I don’t know about you, but when spring comes, I’m always hit by a sudden desire to do a general and thorough clean-up and grooming of the entire house, and I’m not particularly home owner of the year, if you know what I mean. Still, when the warm season finally arrives, not only does the improved lighting make all the dust and imperfections be much more visible, but it makes you want to get your house pretty inside and out and entertain guests and so on. This is the time when I regret most that I’m not able to simply buy new furniture for the entire place on a whim. Still, with a bit of patience and the right products, you can groom and repair most of the things around into being in their best shape again. This is why I was immediately drawn to the Scratch Aide by Dutch Glow product, as soon as I saw the TV commercial for it. I went ahead and ordered it to try it for myself. Here is how this wood scratch repair solution worked out for me.
According to its commercial, the Scratch Aide is a liquid wood mender solution that fills in the light scratches on wooden surfaces, making them appear as new after the liquid hardens and dries up. You’re supposed to apply it over furniture or hardwood floor surfaces after cleaning and drying them, and the liquid will fill the cracks, adapt to the specific color of the wood surface you’re treating, and harden up, making the surface as good as new. The commercial displays some pretty impressive results, probably filmed from advantageous angles. There are three steps in applying the product: fill the crack or the scratched surface, smooth the liquid over (using the spatula you receive with the product) and allow it to dry up. The next thing you know, the cracks will be gone.
Advantages and Disadvantages of the Scratch Aide
Pros:
- It really works, and it’s really much, much cheaper than a professional furniture reconditioning job, which is only worth it, probably, if you own a super-expensive and historically important piece of furniture. Otherwise, you only have the option of buying new furniture altogether or simply doing your best to fix what you already have with DIY kits. The Scratch Aide provides such a fix with minimal effort, if your scratches are superficial.
- I was very pleasantly surprised of how easy it is to use and how fast it works. On light scratches, as the ones shown in the commercial and the ones the product is intended for, the results are actually seamless unless you’re really examining the surface from a very close range. On medium-deep scratches, the cracks and damage will still be visible after using the Scratch Aide, but definitely much less.
- For the price of one bottle plus S&H fees, you also get a free wood butter solution (for conditioning your wood surfaces), a microfiber cloth and 3 wood sponges. That’s a pretty good deal.
Cons:
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- Many customers complain about the long shipment times (up to 3 weeks) and of the hidden fees for the product. Although a bottle of the Scratch Aide for furniture is supposed to cost only $10, the S&H fee is another $12.90 and there’s also an unexpected “web fee” of another $2, so the total cost is $24.90.
Where to Get the Scratch Aide for Furniture
As usual, the place to order the scratch aid solution is on the website, where you’ll get the whole pack of products for the sum of $24.90. After testing it, I would recommend buying this product; it’s a much more decent offer than other wood scratch repair kits and the results were actually pretty good and worth it, even if the effect won’t last for more than a couple of months before needing a reapplication.
All in all, I’d say this is a good product to have around the house and to use all around your wooden surfaces to give them a renewed look. It works better than you would expect. The extra grooming products that come with each order will make the furniture treated with Scratch Aide shine and look even better. There may be some issues with delayed delivery times or some of the other problems other clients complained about. But, the product will definitely make your furniture look at least a little bit better.