Polyurethane won't dry! Help?

Question

I sanded my hardwwod floor down to bare wood, put Varathane ( brand by rust-oleum) wood stain on it.. Let stain dry overnight then applied Varathane floor finish (polyurethane) oil based. It says on the can it could be re coated after 4 hours. It has been 29 hrs. and it is still sticky to touch.. any suggestions will be appreciated!

Answer 1

The polyurethane says you can put another coat on in 4 hours, but it didn't say it'll be dried in that amount of time.

Humidity may affect the dry time, but what some people don't realize is that putting a little too much / too thick on will drastically increase the time as well. Work w/ less polyurethane next time and do more coats vs one big coat. If you sand in between the coats and get it nice and clean you'll have a better looking floor, as well!

If the link below works, there's a bit more info. This site suggests at least 4 days total cure time before furniture is placed, a week before rugs and what-not.

If all else fails, and it's a doozy of a pain in the butt, however if it won't dry and won't dry you can always start over again by resanding, but you'll obviously have to take it to bare wood and restain. That's the beauty of having wood flooring, though ... you're able to do that yearly if you wished to do so!

Answer 2

Put some box fans in the doorways facing into  the room & let them finish drying that way.

Answer 3

have a fan blow air acrossed the floor.  did you see if it was dry before applying the second coat?

Answer 4

Turn the air conditioner on and add a few fans to let it dry. I had the same problem when I redid my hardwood floors. Humid weather can make the drying time longer.