Spot refinishing in office space

Q: 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.

A: It is extremely difficult to impossible to apply polyurethane across the grain of the boards and not see at least a faint line. Applying and stopping along board edges is not as much of an issue. If the floor is running through a doorway, where you are to stop, and will be making a stop line across the boards, I would lay down a line of painters tape and buff/then brush the finish up to the tape, in very thin coats and remove the tape. If there is a door, try to stop under the door.

Water borne finishes tend not to show touch ups quite as badly as oil type because they are clear finishes.