WoodFlooringGuy.com

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.

My hardwood floors were just cleaned and then three coats of finish/poly were added. The cleaning did not include any abrasion. I noticed prior to the cleaning that there were areas where the top most part of the oak wood has lifted, almost like it is peeling off. It looks like the poly layers, as well as some of the wood, are dry and about to peel off. How do I fix this?

I refinished Oak Hardwood floors with a water based polyurethane. Put two coats of base coat down. Used proper sanding methods. The third coat of polyurethane left shaded (dark) spots under cabinets. Any idea on how to fix?

I had problems with the third coat of poly drying too fast and leaving lots of bubbles. So, I hand sanded with 100 grit, and with the 4th coat decided to cut the fast dry poly with 25% mineral spirits to ensure no bubbles, and let it slow dry (no ventilation). Now I can see all the sanding marks on the floor? Did cutting the poly cause this?

We removed old linoleum and found very nice pine flooring underneath. We had it sanded, stained and polyurethaned. It was beautiful– for about 6 months. All the stain has worn off. Now it’s an ugly, grey, worn floor. We were told that this was to be expected with a soft wood like pine. Is this true? Should I try again, or plan on putting a new floor over this?

I just had new hardwood floors installed (Brazilian Cherry and Red Oak). After applying the second coat of poly, the poly has sunk where the wood strips meet. This sinking is pervasive across both the first and second floors, and across both wood species. Looking at the wood, for the most part the installation is tight with few gaps. Can you advise as to why this is occurring and what is the best remedy?

The wood has not yet been sanded or finished. We would like a wax finish on these floors, and we also want to stain them. Do you recommend a paste wax initially, or can we go with Duraseal’s liquid wax products, which can be maintained with their Renovator? Can paste wax floors be maintained with the Duraseal product?

I sanded some hardwood floors that were previously painted, but I didn’t (quite) get all the paint off. What will happen if I stain them?

We own a 116 year old Victorian home and our large dining room area has an original pine wood floor. Since we have lived here for only two years, we have never refinished this floor. The problem is that lately, in quite a few spots, the finish has peeled and cracked, leaving bare spots that are actually deeper than the rest of the wood. Can we repair just these spots and then finish the whole floor? What are the steps taken to fix this?

I had my oak hardwood floors sanded down and refinished. I have for the most part been satisfied with the job the contractor did; however, within the last week I have noticed that I have small rough spots forming in the cracks between the boards. These look like little black balls of stain or finish. It has been relatively dry this year and within the last week we have received a good amount of rainfall, so I wondered if the boards have maybe expanded and are squeezing something out? I am not sure what I should do about this or it is a problem or just normal.

We just went through a major renovation. We added new hardwood floors and had the existing ones refinished, so all would match. Due to some problems with the finish clouding and not drying properly, they were sanded at least three more times, with poly put on after each sanding. Two weeks after we moved back into our home, the poly started flaking and buffer circles started showing up. Now 6 months later it looks horrible.

I understand that once wax is put on polyurethane floors they have to be stripped to bare wood, if they have to be refinished, but is there any other disadvantage? I like the rich look of wax more than polyurethane. We have had to refinish our 200 year old wide board pumpkin pine polyurethaned kitchen floors every 4 or 5 years because of the volume of traffic.