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I am in the process of having my wood floors redone. I am getting different opinions about finishes from each refinisher that I have questioned. Some have recommended 2 coats of gloss for durability, and finish with a 3rd coat of semi-gloss. Another refinisher said there is no difference in durability between gloss and semi-gloss. He insists that 3 coats of semi-gloss will be just as durable as 2 gloss, 1 semi. Who is right?

I have 3-4-5 inch wide red oak floors installed over radiant heat. Each year when the heat is turned on the boards shrink and gaps between the boards develop. I am planing on refinishing the floors. How can I get ride of the seasonal gaps? Will Timber Mate work as a solution for my problem? I would like to finish the floors with gloss finish.

My question would be that of using acrylic urethane rather than oil based urethane. Would using an oil based urethane have caused the ‘peeling’ that has occurred? We were advised to use oil based urethane. When two/three coats dried, the ‘ink’ like stain is coming up with a wipe of a rag and/or if you touch it. Basically the stain is somehow trapped. Any advice? This is the best way I know how to explain.

My question is about hardwood flooring finish, satin vs. glossy: which of these floor finishes show more scratches, smudges, dirt, etc.?

Can I put a satin polyurethane over a smi gloss finish, on a hardwood floor?

I have 3-4-5 inch wide Red Oak floors installed over radiant heat. Each year when the heat is turned on the boards shrink and gaps between the boards develop. I am planing on refinishing the floors. How can I get ride of the seasonal gaps? Will Timber Mate work as a solution for my problem? I would like to finish the floors with gloss finish.

I’ve just had an underfloor radiant heat system installed under my existing and newly rewoven/patched oak flooring. The reweaving/patch was due to interior walls being removed. A low gloss oil based polyurethane was applied to the floor. Some nails that were protruding below the subfloor were cut so that the radiant pipe wouldn’t be damaged. They had to refinish the floors a second time because they were rough. Now the edges of some planks are peeling, especially in the hallway. The contractor claims this is occurring because the nails were cut. But it’s happening in a room that didn’t have nails cut. The radiant system hasn’t been turned on yet. It was cold, about 50 degrees in the house when they polyed but about 30 outside. I don’t know if they used a sealer. What should he do to fix the problem?

I’m looking to sand and refinish a portion of wood flooring in a large commercial office space. The space is comprised of hallways and transitions into offices, etc. I’m hoping that we can successfully only sand, refinish to match and then only urethane this repaired area to blend with the rest of the office floor. Any experience or comments on this attempt to blend urethane into the unaffected areas? The blended areas will be at transition areas of hallways where the hallway turns a corner and at doorways. The stain will match OK but it is the blending of urethane I am interested in your thoughts on. Otherwise, it’s more costly and it would cause quite an interruption in work to urethane the entire office.

I just built a new house and my floors on the first floor have a consistent wave in them that you can only see if light is shining on it. The contractor at first said his machine was broke; so, he did it again and got the same result. Now he thinks that the floor isn’t sturdy enough and has too much bounce. Could that be possible? Or because the machine was broke the first time, the floors can’t be repaired? He sanded them a third time and nothing changed.

I had Brazilian cherry hardwood floor installed, stained with sedona red from miniwax, and it looked great until I put the fast drying polyurethane down. I sanded it with 220 grit. The first coast went down easy and soaked it, but the second coat was hard to spread, like putting glue and now you can see all the marks where the lambswool stopped and started. It is oil based and I don’t know how or why it looks like this and how to fix it.

What would cause air bubbles to be in a hardwood floor?

So I didn’t heed the expert advice and I refinished my hardwood floors myself…

I have new 4 inch oak floors with a M***** Dark Walnut finish. I have several issues that I an concerned about. For one, there are a number of areas that have tiny sand mark circles. Lots and lots of them. The flooring company said there is just no way around that with a dark walnut stain. Also, there are many areas that have a variance in the color, for instance, boards that are much lighter in color or much darker. Finally, there are areas where there are stripes, like tiger stripes. Is this true that this is the absolute best that can be done? I want to be fair to my contractor and not have unreasonable expectations, yet I also want to be a good consumer and be treated honestly and fairly. Any insight would be helpful.

I have just had professionals install my new red oak wood floor. There are bubbles on the floor (seems like there is a mix of debris - like dust, splinters and lint as well as just air bubbles in the Poly). They are telling me that this is normal, and with time they will go away. Is this really the case or should they buff and re-apply another coat of poly?

As for Waterlox, the top 5 ingredients in each can are:
Mineral Spirits
Specially Processed tung oil
Ester gum
Phenolic resin
Specially Processed Linseed Oil
It is not a pure tung oil finish. However, cooking the oil does not make tung oil “impure”. When it is heated it is called polymerized tung oil. this process helps the oil […]

I asked if it would be possible to put a coat of the satin on top. I think he is willing to do this, but he says that every coat added makes a floor shinier, by it’s nature. Is that true?

Are you familiar with O*** P**** oil? How does it compare to Waterlox? I really like the look and benefits (easily repairable) of a hardwax oil finish. It seems technology has made even this type of floor low maintenance.

I’m restoring a century old owner-built adobe with worn *** wood floors. There is no subfloor, just 2×8 floor joists 20 in O.C. resting on crude shimmed up piers, but solid. The flooring is 3/4 inch, pine I think (soft). It was covered most of its life but was probably of poor quality originally. The way it was sawn caused unusual wear patterns the entire length of a few of the boards, where the wood easily splinters and chips, naturally with the wood grain. I want to preserve this floor but how? It has no finish, no nothing, just old wood (and quite dry). How much will sanding help? What should I use to fill the voids? Due to the nature of the wear, some patches will be long, but very thin, almost a veneer. Could multiple coats of polyurethane fill these smaller voids and protect the floor from splintering? Can I oil or otherwise condition the wood first?

I’m refinishing a 115 year old pine floor and getting a little desperate! I’ve already managed to sand and scrape off several generations of paint and reached the bare wood and my first coat of oil-based poly has dried.

I have recently looked at a pine floor in a new house and the home owner asked if I could put tung oil on the floor instead of poly. she told me that she had read it in a magazine, and that it said to wipe the tung oil on then wipe it off. Then, wait for a while and repeat it again. Three times. I told her that I have never done this before and that I would get some input on this matter and get back with her. Can you just put tung oil on a pine floor with out any protection on the top off the oil, and if so is this the correct procedure to do it?