Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - tack holes after carpet removal

I have removed carpet and tack strips from a hardwood floor. This has left a line of nail holes near each wall, many blackened by rust from the nail.

Any good hints how to make these holes less conspicuous? Surface sanding still leaves black dots.

(I considered putting white circles over the dots and then putting a PacMan figure in one corner of the room on the floor, but that's not exactly the style I'm looking for in this decor.)

The black dots are typically a stain caused by the reaction between iron and the tannic acid in the wood. They are probably as deep as the tack holes and will not sand out. You can try bleaching them out, but this can create light colored halos around the black spots since the bleach is hard to control. You could call them 'patina' and try to ignore them, or you could consider replacing the piece of wood. If the marks are along the length of a board you only have to replace that one board. If they are in the ends of a lot of boards you will probably have to live with them unless you want a large job. A darker stain will tend to make them blend in of course.

I appreciate the knowledge; thanks. Do you think it might work to dig or sand out each hole with, say, a Dremel tool, and then fill the holes with filler that matches the stain?

I don't know if this has ever been tried...but can you drill holes, plug with hardwood dowels, sand flush and restain?

You could make patches with hardwood plugs, not dowels. The plugs have grain running parallel to the face so it will match better. Try Woodworkers Warehouse (used to be Trend Lines) for plugs. Dowels will be end grain when you cut them and not match. I think the row of plugs might stand out more than the black spots. The same with putty. Putty disappears when it is in a few random places, but a row of puttied holes might show. A lot would depend on how many holes and what spacing between them. You will have to decide what produces a tolerable look.

I just finished dealing with this problem on white oak flooring in the entire main floor of my home.

I bought several colors of "Elmers" wood putty and matched it to my floor (Golden Oak was the best one). I didn't have to play with staining it to match thank goodness.

I filled each hole with this putty and scraped with a putty knife and/or my finger which spread the putty just enough to cover the stain (Yes, this was tedious as all heck and took 3 weekends for 3 rooms (500 Sq Ft)).

I followed up with 3 coats of varathane floor finish and it looks fantastic! You can't tell anything is putty'd unless you get on your hands and knees with extra light.

Good Luck and I hope that you will post your results/experience when you get done.

Suppo

Thanks a bunch; all the tips paid off. The black areas around some of the old nail holes were in some cases much larger than the nail holes themselves. So I got my Dremel tool out and carved out the black parts. Then I filled with Elmer's Red Oak wood filler in most cases, and Golden Oak in a few other cases where the wood was lighter. If you look for them, you can see the former holes. But at least they don't scream out at you "Look: UGLY!" when you're walking over at normal height.

Roland