Oh my poor hardwood....

[thatotherguy]

At my house other than carpet, we have some laminate flooring that is guaranteed to withstand the punishment of High Heels.So I guess my entire house is "high heel safe":clap:

[Puffer]

In case there is still any lingering doubt, jmc is quite right regarding his explanation of what is hardwood and what is softwood - a matter of botany and nothing to do with mechanical 'hardness'. Although it is generally true that 'softwoods' are not physically hard, some hardwoods are even softer - balsa, as mentioned, being the obvious one.

My hardwood parquet floor (basically mahogany) suffered unintended stiletto damage at the hands (feet?) of a female visitor a few years ago. The only ready remedy was to use filler, stain and a revarnish; I got a fair result but the floor wasn't perfect to start with - and had been sanded once already. I'm not convinced that there is any proprietary varnish or other coating that can be applied (at least by the home-owner) to a wooden floor to make it totally stiletto-proof. The pressure on a thin heel is such that it will penetrate the coating and almost certainly indent the wood, unless the wood is exceptionally hard (such as teak). Think about it - a thin sheet of brass (or even steel) has, in comparative terms, a surface 'as hard as nails' but will not withstandthe shock pressure of a hammer and punch (or a heel) of around 1cm diameter or less without indentation, or worse.

Some laminate flooring (not necessarily expensive) is very hard, as the coating is effectively a resin/plastic layer, perhaps with graining or other relief. I have such a floor too and some tests on an offcut suggest that penetration and indentation by a stiletto is unlikely. Just as well, as the middle of the floor 'sandwich' is a dense fibreboard, harder than normal MDF but still readily penetrated. However, if the pressure is great, a surface 'fissure' may be created - rather like digging a carbide tool into the surface of a ceramic tile, damaging the glazed surface but not penetrating or cracking the tile itself.

[yozz]

When I put in my oak floor, I experimented a bit with a few spare pieces of wood and stiletto heels. It is not the regular pressure that does the damage. The worst damage comes from the edges of the (steel) heel tip. Those edges are usually rather sharp and when one doesn't stand straight the pressure becomes much worse that what one gets from weight/surface. While standing straight left some light marks (not always), the other really cut into the wood at points. And that each time. Conclusion: to limit damage, make sure the heel tip doesn't have sharp edges. Y.