Ask Doug: Pine Floors vs. Women’s Heels

Ask Doug: Pine Floors vs. Women’s Heels

Dear Doug, I put pine floors into my house and after the first party the women’s heels left gouges in my floor. What can I do?

Sadly, there is nothing you can do once the damage is done except replace the flooring.

We try very hard to let our customers know about the pluses and minuses of wood floors. A 200-pound man wearing standard men’s dress shoes exerts less than 30 pounds per square inch of pressure on the floor. However, a 110-pound woman wearing high fashion women’s dress shoes with a “stiletto heel” (AKA a spiked heel like a Manolo Blahnik, according to what female staff members tell me) can put an excess of 1,000 pounds per square inch of pressure on an hardwood floor, denting it. This is not a defect of the product; this is a physics problem. We suggest next time you have party guests remove their damaging shoes. It might not be popular with the stylish ladies on your invitation list, but your floors will love it.

While these fancy shoes may be fashionable they are not only dangerous to your wood floor, but they also chip tile floors, puncture carpet and its pad, and dent vinyl flooring.

Beauty does come with a price.