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Hardwood Floor Refinish with Uneven Stain & Sheen; White Spots; Bumps

2 years ago

last modified: 2 years ago

Hello All. We just had red oak floors sanded and refinished. Duraseal stain was followed by Bona Natural seal (1 coat) and 2 coats of Bona Traffic HD. I will upload photos of what looks like areas of uneven stain application, uneven sheen, white spots, and bumps. I'd welcome opinions on what may be the cause of these issue(s) and if you perceive them as outside the norm. I'm not sure what to think. Thank you in advance for your help.

WHITE SPOTS

UNEVEN STAIN (and something stuck on the floor)

BUMPS

Hard to see here, but the sheen is not even. And the stain color also looks uneven.

I'm guessing this is excess stain next to the granite at the fireplace.

Comments (6)

SJ McCarthy
2 years ago
As above...I'm worried about those WHITE spots. It almost looks like you are having adhesion issues. Which is a massive issue...if it is happening.

How old is the finish? How many days did they take to finish the floors (how many square feet)? Do you know the application days/times?

Normally they need to do a sanding/abrasion between coats and especially before the last coat.

The colour application is a big issue to fix because it means sanding down and starting again.
L C thanked SJ McCarthy
L C
Original Author
2 years ago
Thank you SJ. The finish was applied this week. The final coat was put down Thursday. They started sanding on Monday. Stain on Wednesday in the a.m. Sealer down that evening. Traffic down Thursday a.m. and then again later that day / evening. Maybe 1,200-1,400 sf

There are several spot that look like they didn't sand properly (those dark spots feel rough and not like the rest of the floor). In general, the floor is not equally smooth. It's super disappointing. Thank you for your help.

Here are a few more shots
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My experience: refinish hardwood floors with Bona Traffic
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OK I explain. It is a floating floor what we call in the UK engineered floor, so it is not solid throughout but a thickness of the wood mounted on a plywood base. It is a Malaysian wood, not so hard, so I suppose high heels could dent it perhaps, it is not the hardest. It is a click system not requiring glue, interesting. Now from Malaysia it says it has five factory coatings of which some contain aluminium oxide. It got worn out over the years. So a year ago I sanded the wood with the machines with the correct paper and vacuumed well. Then I applied one coat of Bona Traffic silk, you know the glossy one. I then noticed a number of parts were very coarse to the touch. So after some hours I sanded again with slightly finer paper but still coarse. Now I applied again Bona. Once again certain areas were coarse to the touch and you could see stains. So now I did a final very fine sanding but this was by hand with very fine paper particularly in the areas affected. It took me hours. Then I applied the third coat. I called the Bona representative who was at a loss!!! He gave me a bottle of Bona "refresh" it is a type of product to do another pass over. I applied it to the worse parts of the floor. Although one could see areas which were coarse to the touch and which did not look quite right the shine was sufficient to fool guests for Christmas. Now I am exactly one year on. In those area I mentioned there are now black marks. I attach some photos of the present situation with example of the black marks. (sorry I do not know how to create a new thread). I want to sand it and apply Bona again before New Year when my mother is visiting, my wife will just about tolerate me sanding on the 27th Dec. I had the suspicion it was the Bona product maybe the bottle I bought was old or had been exposed to low temperatures where I bought it from but the Bona representative told me it was very unlikely to be the case.
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Lhutch, my contractor advised me to do floors last because we were removing a wall (so flooring had to be repaired there) and there was also some damage to the floors during cabinet install (little nicks etc). There was a good amount of dust from kitchen work too, so I’m glad we didn’t do the floors first. Michelle, I hadn’t even thought of that—will definitely do that. Thank you!! anglophilia, I have no problem with the baseboards, they’re fine to me. I don’t like the look of the stained trim, and have always had the white trim. Cole Man, the baseboards are definitely replaceable but again, it’s a significant cost to do so. This guy was certainly not the lowest bidder and I’ve worked with him before, he’s not a fly by night contractor or anything...and he says he doesn’t routinely remove trim or shoe molding. I didn’t even think of it until recently so didn’t think to ask other bidders. At this point just want floors sanded and stained properly and the trim to not look like garbage when it’s all done. I hate that you cannot just trust the workmanship of people anymore...you have to be 5 steps ahead and micromanage them to make sure you’re asking the right questions and getting the right results. I thought I did my due diligence, the guy wrote a detailed proposal, etc but I wouldn’t have known to ask about trim...that’s why I hired a professional. But that’s a different post. :-)
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That's a foot print in the stain not just in the finish. Yes the 'fix' is to to a patch repair. They would sand down the area to raw wood, restain that area and then apply 2 coats of finish (with all the appropriate cure times to be observed). Then the entire floor gets a final coat of finish. It is the FINAL coat that offers the continuous finish/gloss level. To reduce your fears, Satin is a VERY forgiving finish. It has a lovely glow. This glow DULLS DOWN as it ages. It might start off as a HIGHER GLOSS Satin (be prepared) but it will ALWAYS settle down. This takes 1-3 months. So don't panic if you see a nice glowy floor on day 1. That will change. Once the 3 months has passed, the floor will sit happily at the satin level it was destined to be. Then, like all floors, it slowly dulls down withe wear. Higher traffic areas dull a little faster. So your foot print area (being in a high traffic spot) will mostly likely dull down nicely. The question becomes: Which bugs you more? A foot print such as the one you found (noticeable once you know it's there) or a *possible* sheen difference that will disappear with age? There is only one person who can answer that question - and that's you. Permanent foot print vs. 'disappearing' gloss difference? I'm not worried about the gloss level. I would worry about the stain variation.
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PRO
G & S Floor Service
2 years ago
Those white spots are results from the Natural seal. Aside, from the wavy surface finish. Why, have a white pigmented sealer applied over a dark brown stain? It's a suicide mission for a flooring contractor.A different system should have been recommended, if, you want to achieve a specific look. Natural seal alone is a difficult finish to apply perfect. And attempting to have it applied over a brown stain, failure from the start. Redo the floor, skip the sealer and apply HD directly over it. A better inbetween abrasion and cleaning will prevent the particles and rough spots. The little happy faces are probably acceptable from a standing postion.
L C thanked G & S Floor Service
L C
Original Author
2 years ago
G & S, Thank you. When we were talking color, I specified that I didn't want red/orange (or as little as possible). He recommended the Natural Seal saying that it would cut down on the red/orange showing through. The color I chose was a mix: 50/25/25 Jacobean, weathered oak, classic gray. He did samples with natural seal and classic seal and the natural did make a difference in that regard. Of course I had no idea it would cause this issue.

The stain was lighter and with more red than the sample demonstrated. So now we're expecting that it will have to be completely redone. Given what you've said, I really don't know what to think about the stain color, now. I don't want a lot of red to show through, and I don't want a super dark floor. Even though the stain was lighter / more red than expected, I would have been okay with it if not for all the other problems going on. Now I am unsure about stain color. Without that natural seal, the floor will look even more red.

Thank you again for your help.
SJ McCarthy
2 years ago
To keep your floor light and NOT RED (you have red oak = it will be red until you make it 'not red') means you should bleach it and then try the stain. Once the red is bleached out, you will be able to achieve the colour you want.

A bleaching will add another $2/sf onto the cost of the project.
L C
Original Author
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
Actually, there are ways to minimize the red/orange without bleaching or replacement. I thought the color was a big improvement over the previous floor (which was very orange/red) and would have been fine with it if the rest of the job was done correctly. I followed floor individual's recommendations. There was no way I could know of this result. Thank you for your input.

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