Deducting obnoxious damages from security deposit

[Shayna Adams]

Hi!  I've got a question regarding doing quick fixes on damages that would otherwise be a humongous expense, and how tenants should actually be charged for these things.  Here is my story:

I have a tenant moving out this week. They are in our small 1bd/1bth cottage/ADU which we remodeled from top to bottom right before they moved in. New vinyl "wood" plank flooring throughout, new cabinets, countertops, dishwasher, sinks and faucets, lighting fixtures, paint, window treatments, door seals... literally everything but the bathtub and stove was replaced, and it looks beautiful. I completed their move-out inspection today and there is a piece of damage that we can fix in a super complicated and expensive way, or in a cheap (but not easy) way. They dropped a dumbbell weight on the brand new floors and punched a hole in one of the floor planks. It's in the middle of the room so if we were going to replace the plank (which is the only true way to bring this unit back to the condition we gave it to them in), we'd have to remove half the flooring in the room to get to it. Not to mention all the baseboards would have to come off and be put back, and the days of labor this would require (or hiring a pro to do it faster). This is not an option as we have a new tenant moving in right away. The other way to "fix" it is to fill the hole with epoxy and reassemble the broken bits like a puzzle to try to disguise the damage as much as possible. Obviously, much cheaper and quicker, but not an ideal fix either.

Essentially, I'm just really annoyed that because they never disclosed this to me and left it for me to find, I now can't remedy the damage the way it should be, and I don't think it's fair that they should benefit from forcing me into a cheaper fix in the form of a smaller security deposit deduction.  So my question is, how would you actually value damage like this?  Would you get a quote for making the repairs properly from a flooring installer and pass that cost on to the tenant, or would you only pass on the costs for the cheap fix?  

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Shayna Adams:

If it were me, I would hire a professional flooring contractor and get it done right. They should be able to do it in a day. Then you have a repair bill from a licensed contractor to show you didn't inflate the repair costs.