Q: We have Brazilian Cherry floors and had an experienced flooring guy screen/sand half of our floors. He applied a very fast drying, oil-based polyurethane, clean satin finish. The next day we looked at the floors and were not happy. The floors having pooling marks with excess finish, brush marks and start/stop marks. The contractor said the imperfections will all go away within 7 days and that the polyurethane will level out and not show any of the application marks.
Is this true, these polyurethane floor finish problems will solve themselves, or should I be calling my bank to stop payment?
A: I don’t believe there is any truth to that. Sorry. After application the finish has a certain amount of time, depending on the type of coating and environmental conditions in the home, to flow out and level. This is generally just a matter of a few hours. Then over several hours or overnight it dries to walk on and over several weeks continues to cure, which means it keeps getting harder. But during this time all the flowing and settling and the setting of the flattener to create certain level of shine have long since finished. I guess that tells you what you need to do.
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