How can you make clear to if the floor re-finisher put 4 coats of poly on approaching he said he did? We had our 1990's pickled oak colored hard wood floors re-done contained...
We had our 1990's pickled oak colored hard wood floors re-done contained by December 07 while away on vacation. We thought it was a fitting scenario because the company is owned by a neighbor we know and he could watch the crew and check on our home while we were gone - also we wouldn't be contained by the house while they re-did the floors.
We paid extra for each coat and thought we get 4 coats of satin poly on top of cherry stain over white oak floors. Here we are 6 months later and the finish is scratched from our dogs nail and showing lots of wear already. Our dogs exercise an hour a day and have impressively short nails - we never had a spot on our floors from them prior to the re-finish.
We even have areas that have peel up and bare wood is exposed. How do you know if you got 4 coats of poly or merely one or two? I re-finish furniture and ususally the feel of the wood shows me a nice smooth finish after that many coats - but this isn't furniture class wood and I'm out of my depth.
Any advice?
in good health there really is no way to tell-unfortunately, the problems your have sounds more like a product problem to me .its sounds as if they used an acrilyc sealer(poly) instead of an oil base varnish which is a much harder finish an withstands all the day to morning wear and tear on a floor. even though it says you can use a polycrylic finish on a floor i other recomend to my clients to use varnish! i would definately ask your neighbor to come and look at your floor -he should offer to recoat them for you,but the wise (but more costly)solution is to enjoy them sanded and recoated with an grease based varnish.(for the harded best wearing of all use seafaring varnish) This is almost overkill on a hardwood floor. It is not uncommon for scratches to show on the surface, however, different products can relief prevent this. 4 coats of one product(cheap) could equal 2 coats of another(good). Do you know what top coat product was used(ie brand, type of product)? If you know where the individual buys their supplies, you might be able to backtrack to see if they had purchased ample material to give 4 coats base on square footage of job. sometimes contractors put job name on invoices to help keep track of mission. Putting together a time frame when they were there could give support to. I would not put down any more coats at this point. Two many coats is just as impossible as not enough.
Have you had your neighbor over to see this problem? He is ultimatey responsible. You remunerated for his product and services, so make him aware if you haven't already! If you have, and he refuse to do anything about it, talk to an attorney and see what your option are. Good luck with this. I hate to hear when folks are getting ripped stale, especially by people they trust. you don't call them wager on for a touch up and more coats
you said the neighbor owns the company, not does the work so most likely his underpaid employees jipped ya
Answers: Dark colored (cherry) floors show scratches more readily than flimsy colored (pickled) floors.
Your experience as a furniture refinisher is right on target, provided they used an oil based poly. Water base polyurethanes do not give the nice smooth coating we are used to with merely four coats.
If a water based product be used please take into consideration the quality vary -widely- (much more so than oil based polyurethane). Prices can scope from $25-150 per gallon and is money well spent as the more expensive water base finishes are far superior to what is available to the average homeowner.
That said, your finish should not be peeling. If I had to guess, I would utter the stain was not completely dry when the polyurethane was applied. That would explain the blistering down to bare wood and the softness of the finish.^
Call the people who did the work put money on in. Did you get a written guarantee? Never trust anyone. They enjoy used a soft product and it should not be peeling up. Get them to strip it off first later use 2 pack epoxy for a tough long-wearing finish. If they won't do it sue them. This time be there when they do it. Stay with friends or move into a motel overnight while it sets