Question: We are having trouble with the heritage plank floor we bought from Carpet Mills Of America. Their inspector tells us that we have a moisture level of 5.? in our foundation. The planks are coming unglued and the edges on several planks are scalloping. No one ever tested our floor before it was installed to tell us we had moisture in our foundation. When it was installed the installers had to level the floor in several places and within a few hours were installing the planks right on top of it. Others we talked to that had wood floors installed could not even walk on the leveled floor for 24 hours or more. We have $11,000.00 of wood flooring in our home and we are very sick about it. Please let us know what we can do to get our on professional inspection and what if any thing we can do. Sincerely, Steve and Kathy Answer: Dear Steve and Kathy I’m so sorry to hear of your troubles. But this is a fairly easy one. The 5 the inspector came up with should be 5 on the Tramex Concrete Moisture Encounter meter. It’s a small hand held meter that has probes that are is pressed to the concrete floor. The highest reading allowed for wood is 4 1/2. And if a reading over 4 is detected many more readings should be done, in the wettest season you have. Oh, of course that needs to be done BEFORE they even consider selling you any type of wood floor. Along with this test they could have done a Calcium Chloride moisture emissions test. This test is a little more tricky, but basically it involves taping down a bubble container to the floor with a sample of pre-measured Calcium Chloride in the bubble. After a certain length of time this sample is sent back to the testing company, and they send back the results. A 4 in this case is the maximum pounds per 1000 square feet over 24 hours, allowed for wood floor installation. This is a better test. So you see in either case you have exceeded the maximum, and hence the bad result. The solution is clear, remove all the hardwood ( you didn’t say of this was solid wood or engineered) clean up the subfloor. And install carpet. You can never have a hardwood floor in that present situation. Don’t be too alarmed by the high readings, all concrete floor emit some moisture, it’s just too high for wood and all vinyl products. Now if you are going to ask me, who is to blame. Well, after 3 court cases, (the last one is described in the Wrong Way Floor in the Case in Point section) I would believe that it is up to the flooring contractor to determine what wood floor, and what method of installation is best in your situation. It is always up to the expert to do all tests, and if they did not they will be responsible for returning to the point at which this all began. Plus maybe punitive damages, and costs of the inconvenience of the first job. And the cost of moving out while they remove and CLEAN the concrete, install new carpet, and you restore your life. Please don’t be sick, just get this sorted, I’m sure a large (at least they sound large) company is not will to risk bad publicity even on a job this size. Read my article on wood floors on concrete. It deals with all these problems, moisture, leveling, and picking the right installation method.

Question: Thank you Joseph for your last email. Yes I would very much like to hear what you have to say about this upcoming job of mine. I had very little to do with the pricing of this job, it was handled by the salesman. It appears that they have not treated the job properly. I do know that the customer wants the work done properly, and she would insist that store take the proper steps. As a subcontractor I have been able to build a solid reputation here for doing good work, with out complaints/callbacks. I do not want this job to go bad. I am schedule to start the prep on Monday. Also, what are the special techniques to install a refinished plank floor? Todd Answer: Dear Todd First off, I would have preferred if the customer had been sold a laminated (engineered) plank floor, which would have looked and sounded the same, only it would have minimal or no warping during wide indoor relative humidity (RH) swings. The salesman’s job is to find out what “look” the customer wants and then lead them to the best suited product. Anyway, what’s done is done. It’s going to be ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL that you measure the EMC (equilibrium moisture content) of the hardwood plank, any underlay and the subfloor. Let this floor acclimatize (for weeks if needed) until all these components come to the same EMC. Keep photographic and written records of this, or everybody will blame YOU when this floor fails. Find out what the EMC for indoor wood is in your area, any wood floor installer or cabinet shop will know. I’m going to assume this is a solid wood 3/4″ by 5″ tongue and groove plank floor. So the first consideration is too beef up the subfloor. In your case the 3/4″ plywood is not quite thick enough for a plank floor. I would like to see you staple 1/4″ waterproof underlay plywood with 7/8″ narrow crown staples (every 6″ square). What you want to accomplish is a vapor barrier under the floor. You understand that the 2″ flooring cleats you will be using will penetrate 7/8″ into this subfloor. Without this extra thickness they will go right through the subfloor and expose the underside of the hardwood to possible dampness or at least a different humidity level from below. What causes cupping and crowning in wide hardwood floors is the different EMC levels between the top face of the plank and the bottom face. And the waterproof plywood does a wonderful job of providing an unbroken vapor barrier (stagger those seams), to keep all the wood in the one RH level of the room you are laying the floor in. It’s also a good idea to put down 15 pound roofing felt, or rosin paper. But as this will get punched with a thousand holes, it’s not an effective moisture barrier, but gives the customer the feeling like you are doing the job according to NOFMA standards. If you just cannot add even this much underlay you will need to apply at least one coat of polyurethane floor finish on the underside of all the boards. This alone is a time consuming and messy project, and you really ought to let this finish cure for a week, so it doesn’t add an odor to the floor. Shellac or lacquer would be a quicker choice for this undercoating, but these finishes are a bit less of a barrier. Don’t use a water based finish for this. Rack out about 6-8 rows, and really try to keep the joints staggered well, with no H’s. Squiggle a bit of urethane adhesive on the ends, and on the middle of the long boards (4 feet and up). Because these boards have stress relief grooves in the bottom, (it would have been better to have flat milled bottoms) you will be able to only squiggle several 4″ by 1″ spot of glue on the ends. Don’t apply too much glue, or the planks themselves may get glued together. This could tear the boards in half when they get stressed by excessive shrinking. All the sides and ends of the planks need to be independent of each other. I hope this is clear. Stay with me Todd. The glue is only meant to prevent cupping and crowning, and most urethane adhesives have some degree of flex to them. Yellow carpenter’s glue does not, and PVA glues in general are not used in the wood floor business anymore because of this. I would prefer you to use DriTac 7500 urethane adhesive, but I doubt you could find some before Monday. Lepage’s makes calking tubes of some pretty fair urethane adhesive, and I had good luck with it so far. Also Bostik’s Best urethane adhesive is quite well known in the trade, and Bostik has urethane adhesives in calking tubes for your convenience. Be sure to pick up some urethane adhesive remover and some latex gloves, or you’ll be going home with black hands every day. You’ll soon see what I mean. We use urethane adhesives for flooring these days, because this glue contains no water or solvents. It uses the moisture in the air to cure itself, and has a bond much stronger than maple wood. If the EMC of the subfloor and the hardwood is below 8% this winter you should mist a little water on the subfloor area and this will speed the curing. Especially since these are prefinished boards, the trapped glue may never fully cure otherwise. It always says this on the tube label, but I thought I would mention it here. Oh, and don’t get any of this glue on the finished face of the hardwood. Keep the urethane cleaner handy, and get it right off, or you will be replacing that board when the glue dries permanently on the surface, and the customer complains. Next, once this is done use a regular nailing schedule (I’m so glad you are not using staples) but 6″ would be better and make sure that each board has at least one nail about 4″ from each end, but no closer. Keep the pressure on your nailer so that the nails just nicely tuck into the little groove on top of the tongue, check often. Take your time so that you don’t get glue everywhere. The glue sets up in about 30 minutes, so if you have some stubborn boards, get them in fast, because once the adhesive has set, it’s almost impossible to remove. Oh, and that’s another reason for the 1/4″ underlay. If this floor fails you will be able to remove the plank from the underlay (destroying the underlay, not the subfloor). For the first few and last three rows that your nailer cannot reach, use a nail spinner available at: http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.asp?SID=&ccurrency=1&page=32273&category= 1,180,42334 Use the nail spinner with spiral (ardox) finishing nails instead of the lousy thin pneumatic finishing nails, that I’ll bet you use. Don’t try shortcuts here. After the job is done tell the customer that this type of installation, only works when they keep their indoor humidity levels, within a narrow 20% range. Try to find the MEAN indoor RH that this house experiences, and have them keep the house + and – 10% of this figure. And strongly suggest that they buy a wet/dry bulb hygrometer to accurately measure this. The cheap metal ones at the hardware stores are not accurate. A cheap but good one is available though: http://www.e-sci.com/genSci/RENDER/9/1044/1099/9955.html This assures only minimal seasonal movement of the planks. Less gaping, crowning and cupping. I hope this wood has a satin finish on it. With a high gloss or semi gloss finish, the home owners will see the crowning effects right away once the spring hits, as the wood gets slightly damp from below. Especially if there is only a crawl space under the floor. I would prefer not to install such floor over an unheated crawl space, this is just asking for trouble. Again Todd, I do not advocate this type of installation. Basically the wood becomes trapped in it’s own glue. And when the home owners subject the wood to extremes in RH changes (believe me they will) they will blame the store, or you, or the manufacture of the wood when this floor starts bucking in humid weather or gaping in the winter. And then I will finally hear about it when they (or someone like them) write to me complaining of shoddy workmanship and material. What they need to understand is the hygroscopic nature of wood, but I doubt they will. I never tackle jobs like this. Any more questions you may have on this subject or clarifications of your original question feel free to write again at no cost. I hope you have enjoyed this personal service, real human responses are the best. P.S. If you are interested, I have a long (12 screen page) article on how to get your own better paying customers. It’s at the bottom of the Quick Links. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: Hi. Is it worth laying “butchers paper” or other material such as thin foam to prevent squeaks between the hardwood and the subfloor? What is best to use? Also, I am raising the floor, should I use a similar product between the original subfloor and the studs of the raised floor? Thanks for any info. Ben Answer: Dear Ben Why are you raising the floor? Are you installing solid wood on concrete? If so, do you want me to send you my article concerning wood floors on concrete? And by the way butchers paper laid just under a wooden nail down floor is less than useless. No squeak prevention here. I have to know more about what you are planning before I can advise you.

Question: We have hardwood floors that have been covered for 40-50 yrs( probably since new) They are clean, no marks and the color is beautiful. It looks as thought they do not have poly on them. Can we clean them then put poly on rather than sand etc….? THANK YOU Ron Answer: Dear Ron I hope by now you have read the full second half of the cleaning article (FREEEE), and know just what finish is on the floor. But just in case you either didn’t read it or didn’t understand it I will review this before we go on. You can use various solvents to determine just what generic type of finish it is. The first solvent to try on the finish is alcohol. Use rubbing alcohol that you find at the drug store. Apply a few drops of this in a inconspicuous spot and observe. If, in a few minutes, it starts softening the finish and makes it sticky, the finish is shellac. This is the least durable of all the film type finishes so that may be why you are having problems washing the floor. A lot of people start waxing these shellac finishes and in order for this test to work you will have had to remove the wax with mineral spirits or paint thinner first. The next step is to apply a few drops of lacquer thinner on a different area and watch this. If the finish is a lacquer or a water based finish, the lacquer thinner will start to soften it. Unless the floor has a pale look to it and has been resanded in the last 15 years, it’s unlikely that it is a water based finish. To prove if it is a water based finish apply a few drops of toluene or xylene and if the finish softens it’s a water based coating, and not a lacquer finish. If you find that none of these solvents affect the finish, you then have some sort of reactive finish, polyurethane varnish being the most common used on wood floors for the past 30 years. There are other reactive finishes but for the sake of maintenance and recoating it really doesn’t matter. You will need to re-coat the floor with the same or similar floor finish, so tell me if I didn’t guess correctly, that’s it’s a varnish. Once the finish is determined and the floor is well cleaned, prepare several small areas, prep by light sanding of the finish, and apply a small 6″ area of finish. If it’s poly let cure for two weeks, razor cross hatch the test spot to the bare wood, apply duct tape and rip it off. If more that 20% of the test finish comes off, you will have to just resand or simply continue paste waxing the floor. A new coat of any film finish just will not stick to this floor. So Ron, I’m betting that the floor finish will turn out to be some sort of reactive finish, a floor varnish, and even a early version of polyurethane varnish (which was invented in the 1930’s. That means you certainly can recoat this finish with a similar finish, and I would personally recommend the Heavy Duty Pro Satin polyurethane by Fabulon. That’s the stuff I use every day. But the prep is the main thing. First you have to make sure there is no oil, wax or silicone containing furniture polish on the floor. It’s always worth a look under the kitchen sink or basement storage area, to see if there is any old dried up cans of any of these materials. Again back to the article: It is most important to determine if the floor has been waxed. This may be not so easy to see. A lot of heavily waxed floors have fooled me. Take a piece of extra fine steel wool and wet it slightly with water. Rub it on various areas that you think may have been waxed. Paste wax will show up as a light gray smudge on the wool. Also water drops left on a waxed floor will turn white after about 15 minutes. Paste wax can be removed with a rag wetted with mineral spirits or paint thinner, and will show up on the rag as a dirty film. To tell you the truth Ron if I find a floor that has been paste waxed, I would never attempt to apply ANY new film finish on it, no matter how well I cleaned it. Instead I would just continue to de-wax it once a year, and apply another coat of liquid paste wax, and buff it to a nice satin shine. Let me know if this is the case, and I will tell you ALL about waxing floors. But I will be gone fishing until about May 15 so a follow up would have to wait until then. Water based acrylic waxes like Mop and Glo will be harder to dissolve and generally need an ammonia based wax stripper to remove them. Most of these acrylic polishes will give the surface a patchy, dirty appearance when they start to wear off. You can test for these types of waxes by mixing a tsp. of water with a tsp. of household ammonia, then add a drop of liquid detergent, into a small cup. Apply a drop of this mixture on a clean area that you suspect has this acrylic wax and wait 5 minutes. If this type of wax is present the spot will turn white. You can only remove this wax with an ammonia based mop stripper. The Cleaning Center (www.cleanreport.com) makes a Mop Stripper that will remove the most stubborn acrylic type wax, without introducing too much water to the floor. If you find NO presence of either wax you can remove any other contaminants from the wood floor by spraying a small area at a time with odorless mineral spirits and using a white nylon flat non abrasive scrubbing pad (found at the grocery stores) and scrub the still wet solvent a blot if all up before it dries with paper towels. Do the whole floor systematically not skipping any area. You can also wash the floor with a pH neutral cleaner, but be sure to rinse it off. But if there are any spots in the floor that have an unsound finish (as described in my article) you’d better stick to the solvent for cleaning. Any unsound areas that have turned gray, will need to be sanded down to the bare wood and touched up with at least two coats of poly. Let the floor dry free of solvents overnight, and start by screening the floor to provided the small scratches needed for polyurethane to stick to it. Rent a floor maintenance machine and use a 100 grit screen to do this task. Run the buffer in both directions never stopping in any spot, just a nice easy back an forth motion. Go with the run of the wood, then repeat again against the run of the floor boards. This assures you that all low spots on the floor will have the finish well scratched. Next, get on your hand and knees and scuff sand the floor in all the areas that the buffer couldn t reach. All along the edges. One you have a 100% scuff sanded finish, and it feels as smooth as a baby s behind, you can start cleaning up. Vacuum twice again, with your industrial vacuum. Get into all the corners of course. Now you can tack rag the floor. I use white lint free rags (yes you can get lint free cotton rags at most big box stores , expensive but worth it). Choose the most lint free in rag in the box, and wet it well with paint thinner. In this case paint thinner is just right, it dries at just the right rate for cleaning the floor. Fold the rag in a long narrow bundle and using both hands on your knees wash the floor in a back and forth sweeping motion as you crawl backwards. Allow the solvent to completely dry up, and then BRUSH on a coat of polyurethane according to the direction spelled in great detail in my “How to Apply Polyurethane Without the Bubbles”. You just need to apply one single carefully brushed on coat.

Question: I need the “definative” answer about hardwood flooring. The prefinished manufacturers say that the prefinished is the only way to go, better finish, stronger finish, lasts longer. The unfinished manufacturers say finishing on site is the only way to and that water will get in teh cracks of prefinished flooring and ruin it. Which is correct? Is the prefinished flooring with UV and 7 coats of urethane, complete with aluminum oxide a better finish than what can be put on on site? Does water get into the cracks and ruin it? Victoria Answer: Dear Victoria You have heard the correct answer in both cases. Prefinished floors with a factory applied conversion finish should outlast most all site finishes. But they too will get scratched, and need a fresh coat of finish, every 5-10 years, depending on use. But, you may not ever be able to get any finish to permanently stick to these highly cross linked finishes. They are so tough that they cannot be screened for recoating. Instead you will need to use a professional prep wash on these floors, and re-coat them with a catalyzed water base finish. All in all, a very expensive job, and I have yet to see the proof that these systems work in the long run. Ever see a floor’s finish peel, I have, not a pretty sight. And, that is correct that these floors tend to absorb water through the open seams, and age badly as more gunk get caught in these cracks. Even the best of them will seem bumpy underfoot, and the worst of them will develop chips on the edges. On the other hand, site finished floors are nucance to have sanded for the first time. You will have to vacate the house from several days to a week. With some of these finishes, polyurethane for one, it will take up to a month for curing. And most of the oil polys will smell for about a week after they are finished. Water based finishes dry more quickly, but are pale in color, or have a short track record like the Dura Seal 1000 (see Floored news). There will be a dust cleanup after also. You may find it difficult to find a excellent floor sander, one who will do a stellar job on your floor. Don’t settle for second best, a poorly finished floor is a nightmare, that will haunt you every time you see it. I know I’ve heard far too many horror stories, of sanding gouges, and bubbling finishes. But if done well, you will have a glowing, smooth finish, with all the seams level and tight. Very easy re-coat, and I typically get 10 years out of my finishes, and go about 30-40 years between re-sandings. Site finished floors are my mainstay in business, and all my own houses have been done this way. But you should read my floor maintenance article in the Floored News section for the different ways we treat these two different floors. Make sure you also read my article about hiring contractors in the Hardwood Authority section of this site. So, there is no final definitive answer, only YOUR choice based on the best information I and others can give you. I tend be more neutral because I will not sell you a floor from here. Good Luck As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: We had pre-finished type hardwood floors installed over a concrete foundation in our den two years ago. Not long after, a few areas began to pop. Within the 1 year labor warranty period, the installer came out, drilled some small holes in the aareas and forced more adhesive underneath. This worked a while, but after last year’s hot summer (we live in Louisiana) they started popping again and have noticed a new area. What should we do ? Should the installer be responsible for additional repairs ? Thanks so much for your guidance. Shirley Answer: Dear Shirley I get this kind of question all the time. While the floor guy is correct in trying to repair it that way, there is only one company I know of that makes a really good repair kit for just this sort of problem. The adhesive in this particular company’s kit is a slightly different formulation than most regular glues. But a glue failure may be just the tip of the iceberg. Did they do a moisture test on the slab, before they glued down the floor ? Did they test for flatness of the concrete ? Just what sort of glue did they use, and what type of floor is this (you never said). So for a small donation I can help you through this, and give you a long article I wrote on this very subject. All this should be worth something to you. Oh, and the installer is wholly responsible for the job, especially if they did not test the slab, and you had problems soon there after. The evidence is in the fact that he was repairing the floor within the year. This means that the floor has to last a year beyond the repairs. I do know some consumer law, and have been the expert witness in 3 court cases so far (all won by my side), so I do know of what I speak. Gee, I learned my trade in New Orleans, I lived there for about 2 years, I just love the Deep South. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: What’s the best way to do a “poor man’s” wood floor staining? Meaning I can’t hire sanders and painters and finishers oh my! Luckily, it’s not a large area to be done and the finish is mostly worn off so that may be a help. It’s a honey brown now and I’d like to go to a dark brown or even black/brown. This is an apartment so it’s doubtful anything has been done to the floor for many years. What can I get away with, not needing to go for an absolute perfect finish, in fact a little way off from perfect may be better. Margot Answer: Dear Margot I thought about this last night and have come up with a brillient sloution. Why not strip the floor the old fashioned way with scrapers? The are two basic types of wood scrapers, the cabinet scrapers and paint scrapers (or hook scrapers as they used to be called) If you are familiar with cabinet scrapers and know how to burnish them this would make the ideal tool for refinishing a floor. But an easier tool to use, but less effective is the paint scraper. I use the long handled ones made by the Richland company,they have a replaceable blade and can be resharpened with a 10″ mill bastard file. The first thing to do is learn how to sharpen this tool to a razor edge. Go up to a light source at eye level and hold the scraper tight up to your chest with one hand and using the file in the other hand practice filing the blade to the origional factory bevel, some floor mechanics like to round the edges ever so slightly to avoid gouging the wood. When you file a new blade you will see the factory filing change to your own file marks across the width of the blade bevel, be sure to keep this same width of bevel, or relief as it is called, every time you sharpen. So far we’ve only cost you a $6 scraper, $1 extra blade and $8 file. You’ll also need a hammer and a nail set, these you can borrow. This whole job will be done on your hands and knees so you might invest in a comfortable set of knee pads also. Go around the whole floor and especially on the last 3 rows to the wall and set any nails that are at or above the surface. You will encounter more as you scrape so keep it handy. Use both hands and let the sharpness of the sraper remove the old finish, it should be coming off in long ribbons. Resharpen often and remember the blade relief.Do a small area at a time and you’ll know you’re down to the bare wood when the wood is plain white. Always scrape with the grain of the wood. After your done the scraping you can hand sand it with 80 grit sandpaper, see if your local floor sanding company has some left over used paper you can get for free. Don’t be afraid too tell them what your doing they might be wiiling to coach you on the scraper sharpening. Hand sand just once with a scrap block of wood backing a piece of sandpaper. Here’s a recipe for a dark stain: 2 qt. water, 2 qt. vineger, and all the rusty metal nails you can fit into the jar. Allow it to sit for a week or so in the sealed jar. Strain it into another container using old pantyhose. This stain works best on oak but not so well on other wood. You may have to buy a dye stain if it is something other than oak. Apply the stain across only the number of rows of boards that you can comfortably reach across, let the stain do it’s chemical magic and wipe off any excess. Depending on the tannin content of the wood the final color will go dark tan to black, it’s best to experiment in small areas first. Let the floor dry a day or so and gently sand out the rough grain rising (don’t sand out the color) and finish with at least 2 coats polyurethane floor varnish sanding and cleaning between coats. That will be the only major cost at about $30 per gallon, Which should do 2 coats on a 250 square foot room. Happy scrapping , you’ll have lots of new muscles after this job. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: Do the warranties with Bruce wood floors ever get the consumer a replacement ? I have a 7 yr dura luster floor that is has some spots where the Polyurethane is gone and I have bare wood. Not sure it’s worth the hassle of being put on hold at Bruce’s 800 number. Dave Answer: Dear Dave I don’t think you will or should get a replacement. With hard, hard use anyone can wear out any factory finish, in a few areas. And if the floor has got a 20 year warranty on the finish you should be at least entitled to having the floor resanded and refinished. After all the wood hasn’t worn out, only the finish has. You might take the time to read the Floored News article on wood floor maintenance. You must have been pretty tough on this floor to wear out this finish in seven years. I’ve got customers with this same finish, and I talked to them recently. After now 13 years they say the finish in the living-dining room is still just fine. But of course I gave them good instructions on how to maintain it. When you have the floor resanded they will have to remove quite a bit of wood. This is so the little micro-bevels are eliminated. Else no new finish will stick to the old finish on those bevels. So in effect you are doing a great deal of wearing of the wood itself by resanding. And this will take at least 1/6 of the total life of the floor off. At this rate you will have a very short lived floor. 6 times 7 years is only 42 years. Maybe the floor is in a kitchen ? Does $2 per square foot for refinishing and 1/6 the value of the wood sound worth the hassle ? Anyway, Bruce does deal with a lot of warranty repairs, but not usually replacements, when the most of the wood is sound. And as long as it is not a pro rated warranty, you should be able to recoup the cost of refinishing the floor,and if you really persist, the cost of removing 1/6 of the life before it’s time. Funny thing my sand-on-site finished floors, have lasted 22 years so far, and they are still going. But I know lots of secrets, that most floor finishers don’t. So if and when it comes to that be sure to ask for our Pro Series article on Oil Modified Polyurethane. And if you want we can take the particulars of your floor’s problems ( pictures ), see if you did anything untoward to the floor, and help you lobby Bruce for some compensation. I am about to do an article on warranties, so this may help you and others. We can at least report to our readers just how Bruce handles it’s warranties, it will make an interesting read. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: About 3 months ago I had my floors refinished. Some of the area was old floor and some was new. The refinisher applied 3 coats of oil based polyurethane. Everything looked great. Now the weather has begun to get warmer and excess polyurethane is oozing and bubbling up from many of the seems. If I notice it, I clean it up right away. The problem has occurred when I do not notice it and it gets stepped on and spreads on the floor. It almost seems like it’s now dried on the floor. I’ve tried cleanig it with mineral spirits and that has not worked. Is there anything else that I can do to get my new floors looking the way they should ? Amy Answer: Dear Amy I’m sorry to hear of your trouble. The cause of the non drying urethane started just after the sanding of the floor was completed. The floor mechanic applied the first coat of polyurethane much too thickly. And then he probably came back the next day and continued to apply more coating. The gaps of an old floor contain lots of impurities (wax, silicone from polishes, etc.) and it’s the first coat of poly in those gaps that never got dried. And then the inexperienced floor mechanic, not seeing this (or ignoring it, to get on with the job) went ahead and sealed up this undried finish. Which is exactly like putting the lid on a can of urethane. You mentioned that the job was done in the winter when the gaps were the widest and now that the floor has somewhat swelled the oozing finish is coming to the surface. Unfortunately it’s a much to common occurrence in this industry, from floor guys who only read the (way too optimistic) drying times on the finish can label. But fail to “read” what happening to the floor itself. Have your floor mechanic come back about once a week all summer long and use a well sharpened and burnished CABINET scraper to remove all the smeared finish from the surface and the bubbling up new wet finish, as soon as it comes up. It takes time for all this sludgy stuff to work itself to the surface, and the higher summer humidity should help with the squeezing effect. But unfortunately the higher humidity will also make it very difficult to get the finish to cure. So I would also suggest putting on as many fans on the floor as you can muster. Try to keep the temperature of the house above 70F but below 80F and the humidity as low as you can. Only when the floor has gone about a month or more with no more oozing should you consider screening and recoating the floor. And it I were you I would wait until the winter when the heat is on. I give explicit directions on how to BRUSH on a coat of poly, without causing any bubbles in my famous “Poly w/o the Bubbles” article on the home page. But the key here is to wait until ALL the stickiness is GONE !!!!! Might have the floor mechanic read this article at his expense, eh ? Another more quick, but expensive way to do the job is to completely remove all the floor finish by chemically stripping the floor. Again one of my famous article on the home page describes the procedure in great detail, using a band name, safe but effective stripper. In your case since it’s poly on the floor, this method is going to take up maybe twice the stripper (50 square feet of floor will be stripped by only one gallon of stripper) and a whole lot more time, than some of the old finishes I was dealing with. So in this case the stripping and refinishing (done by professionals) will cost 5-6 dollars per square foot. Let me know if you are actually going to go this route, as I will have some added instructions in your special case. The last choice would be to have the floor sanded to the bare wood and left to dry for as long as it takes to get those seams cured. And then finish the floor properly with a thin coat of poly for the first coat, and follow the detailed instructions to the letter in my article. This is also best done by a pro, as the sanding alone will require special sandpaper (open coat 20 grit) so as not to clog up while coarse sanding the old sticky finish off. And I must stress this is my last and most un-favored choice. Sanding the floor will remove an excess of wood, that your floor may not be able to “afford”. Each resand of 3/4″ hardwood floor remove about 1/6 of it’s life. And if they have to use the very coarse sandpaper, maybe even 1/4 of the entire life of the top of the groove. Just how many sandings your floor has had before, an experience pro will recognize, and determine what is the best route to go. I just cannot see the floor from here, but you could email me some pictures. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: We had the final coat of polyurethane put on our hardwood floors which cover around 1500 sq feet of the first floor of our ranch home last Monday, June 16th. We live in the Philadelphia Area and the weather has gone from extremely damp and rainy to scorching hot and humid. Basically, it’s a week and a half later and our floor still hasn’t dried. The top film on the floor seems dry but if you walk on it or push on it it leaves imprints and in some spots still appears soaking wet. What can we do? We are a month behind schedule for moving into this place and have a party scheduled for the 4th of July and have to be moved in this weekend!!! Help! So far we’ve tried (in this order) 1) Opening the windows and letting the fans run for about 4 days 2) Cranking the heat all the way up with the windows and doors shut for about 4 days. 3) Running the dehumidifiers with the windows and doors shut for about 2 days. Please advise ASAP!!!! Thank you, Rich Answer: Dear Rich I’m so sorry to hear of your dilemma, but oil based poly will not function well once the temp reaches beyond 80F and 75% RH. I’m in the middle of a 3 coat poly job, and I won’t be doing the last coat until the weather cools on Friday. Schedules be damned. Anyway, I digress, what you need to do now is cancel your plans and deal with the floor. So first DON’T put the heat on, instead use the AC and cool the floor off to about 70F. Keep those fans running day and night on the floor. And open every window near the floor area about 2 inches. The place must smell like a paint factory. What happened was the first one or two coats were not yet dry, and the last coat was applied too early. Or possibly the stain (you didn’t mention if you stained the floor) didn’t dry before you applied the poly. I’ll be sending you the URL of my poly article, so you can see how it’s done. It may be impossible to dry out this top coat as by now it has lost it’s drying capabilities, and is really just a pool of semi-dried oil just sitting there. While it would be nice to get the floor dry enough to walk on, no matter what you do now the final finish will be weakened. So really in the long run, you will have to remove it all. If you can, in a week, by cooling the place off and ventilating just a little, get the floor to dry, sand the floor all over again and this time follow my article’s instructions to the letter, including the brand of poly I suggest. I’m not kidding, we have the same kind of humidity here in Toronto, and with a bit of patience I apply this great finish to jobs that are AC’d even in the muggy month of August. If you just cannot seem to get this floor dry, and another week goes by, or you feel like you must do something about this today. Hey, Now means Now ! There is a remote possibility that some of the wet spots can be stripped with either paint thinner, or better yet something stronger like Circa 1850 stripper (http://www.swingpaints.com/1800.htm) The paint thinner will remove any undried finish, and the paint stripper works well on any urethane in any state. If it’s just a few problem spots this is the way to go. Strip the goo off and just recoat with one or two brushed on coats, waiting two days between coats. Cool to 70F and ventilate. Let the floor cure for a month or two, and then try to recoat the whole thing, following my article’s instructions. But ideally, I’m going to suggest you chemically strip the whole floor instead. In this case you will have to use a safe but effective stripper, or you will poison yourself. Follow the directions to the tee on this next article but I’ll warn you that this will take a day for one man to strip each 100 square feet. I’m also giving you the URL of our chemical stripping article. So if you’ve got 15 guys you could do it all tomorrow. Sure. I’ll stand by in my office here until 11pm EST in case you have some follow up questions. I’m sure you will.