoes in the mudroom or at the door when you come home. Tracking dirt and debris from outdoors onto your floors can make your floors susceptible to scratches. Furthermore, pointy heeled shoes, or heavy soles of boots can even cause dents.
• Be cautious when moving furniture over your floors. When moving furniture, if at all possible, lift it up off of the floor (use your knees and legs to avoid back injuries) and then set it down gently at its desired location.
• You should also consider investing in furniture sliders. The Felt Furniture Sliders by X Protector are specifically designed for heavy furniture on hard flooring. These sliders will cushion the legs of your furniture and help them to slide across your flooring without leaving dents behind. These furniture sliders come in a variety of sizes and quantity.

• For your heavy furniture that has wheels such as a bed or a bureau, the Furniture Caster Cups by X Protector will hold your heavy rolling furniture in place and prevent them from gouging dents into your floor over time with repeated but unwanted movement.

• Purchase a doormat. It needs to be heavy-duty and one that will pull off asphalt, dirt, and chemicals from the streets and keep them from entering your house with you and laying siege to your floors. I recommend the Gorilla Grip Original Durable Rubber Mat which comes in lots of colors so you don’t have to sacrifice appearance for practicality’s sake.

TIP: You may find interesting also my blog post about 10 best door mats for hardwood floors. 

• Protect your vinyl plank floors and invest in area rugs, particularly for high traffic areas of your home. A beautiful rug can enhance your interior design style preferences, add comfort to your feet, and protect your vinyl floors.
• If you do choose to purchase area rugs, be sure to also purchase a rug floor pad. A rug floor pad will prevent slipping and sliding of the rug over the floor. You want the rug to be firmly in place for reasons other than the obvious of not wanting to slip and fall. Slipping and sliding can cause friction, which over time can wear on your flooring. The Mohawk Ultra Premium 100% Recycled Felt Rug Pad will meet all those qualifications. It will add cushion, it will protect, and it will prevent slipping.

Routine cleaning is vital to the health and well-being of your vinyl flooring. Accumulated dust, dirt, dander, pet hair, allergens can all cause wear and tear on your floor’s surface. Regularly cleaning your vinyl floors will prevent the buildup of these small particles and have the benefit of keeping your floors shiny.

You should be sweeping or vacuuming your floors every couple of days (although daily would be best) and mopping once a week.

How Do You Protect Your Vinyl Flooring When You Need to Move a Heavy Kitchen Appliance?

Whether your refrigerator is due for an upgrade, or your old oven is just worn out, you will inevitably at some point have to move a heavy kitchen appliance over your vinyl plank flooring. Kitchen appliances are a menace to your floor if proper precautions are not taken. Three best sollutions are:

• Appliance Buddy will protect your floors and allow you to move your refrigerator, stove, washer, dryer, and freezer without leaving dents, scratches and gouges. They serve as tracks to be slide underneath the appliance so that it can be moved smoothly.

• You can use a furniture lever over a door mat to lift the appliance onto the floor gliders and you can be confident to move your heavy appliances, whether needed for repair, replacement, or cleaning.

Another great way is to use Forearm forklift straps to carry heavy appliances out of your house. This way no extra protection of your vinyl plank floors is needed.

How Do You Get Dents Out of Vinyl Flooring?

Sometimes, despite your best intentions and precautions, you’ll drop something heavy, or you’ll forget to take off your heeled shoes at the door and you’ll leave a dent in your floors. There are a few things that you can try, right at home, to fix the dent.

1. Before doing anything else, you need to properly clean vinyl flooring and remove dust and debris that could cause scratches when rubbed. Use a spray cleaner such as the Rejuvenate Vinyl Plank Floor Cleaner Spray.
2. Heat your clothing iron on the “cotton” setting. While the iron is heating up, place a folded wet (but not dripping) small towel over the area of the dent.
3. Take the iron and hold it to hover right over the towel covering the dent. Do not place the iron down on the towel, just hold it to hover for 2-3 minutes.

Alternatively, you can also try heating the cleaned area of the dent with a hair dryer. Not so hot that it will burn your hand to touch. Once heated, take a seam roller and work gently to roll out the dent.

NOTE: If neither of these methods work, you are probably best off to call your floor contractor. Other methods are available but require actually removing the dented plank.

Does LVP dent easily?

LVP or Luxury Vinyl Plank flooring, like any other hard surface flooring, can dent if it is stressed enough. In the case of LVP, it must be stressed more compared to a regular Vinyl, hardwood floor or ceramic tile.

There are several factors which can affect how easily LVP will dent.

1. FLEXIBILITY: LVP is more flexible than ceramic tile and hardwood, therefore it takes more stress to cause a dent.
2. QUALITY: The quality of the LVP plays a role in how easily it will dent. Poor quality LVP will dent more easily than high quality.
3. THICKNESS: The thickness of the LVP also plays a role in how easily it will dent. Thicker LVP is tougher than thin LVP.
4. INSTALLATION: The installation process has a large part in how easily the LVP will dent. If it is installed correctly, used high quality underlayment and completely grounded, then there is less stress on the LVP.

To Sum up, Main factor in how easily a Luxury vinyl plank will dent is its construction quality and thickness. Just like any other type of flooring, if you install it correctly and take the necessary precautions in order to protect your investment over time, then you shouldn’t have any problems with the durability of your product.

How Do You Fix Cuts and Scratches in Your Vinyl Plank Flooring?

Scratches are a pain on vinyl plank flooring because they really stand out. When the surface of the vinyl plank is scratched, they look white in appearance because the finish of the flooring has been disturbed and crystalizes.

This can be pretty distressing, especially since the darker the floor is, the more obvious a white scratch mark appears. Fortunately, there are few affordable solutions for removing scratches from vinyl plank floors:

• Use the Katzco Furniture Repair Kit Wood Markers and Wax Sticks or Dr. Schutz’s  complete kit.for deep scratches that require some filling in. The wax sticks will fill in the crevice that is gouged into the floor. They come in a variety of shades, and you can also blend two shades together to get it a perfect match for your floor.

TIP: When applying, use a light touch and be prepared to apply more than one coating.

• For light scratches and scuffs or to finish the work of the Katzco Wax Sticks, apply the WearMax Scratch Concealer for Luxury Vinyl Tile Flooring. This is a colorless liquid solution that is applied over the seam of the scratch to reseal the surface layer of the vinyl. For this product, it is important to follow the instructions, once it has cured it can be shiny, so be sure not to use too much.

TIP: You can try to remove light scratches on your Vinyl with nail polish. It can work well.

Related topics

• Is epoxy flooring good for homes?
• how soon can you put furniture on vinly plank floors?
• Can You Use Swiffer on Vinyl Plank Floors