Well, that rules out water-borne finish. If it smells really horrible, it may be an acid curing finish which is commonly referred to Swedish Finish. Due to the smell and it being tricky to use, we haven't used it in years. It's an excellent wearing product. It looks like there's a newer product that's a little more used friendly: http://glitsa.com/professionals/product/glitsa-multikote-finish/ It looks like it comes in 4 gloss levels: http://glitsa.com/media/MultiKote-Product-Sheet.pdf The issues you've highlighted seem to be unrelated. The milkiness may have been a chemical issue. The scratching is curious because old Glitsa customers rave about their finish. The swirl scratches are due to poor sanding or coating technique. When we were using Glitsa it was a combination of Bacca Sealer and Gold Seal. If something came out wrong with the Gold Seal, it was a real hassle. http://glitsa.com/media/goldSealSpec.pdf From Glitsa's website you can access all the data sheets for their products. http://glitsa.com/professionals/products/ The MultiKote can be recoated right away. The Gold Seal requires a 90 day wait or after a week one can apply another coat of one of their sealer than a coat of Gold Seal.

Hi Linda - Thanks for the message. I couldn't figure out how to respond, so here's the info regarding our kitchen floors. I do not know the manufacturer, but they are solid teak stained with Minwax Jacobean stain. (I don't remember the specifics, our floor guy bought the formula). That said, I know that different hardwoods absorb the stain differently. Teak, being a very dense wood, did not absorb the Jacobean to the degree that other woods do, so it ended up more of a mahogany finish than the ebony I was going for. A year-and-a-half later, I'm glad it didn't. We also did a matte finish (sealer?) on the floor. Again, I'm foggy on the details, but we did not do glossy. One note for ALL folks looking to do dark wood... yes, every crumb will show. Not a horrible thing, in my opinion because I shutter to think what my previous travertine was hiding. BUT do not treat your floors with any kind of wood floor "polish". Cleaner yes, treatment, no. I made the mistake of using a matte Bona hardwood polish, and my kitchen floor just looks dull and dirty. It's coming off with time (believe me we tried everything short of resanding and resealing), but it makes me sick when the light hits it. Good luck, and, just so you know, there IS life on the other side of a large project!

I have the same problem! It's so frustrating. We 104 year old white pine floors that we refinished and coated with Bona. A sealer and two coats. We used a sealer and two coats on the Doug fir floors elsewhere in our house and they are VERY smooth, the floor is like one continuum. We refinished maple floors in our former home - no problem there. The oak has tons of grain rise. So so bumpy. I thought it might be due to a) the large-ish gaps between most of the boards - the poly got thinned out as it sank into the holes and b) short cure time of the sealer since the weather was cool and damp. I lightly sanded between the coats of poly. Our plan is to buff, recoat and repete. Do you guys think the rentalable buffer would sand it down enough?

SJ McCarthy, our contract is stated we are responsible for the materials and we pay for the labor. Unfortunately we never met nor discuss with the owner but only discussed in details ( in the proposal) with the project manager who is the solely the carpenter.) We just found out there were a lot of the DETAILS from the proposal were not explained (per the PM,but who knows) in detail to the owner or almost like "bait and switch" - for example like item #2- he spent more time because the owner did not get him another helper to help him- I told him this should not be the customer's expenses-Anyway we are willing to pay for it. The owner was offering to renew and establish a new contract from the original contact ( we felt that he cherry picking the items from the proposal, we marked them up then again he decided not to included) for the unfinished works . Once he agreed in our 2nd meeting (another example: he agreed tiling our study room to be included from the original contact in our 1st meeting then when he write the REVISED CONTRACT- he wants to charge us ), but again we are facing the same old stories-he tried to change the wording. We were burned so many times and now we diligently review line by line knowing the owner's personality. He kept saying he lived by the contract-then I told him then he should honor the low estimated to install our engineering hardwood floor including removing the carpet-in the end he says he would honor but he did not including the cost in the new REVISED contract which we add into it - we are so tired with his games. So now we put a contingency - once we agree with the new contract, no more additional expenses from the previous work was done- and we do agree that we need to be notified first and need both signatures for additional expenses from the new contract. and no more point finger of "not included" since we have discussed in detailed and are in the contract. The new addition has a hardwood floor installed - with Dri-core. Once hardwood floor was installed- they are some areas squeak- we were told by PM -put a marked up then he would fasten without explaining to us-these would be additional ridiculous charges (PM told the owner, too-we told PM that they should explain it to us- ) Regarding the installing the engineering hardwood floor is for our existing rooms(concrete slabs that has plywood already)- we are told just to put a vapour barrier. Is it possible to let me know what brands for the glues have to be moisture resistant ($2/sf) or moisture PROOF ($3/sf).? The manufacture instruction suggests to use Franklin Tongue and Groove adhesive (cross linking polyaliphactic emulsion glue) www.titebond.com -any suggestions? This Applachian engineering hardwood floor - FLOATING only needs GLUE between the wood (tongue and groove per the manufacture manual ) then would be FLOAT - this is not to be GLUE DOWN on our concrete floor (could be glue down if necessary but not in our case). Here is the website- on PAGE 9 http://www.appalachianflooring.com/uploads/general/documents/engineered-installation-guide.pdf We trust the PM and we pay for it- we just want to move on and complete the project-It has been almost 10 months. We have to do what we have to do to protect ourselves now- The owner refuses to install our towel bar in our new shower without charging us, and we told him we will take care them by ourselves. I will update this post and hoping for a better solution. Thank you