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I have spent an excessive amount of time preparing my hardwood floors in my home for refinish. I have come to the conclusion (through reading in forums) that oil based polyurethanes are the most durable, therefore, that is what I want to use. My question is, what are your thoughts, as a professional floor refinisher, of M***** Super Fast Drying Polyurethane for floors? Have you ever used it? Is it a long lasting finish? Is it user friendly for amateurs as myself? Would you recommend it? Thank you very much for your opinion.

I would like to refinish the floors in our 100 year old farm house, but I don’t want them to look all shiny and new when I am done. I would like to preserve the old and worn look. Ideas?

I’m extremely unhappy with the outcome. My floors now look like a pond on a windy day, with ripples and bare spots and bubbles. The guy claims the previous owners must have washed them with an oil/soap and the poly did not adhere to the surface.

We have Bruce pre-finished hardwood flooring throughout our home. Can it be sanded, re-stained and finished without the poly so there is no more flaking? The flooring is 10 years old and I have become so frustrated that I have cleaned it with water, trying to make it look better.

I am purchasing a new home with hardwood floors throughout the first floor. I have heard that you should not put down area rugs for 6 months to a year, because the floor around the rug can fade and the floor underneath will be a different color. Is this true?

I have 2000 square feet of hardwood floors, and in some areas the poly looks like it is peeling off. So far I have made one huge mistake: I cleaned all the floors with ammonia, and that took the water, dirt, and wax off of them. Then I used an oil based product called Dura Seal on two rooms. It made a huge difference. I then added a water based poly to one room and it dried great, but you could scratch off the poly. I do not know what to do about that. I do not want to sand my entire house. Can you put a stain over old oil based polyurethane and then use an oil based poly? Any suggestions?

Could I put another coat of polyurethane on my hard wood floor, or should I sand it first?

How do I know if my wood floors need to be refinished?

I am using Z** Ultra Max waterborne oil modified polyurethane to cover my new hardwood floor (approx. 1900 sq. ft.). I have put down four coats, and I can still see light colored spots where it appears the finish has been “sucked up” into the wood. I have gone over these “dry patches” a few times individually, and they are still a lighter color that makes the surface look like it is dry in that area.

White pine floor, 3 coats of poly… The last coat has not hardened, and it has been almost two weeks. It’s dry on top, but the poly is still soft. When you turn your foot on it tears up. Should it take that long or longer to harden? What if I heat the room for a few days? It has been 60-75 degrees during the day and 35-55 at night for the last 2 weeks.

The extractives in exotic woods are known to cause drying delays, adhesion failures, and soft cure in the seal and finish coats.

Cold weather is upon us again, the following are some tips to help your finish perform to its maximum efficiency.

What are the most important factors contributing to proper drying of a finish?

The viscosity of the finish is critical to good finish application. The single biggest factor which influences the viscosity of the finish is temperature

We are stripping our red oak floors to save on sanding, but after we strip them should we lightly sand them or buff them? We are then just putting poly on. When all is said and done, how long do we need to wait before we can put furniture back?

When my new bar was installed, the installer damaged our new cedar floor. The GC used Scotch Brite to finely sand off the problem. When it was time to put the final coating over the damaged area he got what he described as “flashing” (streaking). How can this be fixed?

We are building a new house. We had a flaming red birch wood floor installed. They sanded it and put two coats of a water based sealer on it, 4 months ago. The house took longer to finish then expected. When they came out to put the third coat on it and replace some big gaps in the floor (due to a subfloor seam pulling apart, due to drying), we noticed white blotches all over the floor. The company that laid the floor states he has never seen nor heard of this. The rep of the company says he has never seen this before. They all say it’s a problem, but they don’t seem to have an answer except charging us more money to redo it and see what happens. What caused the white areas, and how does it get fixed?

Is there a way to tell if the stain and polyurethane are compatible? I have heard that sometimes using ones that are not compatible will cause it to flake? I had a quote from a gentleman to lay about 1200sf and finish a total of 1500sf for $3700 with H**** brand stain or poly– I am not sure. Is this a good or bad price?

I have a floor on which a customer put 3 oil based coats. The customer wants to know if I can buff and coat the floor with a water based finish. Is this okay to do? Will it dry right?

I would question using “shellac” as a seal coat. It contains a natural wax which will not allow adhesion of other top coats. There are de-waxed shellac products that offer better results. Zinsser universal sealer or Dura Seal Universal Sealer are good choices. Good adhesion on both sides of the shellac.