I only have a moment to touch on this, and will try to get back later, but aside from moving furniture, why would you have to pack up the kids for a couple of days?

adding another coat as you said is a couple hour process and should be dry in a few hours as you said it is a water based finish.

How many coats of finish are on your floor now?

Do you have any pictures?

Oil based poly (which your old untouched finish probably is) and Water bourne urethanes do look different and feel different.

" Our GC has said the sub-contractor will add another coat if we want, but isn't confident "it will meet my expectations." GC has variously suggested that this is "just how red oak is", "just how waterbased finishes are" or "you have unreasonable expectations".

The problem is, that in the old days, there were no GC's. Time was not considered money. There were craftsmen who took pride in their work. Today, they think slapping a floor down as fast as they can is all that is important, all that is necessary. That is what is in their own best interest. Buyer and floor be damned.

Good luck.

A lot of flooring pros these days rave about water based poly. I prefer oil based. While water base does stink less, I prefer oil based and consider it stronger. Rule of thumb, the stronger it stinks the stronger the finish. There are those that will discredit this, but this is what I have found in my own personal experience. Same is true with paints. Although the oil based does stink quite a bit more, and I guess if I had to work with it every day/week I may be inclined to work with water based too lol. Also, depending on how many coats of oil based stain is used, water base poly might not adhere to the oil based stain. If you did one coat of stain and let it fully dry you will probably be ok using water base.

I would also be concerned that the floor had oil based poly previously and they tried to use water base on it, I do not think the finish will turn out uniform or fully adhere because common sense tells us water does not stick to oil.

Another consideration, while it might be harder to clean, it is not slippery. You will have to decide if you want it easy to clean and slippery or harder to clean and non slip.

more comments from the GC: any thoughts on whether these are reasonable?

Dog hair does not mean it was not properly cleaned it means that perhaps it was stirred up and the filters in the furnace did not catch them or the registers are dirty. An unfortunate occurrence not poor workmanship.

Tom's take on the finish having some fine dust in it is " walk on it an use it and this will go away" dog hair is very fine and will break off

Tom maintains you do get a rougher finish with water based products and that is the way the product is. It is not improperly sanded.

and gregmills_gw. They sanded down to remove the oil, and then put 3 coats of wb poly on (same for the brand new floor, just without having to remove the earlier oil). The old and new (previously oil-based and brand new) feel the same. Rough grain. We are debating a buff+fourth coat.

we moved the kids and dogs out for a couple days b/c We were told to keep off the floor for 24 hours after the final coat, and given that we had most of the house refinished we couldn't get to bedrooms or the bathroom while staying off the floor, so we had to move out. It still stunk after a day, though, so we stayed away another night. We also have dogs which we didn't want to subject the floors to too early....

@gregmills_gw. we could post pictures (I'd have to figure out how to do that...), but they wouldn't show much. The floors actually "look" beautiful. I was impressed with the blending of the old and new floors. It's not an aesthetic issue, it's a function issue -- the roughness, the cleanability.

@Vith. our old floors never felt "slippery", just "nice".

After 3 coats of poly, if it is still rough, I would push for a final coat with oil based so it isn't rough. Clearly the wb is not up to your standards.

While it sounds like you have some legitimate issues, you might also have some unrealistic expectations. Without pictures it's impossible to know. First of all, a new poly finished floor isn't likely to be as smooth or slick as an older one. For all I know, you old floor has too much finish on it and traffic will have smoothed out any roughness. When you say the new floor is rough, I have to assume you're not referring to how grainy Red Oak is. Red Oak has heavy grain texture and it should not be overly smooth when newly finished. Surface exposure of the springwood leaves little valleys in the surface. If a new Red Oak floor is smooth, it had too much finish applied, in the opinion of a wood purist. There is merit to the "just how waterbased finishes are" comment. Water raises the grain but there are ways to avoid this. When these finishes debuted here they were very thin and grain raise was ubiquitous. Every time the finisher abraded the floor between coats, it exposed wood fibers which then swelled when the next coat was applied. Now one can apply a solvent based sealer or a low water/high solids sealer. Lacking a picture, I can't determine if you have grain raise from water based finish.

Abrading the floor with a very fine screen, then a maroon abrasive pad should remove the debris and smooth the floor. Another coat of waterborne finish or oil-modified finish could then be applied. With the waterborne finish this should be a one day thing.

The expectation of the floor to be mostly free of debris is not unreasonable. Virtually no site finished floor is ever completely free of debris but there are limits and strategies to combat it. A floor finisher can meticulously clean and tack rag but if the a/c kicks on, or doors opening and closing move air through the house, there's a greater potential for debris in the finish. Turning the a/c off or setting it at a level where it won't kick on before the finish films over is essential. Limiting entry/exit and sealing doorways and openings with poly sheeting will help. Having a debris free place where the finisher can prepare is necessary.

Frankly, if your floor looks good as you state, LEAVE IT ALONE. I can't tell you how many time I've recoated a floor (that looked good) because of a minor issue and had it turn out worse. If it looks good, that means it's not streaky, uneven, with drips, puddles, holidays, footprints, applicator stop marks, etc. The roughness you feel will smooth out with time and traffic. If there are small sharp objects that catch a mop or dust mop, they can be carefully removed with a 1" floor scraper.

Post some pictures.

I have been around plenty of poly'd oak flooring, including water based, and there was nothing rough about them. I would assume there is something going on that the OP finds his floor rough after three coats of finish.

Did they screen between coats?

snookums does make a good point. some guys, dont like to abrade the floor inbetween coats on water. most cans say you dont have to, and you dont, but they also state for a smooth result abrade the floor. it could have been they didnt abrade between the first and second coat, and then did not abrade enough on the final coat.

all speculation until we get some pics.

JFC brings up a huge point about if you actually like the floor and there are no flaws, leave it alone. roughness and small debris like dog hair will work them selves out with some normal traffic on the floor.

I've never had to have a customer stay off their floor for 24 full hours after i put any coat down. dont know what finished they used, but a selling point of waterbourne polys is that it dries in hours and light foot traffic is acceptable after 4-6 hrs after the coat is laid. Dogs on the other hand are a different story, they should either stay off or be seriously supervised for a few days after the last coat.

and if the smell is an issue, and for some it is even with water bourne products, once the floor has dried open some windows, turn a fan on, get some air movement. it doesnt take long to air a place out.

But i will go back to what JFC said. if you are happy with the finish job outside of the roughness leave it alone, and give it 6 months of normal livings and then revisit the idea of adding another coat.

thanks everyone for your comments. we are leaning toward leaving it alone and see how it works out. I'll try posting a pic when I get home. it's been a frustrating experience, though, because we don't have answers to many of your questions -- did they abrade inbetween coats? not sure. how did they clean? not sure. we've asked many questions about the process trying to understand if the roughness was avoidable, but our GC has been defensive more than forthcoming...

I know this is an old thread, but wanted to see if the floors did eventually smooth out. Are you happy with the decision to leave the floors alone, 3 years later? We are in the exact same predicament. Our house originally had white oak in the kitchen and hallway, and carpet elsewhere. We had new white oak installed in the carpeted rooms and "leafed" into the existing hardwoods. They sanded it all down, stained, and used a water-base poly(Bona Traffic HD). The floors have a roughness due to raised grain. Before refinishing, the old floors were smooth(probably due to age and oil-based poly).

They offered to screen again and do a final 4th coat. But we also had new baseboards and a whole new kitchen installed. I'm scared the additional screening and 4th coat could make floors worse, while also dinging up our new cabinets and baseboards. So we are debating just leaving it alone and hoping it smooths out over time.

The pro didn't knock down the brain between 1st and 2nd coats or 2nd and 3rd coats. The grain raise is normal. The lack of action by the pro is the 'wrong' action here.

Bona requires a final sanding cut at 150 grit to minimize grain raise. Also, even though you have a hot coat window of 48 hours, where no buffing in-between coat is required. For the best result, It is best to buff/sand in-between "all" coats with 220 grit for a smoother look and feel.

@HU-323156949 and @mvanderwal I have the same issue. Please tell me if it smoothed out over time. I’m really concerned about the cleanability I have lots of little kids. I don’t know if I should have them do a fourth coat, or if that will even fix it? I didn’t want the oil based because I wanted the natural look without yellowing.

Im having a similar issue with my bluegum floor and Mega Bona One. Primer and 2 coats have resulted in a floor that has grain raise and scratches easily, first after 2 weeks of being left alone. Im wondering if the unresolved grain ridges make the wood below softer and more susceptible to scratching? Any advice appreciated.

@HU-121060632 The pro needed to knock down the grain after the primer. The grain raise needs to be addressed before the 2 coats of finish are added. Another issue is probably the lack of buffing before the last coat. A well trained pro will do a quick once over just before the final coat is applied. This offers a beautiful, smooth finish after the last coat is applied. It really is the sign of a professional at work.

The other issue is Mega One. It is an 'OK' finish. It is easy to work with but nothing 'special' other than the VOC content. A freshly finished floor - even with the quick curing Bona products - takes almost a month to mature.

Mega One is NOT known for it's toughness. It is know for easy use and easy budget implications. If you wanted tough(er) then the Bona Traffic would have been the minimum. And even now, Bona has the Traffic HD line = UBER super-duper tough. But the price tag is UBER expensive (like 3 times more expensive than Mega One).

Feel free to reach out to your pro to see if a quick buff and coat with a third coat of finish will do the trick. You will have to pay for the cost of the material for the third coat = Bona Mega One costs. The cost of the buffing/light sanding SHOULD HAVE BEEN included in the original quote. That cost (ie. labour) can be negotiated.

If, you’re going to recoat, recoat with traffic hd. you already know mega one doesn’t fit your lifestyle.

update from the original post. grain did smooth out on the 60+-year old floors that were refinished. The new floor installed/finished at the same time has been troublesome. I have snagged the floor wearing socks 2x and pulled off chunks of the floor. There are deep gauges in the wood and scratches. The new floor looks more worn than the old floor. They must have used lower quality oak? And maybe the coatings were fine?