Floor finisher put poly over shellac & ruined my floors! How to fix?

8 months ago

last modified: 8 months ago

I am really at a loss. I am a first-time homeowner and after buying my house, I wanted to protect my investment so I decided to spend a considerable amount of money getting the floors a new buff and coat before I moved my stuff in. Less than a year later, the floors were bubbling and peeling up all over the place.

Setting aside the fact that the floor person refused to do anything about it (it was less than a week beyond his "one-year warranty" period), and all the steps it took for me to figure out what the cause was:

I believe that the previous owners applied amber shellac to all of the floors, and the floor person I hired did not identify this and foolishly applied a satin-finish polyurethane atop it, which is now causing the layers to separate.

<weeeeps> So what do I do now? I have three questions:

How do I fix the areas that are bubbling up and peeling? (See pics below as examples.)
How do I prevent this from happening everywhere else in my house?
I pulled out some old kitchen cabinets, so I have some areas of flooring I now need to patch in with this same wood to match. How do I match the existing color of the amber shellac, which now also has the look of the coat of satin polyurethane atop it, without getting myself into this same mess with the new boards? In other words, how do I reliably create a satin finish with an amber shellac?

Thanks in advance for your help! I gave been losing sleep over this! 😩

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Comments (5)

dani_m08
8 months ago
Please pull up the last comment I added on another thread earlier this afternoon. I explained how one year warranties do not cut off your recourse against a contractor/professional I'd rather not repeat the entire comment.

Basically, a one year warranty does not matter. If the floor refinisher is the expert - and should have tested the floor to determine what type of finish was used - then it's on him. I even know how to test wood finishes in order to tell if it's oil vs. poly vs. shellac.

You may have a negligence claim against your floor refinisher - I assume that not determining the type of finish before doing work on the floors (unless removing all of the prior finish) = negligence.

When there is litigation re: something like this, it's rarely based upon a breach of warranty - it's usually a breach of contract or negligence claim - and the one year warranty language in your contract has no bearing on limiting your recourse against your floor refinisher.
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littleetoile thanked dani_m08
littleetoile
Original Author
8 months ago
Oh, wow, thank you! This is fascinatng and very helpful, @dani_m08! Just found your comment on the other post.

So sounds like that takes me down the path of legal action, which I'm not ruling out now that I've ready your very useful comment (thank you again!), but unfortunately in the meantime it doesn't address the three things I listed that I'm trying to figure out, so would be great to see if anyone has ideas for those elements! For example, to redo the floors completely would require me moving out of all three floors of my house, which sounds like a nightmare I'd like to avoid if possible! At the very least, would be great to figure out how to repair the worst damaged areas, and match the patches I'm putting in the kitchen.
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woodfloorpro, thanks for the response. Sorry, I lost track, trying to deal with this, BUT I did read your response, which helped. We have a different floor guy coming to fix it. He looked at it, and said what you said, that he would do a light sanding/screening, to take down the bumps, and then he would buff it, and then put a coat of poly. QUESTION: The 4 coats were done with Parks Pro Finisher, oil-based (I think by Rustoleum). I don't know what this guy will be using. I talked to a different hardwood guy who said this coat should be Bona. The 4 coats that are on the floor now look very pretty,with a clear look. (It's semi-gloss). You do have to look close, when light hits it, to see all the bumps. I have been reading in "Contractor talk", online to use Bona as a last coat. Does that matter if Pro Finisher is used, or another kind? He's coming to start tomorrow afternoon. Another question: is after this is done, is this one addition coat enough, because all the bumps have to be sanded down?
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I'm pretty sure that's oil modified polyurethane. Lenmar is a decent brand and oil modified polyurethane is more durable than any waterborne urethane. I suggest you determine why your floor is scratching rather than potentially switching to something like Bona Traffic that's less scratch and wear resistant and way more expensive. The only things more durable to my knowledge are acid-cured (often called Swedish finish) and moisture-cured urethane. I don't think either can be applied over your existing finish. I've heard of a product with aluminum oxide in a can but can't speak to durability or whether it can be applied successfully on an existing floor. Keep in mind that like oil paint, oil based polyurethane takes almost a month to cure fully. It will be more sturdy once cured but you should still take precautions to preserve the finish like cleaning frequently, applying floor protectors on furniture, not sliding things around and putting mats at doorways to eliminate grit from being tracked in. If workmen come in to take care of punch-out items, have them wear booties. Quite often they're a bit careless with their own habits and with toolboxes and so forth. I recommend your contractor coat the tape pulls a couple times and block sand them between coats to get the proper buildup, before coating the whole thing. Otherwise you might still see the pulls. Buy a Mohawk marker pen to disguise the small scratches. They catch light when fresh then become less prominent after they're burnished a bit by traffic. I noticed this phenomenon on a black floor I did. Paver sand was being tracked in the house, scratching the floor. On a second visit the scratches I'd seen on the first visit were only visible upon close inspection. They were still there but the sharp edges got rounded off and didn't catch the light. The marker colors the scratches making them less visible.
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Wait? Why would they use Bona Natural Sealant when you wanted a warm rich coloured floor? Where did that COME FROM???? Did they use this on the SATISFACTORY SIDE of the flooring???? If not then they created a SECOND mess trying to FIX their FIRST mess! I found another ELEPHANT! Wow! Your home is FULL of them (tongue firmly in cheek...trying to offer a little bit of levity to a very sad situation): "Then, they applied more stain ON TOP the already stained and sealed floors. I KNEW it was wrong but they do this everyday so I trusted them. The marks came back again! They were more obvious this time! Then they applied Bona Novia and the finish began to bubble." O....M....G....(gasp)! =:< Zoinks! I am so sorry but the living room is a complete redo. Possibly the rest of the area already stained as well (because of the height variation they JUST created!). In building law (please check your local state regulations) the general rule is the contractor is allowed ONE attempt at a 'fix'. After that, the homeowner (customer) is then allowed to find ANOTHER contractor to come in and CORRECT the issues left behind by the contractor #1. The cost of Contractor #2's correction is paid for by Contractor #1. And that's where this gets tricky. How to get Contractor #1 to pay for his mistake TWICE???? That's where some EXCELLENT negotiating skills come in (on the customer's part). At this point, I would call another wood flooring professional to come in and offer a quote for what it would take to FIX the floor. You then use that quote to pressure your contractor to pony-up. Get a second opinion on this ASAP. Going into negotiations from a position of strength is what you are after. And KNOWLEDGE is strength.
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cat_ky
8 months ago
You need a flooring person (a reputable knowledgeable one) to match in your floors and make sure its an identical species as to what you have there already and make sure the patches are put in, so they are staggered and not just square type patches.
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littleetoile thanked cat_ky
littleetoile
Original Author
8 months ago
@cat_ky I had one room with carpet already ripped out and the flooring replaced by reputable experts. I know the wood type, so thankfully I am covered there, but even the experts weren't able to exactly match the color because at the time I hadn’t figured out that the original floors had amber shellac on them, and that’s what provided the color. Now that I know that, I just need to figure out the answers to the questions I posted here! ^^^
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PRO
G & S Floor Service
8 months ago
You can manually scrape the flaking finish off with a plastic scraper. Then do a deep cleaning to remove contaminants before buffing or lightly sanding for a recoat.
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Floor finisher put poly over shellac & ruined my floors! How to fix?

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dani_m08

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Floor finisher put poly over shellac & ruined my floors! How to fix?

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