How do I fix a door scratched down to the wood by a cat?
Cat scratches that gouge through paint down to the raw wood require proper surface preparation and sealing before repainting. Without the right coatings for the exposed wood and proper filling, the repair will not hold up to future scratching.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Taking a piece of torn paint to the hardware store for a color match
- 2Sanding the entire door or area until smooth
- 3Applying primer before painting
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
r/HomeMaintenance2 people · September 2026
“Our cats will stretch at this door when they want to go out and over the years they have really done a number on the drywall. How should I go about fixing this?”source ↗
Streb-ski · r/HomeMaintenance · 3 upvotes