How can you tell if the floor re-finisher put 4 coats of poly on like he said he did?

Question

We had our 1990's pickled oak colored hard wood floors re-done in December 07 while away on vacation. We thought it was a good 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 in the house while they re-did the floors.

We paid extra for each coat and thought we got 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 nails and showing lots of wear already. Our dogs exercise an hour a day and have very short nails - we never had a mark on our floors from them prior to the re-finish.

We even have areas that have peeled up and bare wood is exposed. How do you know if you got 4 coats of poly or just 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 grade wood and I'm out of my depth.

Any advice?

Answer 1

well there really is no way to tell-unfortunately, the problems your having sounds  more like a product problem to me .its sounds as if they used an acrilyc sealer(poly) instead of an oil based varnish which is a much harder finish an withstands all the day to day wear and tear on a floor. even though it says you can use a polycrylic finish on a floor i always 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 have them sanded and recoated with an oil based varnish.(for the harded best wearing of all use marine varnish)

Answer 2

Dark colored (cherry) floors show scratches  more readily than light colored (pickled) floors.

Your experience as a furniture refinisher is right on target, provided they used an oil based poly. Water based polyurethanes do not give the nice smooth coating we are used to with only four coats.

If a water based product was used please take into consideration the quality varies -widely- (much more so than oil based polyurethane). Prices can range from $25-150 per gallon and is money well spent as the more expensive water based 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 say the stain was not completely dry when the polyurethane was applied. That would explain the peeling down to bare wood and the softness of the finish.^

Answer 3

Call the people who did the work back in. Did you get a written guarantee?  Never trust anyone. They have used a soft product and it should not be peeling up. Get them to strip it off first then 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

Answer 4

This is almost overkill on a hardwood floor.  It is not uncommon for scratches to show on the surface, however, different products can help 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 person buys their supplies, you might be able to backtrack to see if they had purchased enough material to give 4 coats based on square footage of job.  sometimes contractors put job names on invoices to help keep track of job. Putting together a time frame when they were there could help.  I would not put down any more coats at this point.  Two many coats is just as bad as not enough.

Answer 5

Have you had your neighbor over to see this problem?  He is ultimatey responsible.  You paid for his product and services, so make him aware if you haven't already!  If you have, and he refuses to do anything about it, talk to an attorney and see what your options are.  Good luck with this.  I hate to hear when folks are getting ripped off, especially by people they trust.

Answer 6

you don't call them back 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