How can I repair these dents my Ikea couch has been making in my hardwood floor?

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Linoleum is kind of awesome.

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It can support your head

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Hell no, it looks terrible so quickly. The patterns to make it look like "wood" or whatever are at most a millimeter deep, so enough usage and suddenly you have a worn out blank spot in your giant piece of shit plastic for.

It outgasses forever, you're funding the fossil fuel industry, it looks and feels like shit, and you'll throw it out in 5-10yrs.

Tldr, fuck linoleum, it is inferior in all but one metric: water resistance.

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Linoleum and vinyl are not the same thing. It does dent.

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I haven't seen the original form of linoleum made it installed anywhere on any jobsite I've ever worked.

I realize the term has been co-opted by the plastics industry, but if you're specifying the original linseed oil recipe from the 1870s, you need to specify that.

Vinyl and linoleum have been interchangeable terms in modern parlance for several lifetimes at this point.

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Water alone won't help much, using steam can. Putting a damp towel down and using an iron over the problem areas can sometimes affect the dents a variable amount.

Depending on how good the varnish is, that will determine how well it works.

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Leave them. The dents tell the story of your house.

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What? One of linoleum's benefits is not off gassing and not being made from fossil fuels. Are you thinking of vinyl?

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I'm renting a flat and the story would be the one of my neglect, and me having to pay off the landlord, it's not my favorite one

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That sounds like a fun thing to improvise, thanks, I'll try it!

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I would agree, but I'm afraid my landlord will look under that rug at some point

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Thanks for that expert advice - let's consider the scenario where I don't know what I'm doing, and I just want to avoid my landlord deducting too much from the deposit when I move out, what would you recommend?

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If the landlord decides to be a dick, I would think you could respond that the hardwood wasn't hard afterall, so best to just call it a day.

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Ah, a tale as old as time.

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Depends on the country I suppose
Vinyl is much softer than linoleum, which is why linoleum is used everywhere in public buildings like schools and hospitals etc.
Vinyl is used in your bedroom

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I'm not an expert, just a hobbyist.

If it's actual hardwood then, if you try to fix this, you'll almost certainly end up doing more damage. An expert probably won't touch any job for less than $750.

The best case scenario is it's not true hardwood, instead wood veneer tongue and groove where pieces are easily replaced... which starts by removing all the baseboards and pieces of floor from the edge to the piece that needs replaced. Anyone could easily learn to do that. But, is it worth the time and effort for a couple hundred bucks?

Probably the best thing to do now is to prevent any more damage. That could be as simple as some 1/4 plywood between the legs and the floor. A quality rug is more expensive and would also work.

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In that case, I would recommend using your time machine to go back in time and buying something to protect the floor from the sofa.

Short of sanding the floor down, there's really not a lot that you can do. The dents and dings aren't going to pop back out; it's not like auto repair where you can use a suction cup to pup them back up. Sanding the floor down is expensive; you're looking at thousands of dollars to have it done by a professional that will do it correctly. Doing it yourself is... not a great idea, unless you are a perfectionist and have a pretty good idea of what you're doing. Even then, renting the machines--or buying!--and buying the needed sandpaper, CA glue, and poly finish (assuming you want to use poly; I have other finishes that I prefer, but poly is fast and usually non-toxic) may well be more than your deposit.

The argument that you're going to want to make is that this is expected wear and tear; that might fly with your landlord, it might not. You could make a small-claims case out of it, and you might be able to win that. Or you might not, and then you'd be out your deposit, plus the cost of filing a small-claims case.

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Pull the boards out and swap them with edge boards.

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Depending on the state you live in, and whether the lease specifically mentioned taking special care of the hardwood floors, this could very well be considered regular wear and tear. There does not appear to be any intentional damage here.

The landlord will also need to provide documentation prior to getting work done if they want you to cover the bill, at which point you’ll have the option to contest it.

Check out tenant rights for your state to verify.

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I've never done it myself, but I've seen some videos online that show that covering it with a towel and using a clothes iron with a lot of steam might make the dents decompress. Do some research on the details/veracity of it and try that?

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How can I repair these dents my Ikea couch has been making in my hardwood floor?