Wood floor finish appears streaked

10 years ago

Hello,

We have had select grade red oak floor installed and the finishing process has been going on for the past several days with the family out of the house. This is part of an overall kitchen remodel with a GC and his sub-contractors on the job.

The second coat of poly has been applied and when we snuck back today to look through the windows I wasn't happy about what I saw. There appears to be swooping streaks across the planks that look to me like sloppy stain application.

1. Is it my imagination, or do you see it too?

2. What could I expect to be a reasonably remedy?

3. I looked closely at some other areas and am fairly sure I saw sander marks and at least one unfilled gouge in the select grade wood. Is it worth bringing up those imperfections? What is it realistic to expect?

The floors were stained with Duraseal Quick Coat 2 Hour Penetrating Finish in Jacobean and finished with 2 coats of Duraseal Polyurethane in Satin. There may or may not been an application of SW ProMar E-Z Sanding Lacquer Sealer. The can was delivered to the house by the GC, but I am not sure if it was used during the finishing process.

I know that the stain was applied some time Saturday and the second coat of poly had been applied before 11 am Sunday.

I've only been able to examine the floor closest to the windows and I am so nervous about what I am going to see when I can actually walk inside and see it all.

Thank you so much for any feedback you can offer!

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Comments (5)

glennsfc
10 years ago
Well that ain't pretty. If it is the same when you get to see it up close, then you may want to insist that it be redone.

The blotchy appearance may be due to one of a few possibilities: poor sanding or sloppy stain application come immediately to mind.

You should not be able to see sanding marks or other imperfections from a standing position. That is usually how quality of a floor finish is determined to be acceptable or not.
User
10 years ago
I think I see Jesus just left of center looking left to right with an angel standing behind him with wings arched up high.
It's a miracle!

All kidding aside, that looks really atrocious. Duraseal stains are quite user friendly but it looks like they did a poor job. The floor will have be re-sanded to correct this.
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OK....so the issue looks to be sanding issues. The problems/difficulties with HARDWAX OILS is the level of PERFECTION needed at the SANDING level. A hardwax oil is tricky. It DEMANDS sanding PERFECTION. In fact, it can take twice as much effort on the "sanding" side of things. That's why this type of finish is the SAME PRICE as a traditional polyurethane finish ($4-$5/sf). The trade-off for a "single application" of the harwax (a single day to apply + 1 day to cure/harden/soak in) is the HEAVY sanding requirements. Perfection is required....and if it is not achieved, you get an ugly-as-sin floor (ahem...sound familiar?). The traditional polyurethanes require decent sanding technique (like the effort given to YOUR floor) and then multiple coats (and multiple days) to complete the finish. The money/effort is in the FINISH product - not the sanding. It sounds like your professional *MIGHT have done the sanding for a regular polyurethane finish (perhaps not knowing the PERFECTION required of a hardwax oil) and then tried to apply the hardwax oil. Sadly, you CANNOT mix-and-match the sanding/finishing techniques of these two finishing systems. You MUST use the appropriate sanding technique for the finish chosen. To get rid of the sanding issues, this floor has to be sanded again. This is not a 'finish' issue - it is a sanding issue. I'm sorry but this will take plenty of effort to get this done properly. Please ask your refinisher how many times they have used this hardwax oil. You want to here something like "dozens of times per year". It is kind of a subspecialty in the wood flooring industry.
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xc60
10 years ago
JFC I thought you were kidding about seeing Jesus and the angel but I can see it too! Lol

somelinda, can't help with floor info but all the best and good luck, they look like they will be beautiful. :)
gregmills_gw
10 years ago
Jacobean is a dark color and dark colors require more carefull attention to the sanding steps.

They may try to come back and say they can fix it with a tint coat. Insist they resand. Tint coating wont make it better.

If these guys have been around for awhile they should have known the difficulties of dark stains.
somelinda
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you so much for the responses and the humor. I saw it too!

We are now on the third sanding. The GC and the flooring guys agreed it was a bad job and agreed to start over - a complete resanding. I asked to approve after the stain before the poly. Good thing I did! When we met the GC at the house to check the stain we all agreed the job was worst than the first, then we left the GC to deal with the subcontractor. Long story short, a new crew started today - this time from a flooring company. I am very uncertain about where the first two guys came from, but professionals they were not. I found later that they used my Oreck as a shop vac! The bag was so full of sawdust, it was difficult to remove.

The attached picture shows the Jacobean stain sample that the GC made. The sanded/stained swatch is the test spot of the same color from the new flooring crew today. And the large dark background is what we came home to a few days ago. The picture doesn't do it justice - the floor looks ebony in person. And that was just the bad match on the color, there were lots and lots of examples of bad sanding, a few footprints in the stain, applicator lines, and a general mess everywhere.

I am hoping to have a good picture of a beautiful floor to post in a few days. Back to the hotel again tomorrow...

Wood floor finish appears streaked

Comments (5)

glennsfc

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Wood floor finish appears streaked

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glennsfc

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