Q: We have manufactured hardwood floors, and the previous owners did a shoddy job of refinishing them by slapping down polyurethane on top of the original coating of the manufactured wood.
Problems With Finish
Q&A On the myriad of problems that can arise when finishing wood floors.
Fish eye bubbles and sanding sealer on top of polyurethane as a fix
Q: Please help. We hired a floor refinisher with over 30 years of experience to refinish our 24 year old red oak floors. He is having one problem after another with the finish which is an oil based polyurethane satin finish. He has put on 3 or 4 coats of poly in some rooms and he keeps getting fish eyes, cloudy spots, etc. and debris in the finish.
Stepped in wet finish and left a sneaker print
Q: I completely sanded and stained by living room floor. I then laid down one coat of polyurethane and surprisingly, as I am a first timer, it looked great. I put a second coat on, but then I accidently stepped on a couple of wet areas with my sneakers. I tried to roll it out and thought I did. But after it dried I could see the sneaker print.
Correcting spots where stain and poly have completely worn off
Q: Six years ago in an entire home remodel we matched our existing 1949 Red Oak flooring and had it installed throughout house seamlessly. We stained the oak with Dura seal to even out dark staining from the decades of use and spills. There were 4 coats of poly used to seal. Now we have a few spots where the stain was never “correct”. The poly and stain are completely worn thru and back to natural.
Green painters tape left whitish line on floors
Q: We had taped (using green painters tape) Ram Board down onto oiled hardwood floors to do some drywall repairs. One area was taped down for 5 days and the one section for 3 hours. It didn’t matter 3 hours or 5 days, when we pulled the tape off it pulled a slight finish off the hardwood. so now there’s a faint whitish line where the tape was. And it’s not tape residue on the hardwood. The hardwood is White Oak, Smokey Mountain, the oil is Woca Oil.
Spots along sides of boards
Q: My floors seem to have spots along each side, in the seam between the boards.
Polyurethane peeling around redone areas
Q: My red oak floors were sanded, stained and finished six months ago, in July. Immediately after, we noticed the cut-in around the baseboards in the kitchen and living room were shiny. Our contractor determined that one can of poly wasn’t appropriately stirred, so he reapplied the poly after buffing it down. (I believe it was buffed – perhaps sanded is the better term?)
Now, six months later, I found a board with poly peeling around the edges. As I inspected the rest of the areas, I noticed that the only areas where I see other potential problems of the poly peeling are in the rooms that were redone. Not all rooms in the house had this shiny cut-in problem.
Soft ceramic finish
Q: We just had our Brazilian cherry floors redone in several rooms, and new flooring in 2 others. We used the Arboritec elite ceramic finish. The day after it was complete, we noticed some flaking and the finish was soft enough to put a fingernail in it. What options do we have at this point, or does the entire job need to be redone? There are also milky patches and it’s an uneven looking finish.
Poly beads and flaking after refinishing
Q: I purchased a home built in 1986. The floors are oak, but I am not sure if they are white or red. Before moving in, I wanted to have the floors freshened up.
I used a floor guy who was recommended to me by my realtor, and was told he had a very good reputation. Upon examining the floors, he determined that they were in very good shape, and said they should only need to be screened and recoated. He used Fabulon’s satin finish on the floors, and said he gave them two coats.
Radiant heat causing floor to peel?
Q: This is our original floor (picture included). What do you think caused it to peel like this?
A: Well, it is happening on the edges of the boards. Was this a factory finished floor that has been sanded, stained and finished again? I can think of two things that can cause this. One is contaminants between the boards which react with the finish. I would more expect that to happen with very old floors, which this isn’t.