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Hardwood floors refinished: why does it look this way?

last year

Hello,

We had our floors refinished in March during a renovation. We live in CT, and keep our home temp controlled appropriately.

We recently noticed hard poly (oil, 3 coats) bubbles everywhere. We called the company who refinished the floors and they said it must be because of humidity, but we are not sure what humidity if our home is consistently regulated.

They came out today to do a repair in a different area but said for me to just pick off poly bubbles with my nail. Concern is they are everywhere, uncomfortable to walk on, and I have never seen hardwood floors like this. Is this normal?

Comments (3)

jane__ny
last year
Wow. We had hardwoods throughout our home in NY and never had this happen. Over the 40 yrs, we refinished at least 3-4 times. They always came out beautifully.

Never saw anything like your photo.

Once we refinished in August which concerned our contractor who was worried about high humidity causing the poly to take longer to dry. Recommended we spend the night in a hotel and turning the AC down to 60 degrees to dry it and keep the humidity down.

We did that and the floors were beautiful the next day.

I think the people you used should redo your floors.

Jane
PRO
G & S Floor Service
last year
last modified: last year
Humidity level is different now compared to the time of refinishing. Finishes trapped in gaps will squeeze out as humidity level rises. You can scrape it off with a plastic putty knife.

How tight is the home? Do you have a humidifier for winter season?
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Yes. I have sanded and finished subflooring for customers. Really no different from any other flooring finish work, except that you have to consider the fact that it happens to be a single construction floor system and, therefore, you have to take steps to protect what is below the floor when you sand and then apply stains and finishes. Anything you do above to the floor surface can easily find its way down to the space below...dust, stain and finish. You have to sink any top nails below the surface of the wood before you sand and continue to punch them below when necessary. You probably can never remove all tar paper lines and staining, but that is OK, as the floor will have a great look all by itself. I have finished these natural and stained a few. I also colored one green once at a customer's request. That one was unique and beautiful.
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Helen - what are you talking about with feet imprints? I’ve never had any imprints from shoes or bare feet On-site finishing is not really an ordeal. We stayed out of our kitchen during the day when they were working, and then just walked in socks at night. Believe me, we have been renovating our house while living in it, and redoing the floors was a very minor event. You get a little extra dust in your house, even if they put up sheeting, but not a big deal. Finishing on site has a better seal between the planks and you have more control over the wood and grain you buy. Also easier to refinish in the future or repair sections. There are pros and cons to each, but I didn’t feel like doing things on site was a big deal, and I’m home all day with two little kids.
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I do not think that floor is hardwood but likely to be fir subflooring . At my previous house, I removed the plywood and vinyl flooring and had a similar fir subfloor finished. It made a beautiful floor despite having some areas of visible face nailing. Yes, it had some character marks but that is what you get in a vintage property. I don't think you will be able to avoid a height difference if you choose to tile the kitchen. Only the sheet goods portion of the existing flooring can be removed. If you wish to avoid a height difference, you will need to use similar flooring. Even then , you may end up with a slight difference as I expect the flooring installer will need to install a thin layer of underlayment for sheet goods.
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Normal range of wood variation. Darn stuff grows on trees, and is unpredictable.
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Verbo
last year
You’re allowing humidity fluctuations that allow the wood to move, as wood does move, when the humidity varies.

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