Question: I have recently completed a job with very difficult and picky clients who now find fault with quite small and isloated areas where the finish has fractured (cracked, delaminated) at the joint between boards. The floor is 3/4″ x 4″ select white oak and the finish is one stain and two poly, probably the first coat glass and definitely the second coat satin. I have subcontracted the finish on countless floors like this and never had a problem. Incidentally, now, in the end of March, when one often sees the most extreme end of seasonal shrinkage in a floor, the boards are very nice and snug. The house is heated and humidified (30%) and went through last summer (its first summer) with central AC. My perspective is that these clients are being unreasonably critical of the inevitable process of such expansion and contraction that all wood floor go through on a seasonal basis, that over time all boards go through and that there will be small signs of this movement in the finish, over time. Of course, my clients feel they have not been given the perfection for which they believe they have contracted. I need to communicate with an individual with perspective on this kind of finish problem. Can you recommend someone to consult with me on this? Answer: Dear John In the sixth paragraph I meant to say DON’T use flooring STAPLES . Use only the flooring nails as sold by Primatech (article in Floored news) and a few other companies.

Question: We have solid oak hardwood floors with a polyurethane finish. Recently we had a party where a chair lost the felt coverings on the bottom of the legs exposing a polished metal tack, which made “shiny” scuff lines in the polyurethane finish. It didn’t gouge the surface it just made glossy scuff marks where the chair legs moved. Is there an easy way to buff out or treat these marks? Thanks. Jim. Answer: Dear Jim You can read my article about wood floor maintenance available in the search box at the top of this web page. I describe various products you can use to disguise wear and tear on hardwood floor finishes. But the best solution is to do nothing, and let it go until the periodic re-coating is done. The average intervals between recoatings are described also in the article.

Question: Air, I have a bruce hardwood floor, engineered board, EB 920, Somerset strip. I installed it this summer, and need assistance. I rolled a floor dolly on the floor with a piece of furniture aboard The dolly left a mark that looks as if it were crushing the floor (ie, it is not a mark that can be cleaned). The mark runs th entire lenght of the floor from where the dolly started, and when the sun is shining right, you can easily see the mrak. I need a solution to repair this long scar in my floor- is there a polyurethane patch kit or liquid I can use to remove this mark or am I screwed. Next question. In the glueing process, I have a few boards that did not set and now are no longer attached to the floor. That said, you cannot tell unless you step on them and they creak(or pop) a little. I have tried using a chair glue (for loose joints) that gets between cracks and have had some success. Am looking for another option for this glued down floor. Thanks in advance! Paul Answer: Dear Paul Unfortunately prefinished floor, with their factory conversion finishes are just about impossible to imitate when doing tough ups. And your case is very difficult, as it runs across many boards. if it only involved a few boards, I would suggest you simply replace that part of the floor, with new wood. Before the color is discontinued. First, contact Bruce or the supplier, and see it they have a finish touch up kit. They would have made this kit with hopefully a finish that comes close to the original. You should have this kit for future touch ups in any case. If the finish, applied with an artists brush, succeeds in filling the mark, you have done well. It may take several coats to accomplish this. But if the dent is deep (and you need to confirm it’s a dent, no missing wood) you may be able to steam puff the wood back to shape. You didn’t say how thick the top veneer was, but if it’s at least 1/8″ this method will work. First remove the finish from the dent area only, by either sanding or chemical stripping. Wet a corner of a clean white rag with distilled water, and apply it to the dent with a hot iron right behind. You will hear a hiss of steam and after a few tries the wood should start to level out. You can also use rubbing alcohol and a clean new soldering iron, this gives you a bit more control, but is a slower method. You can then touch up the spot, as best you can or sand the whole floor again. Try any or all of these methods in just a small practice spot first, and see if you can live with the results. It may be better to live with the original dent, and when the floor finish is really worn out, sand the floor and refinish it, but this will be 20 years from now. But this applies only if you have at least an 1/8″ thick top veneer layer. Again, you didn’t describe the wood, and I couldn’t find a description in the Bruce site. It may have been discontinued already. The best solution for the loose boards is the Dri-Tac Professional wood Floor Repair System, at www.dritac.com. It comes with a diluted version of their famous glue, drill bits, syringe and dowels. In short everything you need for the injection repair, this kit actually works. Next time you install a floor use Dri-Tac glue instead and avoid these troubles. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: Here might be an unusual problem: I live in an old, small apartment – 6th floor. The woodfloor is a mess! Gaps between the boards, uneven (maybe by as much as 1/4″ to 1/2″ in any given spot – chunks out of the floor, plywood repairs in other parts – a nightmare. Now I do not own this building and my landlord is unwilling to replace the floor. I am not willing to cut out the old floor and re-install a new floor. BUT, I would like to find a solution to make this floor workable. I have been raking my brain, trying to think of ways I could build up the gaps in the floor and level it out (at least mostly level it out) – so I could simply screw in plywood on top of it and at least have an even floor that I could paint, etc. I have thoght of laying down carpet padding ontop of it -then the plywood, filling with wood putty and laying down a tarp and leveling with sand. Do you have any ideas or experience with this kind of thing? I want to keep this a relatively inexpensive project (like I said I don’t own it) I don’t need perfection, just a workable solution – other than carpeting the whole room with thick carpet pad then putting in wall to wall carpet. Thanks so much for your help!!! Paige Answer: Dear Paige Your dilemma is not so unusual, we’ve got warehouse lofts in this city of Toronto, and after people move in they sometimes opt to painting the floor. Now the very best way to get the paint to stick to the old floor boards is to have them sanded professionally. This might only cost about a buck per square foot or less. Try not to sand the plywood patches too much just enough to clean them up so the paint will stick . The very best paint to use on the floor a quality polyurethane or porch paint. If it’s a polyurethane formula, apply it just as I suggest in my famous “poly w/o bubbles” article found on the home page. But if even a buck a square foot is too much, consider just cleaning the wood really well. You would then have to hand scrub the floor with a solution of warm water and TSP. Scrub well and then rinse the wood, not using too much water. This should remove most of any old wax and gunk from the floor, but just to make sure go over the whole floor again with paint thinner, scrubbing but then while the thinner is wet, mop it up with clean rags. Just do a small section at a time, so as not to miss anything. As to filling the gaps, don’t use some sort of wood filler. Not only will it be expensive, but you will find it will crack out in just about a year, due to the seasonal movements of the old floor boards. Instead use sections of rope. A smooth cotton rope stuffed into the gap, loaded with carpenters glue will stick very well. You can get various sizes of rope to fill the various widths of gaps. Oh, but be sure to clean out the gaps really well with a screwdriver (or awl) and a powerful vacuum cleaner. The surface of the rope will take the paint quite well, as long as it is made from cotton or manila. Synthetic rope won’t work. This second method (of only cleaning the wood) is a little dicey, as you can’t be sure of getting the old finish to accept the coat of new floor paint. So do a small test spot, doing all the prep, as I said. Wait about 2-4 weeks for the poly paint to cure, cross hatch it with a razor, and rip it off. If more than 20% of the spot peels off, choose another method. So lastly the plywood option. Choose the very best grade of waterproof underlay 1/4″ plywood that you can find. It will cost about a buck a square foot with wastage included. Before you install the sheets (the 4 foot square sheets are easiest to handle) take a sanding block with 100 grit sandpaper and make a small bevel on all the edges. When you then staple the floor down the surface of the edges will not meet and create a splinter prone edge. Just like the “micro bevels” on the expensive prefinished floor. I would suggest to staple down the plywood with pneumatically driven narrow crown staples. You have to staple the sheets every 6″ along the edge at least, and then 8″ square in the the whole of the sheet. When you use a rented pneumatic stapler, not only will the job go fast, but you can adjust the air pressure so as to have the staple slightly indented into the plywood. You could fill all the staple holes, if you wanted, with a latex wood filler, and then hand sand them smooth. Boy that in itself could be lots of work. But once the plywood is down and firm, your can certainly paint it with any creative idea you might have. I just know the the polyurethane paint wears the longest, and needs no top coat. And no primer. Just 3-4 coats of the paint, letting it dry, and scuff sanding between coats. You can use a drywall pole sander for this scuff sanding with 100-120 grit screen sheets on it. It’s not elegant, but it’s cheap and easy. Oh, and if you use poplar or birch plywood, you can skip the filling of holes and stain the plywood with a dye stain (as described in my famous “custom staining” article and finish the wood with 3 coats of and oil modified poly as described in my “bubbles” article. Now this is really a neat looking wood floor. Try a green-blue dye. If you’re brave.

Question: I have a bruce hardwood floor, engineered board, EB 920, Somerset strip. I installed it this summer, and need assistance. I rolled a floor dolly on the floor with a piece of furniture aboard The dolly left a mark that looks as if it were crushing the floor (ie, it is not a mark that can be cleaned). The mark runs the entire length of the floor from where the dolly started, and when the sun is shining right, you can easily see the mark. I need a solution to repair this long scar in my floor- is there a polyurethane patch kit or liquid I can use to remove this mark or am I screwed. Next question. In the glueing process, I have a few boards that did not set and now are no longer attached to the floor. That said, you cannot tell unless you step on them and they creak(or pop) a little. I have tried using a chair glue (for loose joints) that gets between cracks and have had some success. Am looking for another option for this glued down floor. Thanks in advance! Paul Answer: Dear Paul Unfortunately prefinished floor, with their factory conversion finishes are just about impossible to imitate when doing tough ups. And your case is very difficult, as it runs across many boards. if it only involved a few boards, I would suggest you simply replace that part of the floor, with new wood. Before the color is discontinued. First, contact Bruce or the supplier, and see if they have a finish touch up kit. They would have made this kit with hopefully a finish that comes close to the original. You should have this kit for future touch ups in any case. If the finish, applied with an artists brush, succeeds in filling the mark, you have done well. It may take several coats to accomplish this. But if the dent is deep (and you need to confirm it’s a dent, no missing wood) you may be able to steam puff the wood back to shape. You didn’t say how thick the top veneer was, but if it’s at least 1/8″ this method will work. First remove the finish from the dent area only, by either sanding or chemical stripping. Wet a corner of a clean white rag with distilled water, and apply it to the dent with a hot iron right behind. You will hear a hiss of steam and after a few tries the wood should start to level out. You can also use rubbing alcohol and a clean new soldering iron, this gives you a bit more control, but is a slower method. You can then touch up the spot, as best you can or sand the whole floor again. Try any or all of these methods in just a small practice spot first, and see if you can live with the results. It may be better to live with the original dent, and when the floor finish is really worn out, sand the floor and refinish it, but this will be 20 years from now. But this applies only if you have at least an 1/8″ thick top veneer layer. Again, you didn’t describe the wood, and I couldn’t find a description in the Bruce site. It may have been discontinued already. The best solution for the loose boards is the Dri-Tac Professional wood Floor Repair System, at www.dritac.com. It comes with a diluted version of their famous glue, drill bits, syringe and dowels. In short everything you need for the injection repair, this kit actually works. Next time you install a floor use Dri-Tac glue instead and avoid these troubles.

Question: Can we use wood putty to fill in an indentation caused by a falling piece of equipment? If not wood putty, what product would you recommend? Answer: Dear Lee Why don’t you try puffing it out with steam ? Use a small pin to poke a very small holes in the bottom of the hole through the finish. Wet a corner of a clean white rag. Press it to the dent, and apply the tip of a hot clothes iron. It should swell the dent back up to the surface in most cases. But if this doesn’t quite do try a colored latex wood filler. I like the Le Pages brand at http://www.LePageproducts.com/ProductCatalog/detail.asp?catid=25&subid=56& plid=305&PID=687. Be sure to use a color just a tad darker than the floor, and maybe mix two colors together. You may have to make deeper holes in the bottom of the dent for this stuff to key in. Fill to the top, but be sure to wipe off any excess from the surrounding wood, else a nasty smear will dry there. Use a wet cloth for this, then a dry cloth to make sure it’s all gone. It may take several fills, and drying overnight, to bring it up to the surface. After it’s dried overnight you can touch it up with the floor finish, or use a artists brush and paint some grain lines and correct the background color. Then apply the floor finish to just that spot. If this is a heavily used spot, and the puffing didn’t work, and the latex filler tends to crack out in time, I’ll have to teach you all about epoxy wood putty. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: We have an old wood floor with what we think is a “pickled” looking polyurethane finish that seems to have been laid on an older, darker finish. The older finish is now exposed in high-wear areas, so the floor looks unsightly. We have been told that the floor cannot take another sanding, so we are looking for options to fix the existing finish. A paste wax was applied to the floor within the past two year or two. Can we lightly hand-sand the worn areas and apply a new coat of polyurethane? Do we need to strip the wax after this much time? If yes, then how? Does the pickled color of the finish come from a tint in the polyurethane, or was another treatment used? We would prefer a more golden color, is there any way to achieve it without sanding off the old finish? John Answer: Dear John I’m afraid your old floor finish is beyond salvaging, mainly because you have waxed the floor. It is difficult to remove all the wax from the wood, and then expect the poly to stick to the wood. In fact in most cases with waxed floors, they need to be completely sanded to the bare wood and refinished. But it you are sure that the floor cannot be resanded, don’t worry, because the floor can be chemically stripped instead. And here is the text version of my stripping article. Oh, and if there is large grey areas left after the chemical stripping, use a Orbital Floor Sander (free article on this tool in the web site) to gently remove these after the floor has dried for a couple of days after the stripper. In your case a light colored wood stain would be good to apply to the whole floor to even out the color. But like the article suggests do a small sample of the whole process to see just what works best. I don’t know if the pickling effect (possibly a decorative grain filler) will come off with the stripper, only doing the sample will tell. But if it doesn’t the Orbital Floor Sander with 80 grit paper will remove the last of it, and a medium colored wood stain will help blend it in. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: We installed 2-/4″ Robbins prefinished wood flooring to the tune of about $6.80/square foot. At first it was beautiful then it cupped. We have exhausted ourselves trying to get somewhere with the company. I mean one room is not enough for them to bother themselves. They did come out to the site and the predictable response was that they are not accountable and to put a dehumidifier in the baement which we did but the cupping remains. Any suggestions ? I hate to have to try to take down the supposedly 10 layers of aluminum oxide. Just wondering what you would do. Perhaps we should just live with the problem..Thanks Mary Answer: Dear Mary Wood floors only cup when there is a difference in moisture content from one side the board to the other. It certainly could be dampness in your basement, but I’m not sure that this would be the time of year when your basement would be damp. Have you had and unusually wet winter where you are ? De-humidifiers work best in warm summer weather and tend to freeze up in the winter when temperatures in the basement are low and the humidity is low, because of a furnace down there. The hardwood floor will cup when the moisture content is more on the top of the floor surface, than the underside. This would make sense in the winter when the basement furnace is drying out the underside of the floor, whereas the living space is kept humid within the 40-60%. And then it will bow up in the middle of the hardwood board when the opposite is true in the summer. Damp basement and dry air conditioned air in the main room. And prefinished floor are really susceptible to this because they are not sealed with a finish at their seams. You might also question the installer as to the moisture content of the wood when it was installed, and ask if they checked the moisture content of the subfloor, were the two with 4-5% of each other ? In oder to prevent this from happening the new floor should have been installed on a thick plywood subfloor (1″ is best) so that the bottom side moisture would not have affected this so much, as the floor nails (I hope they used nails and not staples) would not penetrate the plywood, thus saving it from any moisture migration from below. Also if the floor is installed on a OSB or particle board subfloor this could be causing problems also. So it would be best to not sand the floor at this point, as you may find that by spring and with a dehumidifier the cupping may diminish a bit. But it probably won’t go away entirely. Sometime in the summer you should think about sanding the floor flat again, but this time make sure you have no dampness in the basement winter or summer, and try to keep the indoor humidity level to about that magic 40-60%. Below and above. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: Doc, I read the article on finished vs. per-finished. I am thinking about installing about 600-700 square feet of hardwood in my home. The house is about 15 years old. Do you have any suggestion or comments regarding the installation of this floor? Thanks Kent Answer: Dear Kent Please strongly consider the unfinished floor. When these floors are sanded professionally on site they make for a smooth, glowing, “sock skating” finish. It puts those bumpy, crack ridden prefinished floors to shame. The 25 years warranties (for prefinished floors) are not worth the paper they are written on, be sure you read the fine print. Read my article on floor warranties for more information, which you can find in the search box at the top of this web page. Be sure to read my floor maintenance article in the “How To’s” section of my web site, this will give you a clear idea of how to care for these floors. That way you’ll have no surprises. There are many articles in this site you should read, but pay close attention to the Hiring Contractors article in the “How To’s” section. The site should by now speak for itself, heck read it all. I only hope my writing skills are good enough for your enjoyment.

Question: In early May we had our 40 year old oak floors refinished in our livingroom and diningroom. About two to three weeks later we noticed polyurathane balls developing at the board seams. I was upset……….They suggested that rather than starting over again we could remove the balls by scraping them off with a plastic scraper and wiping any residue left behind with mineral spirits if we did not want to get involved in refinishing again. We did. However, we noticed within a few weeks that more balls had developed. At that point we called the refinisher who told us that it was not their fault. They said that it was caused by dampness in our basement. My basement is not wet. I do run a dehumidifer ………. Please separate fact from fiction. The refinisher never told me to run a dehumidifer. When new homes are constructed and hardwood floors are laid do they run dehumidifers in the basement before the new floors are finished………… Answer: Dear Sandra What actually caused this was simply that they applied the last coat of poly over a first coat that wasn’t fully dry. Because this was an older floor, early on in the year, the gaps between the floorboards were probably still open because of the dryness of the winter indoor heated air. Then these gaps were filled with the first coat of finish. When more finish was applied over this, it in effect, encapsulated the first coat in the gaps. The gaps may have had old wax and junk in them that further interfered with the curing of this first coat. I always apply a very thin coat of poly, or thin it with naphtha on that primer coat. Now as the summer humidity is expanding the wood, the gaps are closing and squeezing out the still wet polyurethane. And it surprising how many “little finish balls” will come out, and for how long. I’ve heard some cases where these little finish balls come out for as long as a year after the job was done. This was on a oily exotic wood, where a water based finish would have been a better idea. You do have to remove the oozing balls as they occur, with a scraper, as has been suggested. But the floor guy should do this for you, or compensate you for the trouble. The fault, I’m sorry to say, lies at the feet of the contractor. He is considered to be the sole EXPERT in hardwood floor finishes. That has been the conclusion in all the small claims court cases where I have served as an expert witness. And if there was a need to de-humidify the basement (good idea) he would have had to specify this in the contract or at least tell you this before he started the job. I do always remember to tell my client to run the dehumidifier continuously before, during and after the job. Instead of employing the machine’s bucket, there is a hose attachment that will send the condensation down the drain. Now I do tell folks this, and they will ignore me sometimes, so the blame can be shifted a bit in my case. But really, I don’t continue coating a floor that is still wet, just to stay on schedule. I can wait. You might find that the compensation for removing the bubbles, and waiting for them to stop forming may cost as much if not more that the original contract. You might just ask for a return of all your money. Once a few summer months have gone by and no new balls are forming, then you can certainly “screen” and recoat the floor, and you should have a good looking finish. You should ventilate the floor with large industrial fans, just after the last bubbles have been removed and cleaned with thinner. Keep the house to about 70-75 F with the AC on and a few windows open just an inch. This all will speed the process. Probe the gaps with a toothpick to see if they have still soft finish in them. Wait and wait, don’t coat again over a soft uncured finish. Oh, and a full resanding may not help the situation at all, You cannot sand the inside of the gaps. It’s better to deal with the floor the way it is. If you take the time to buy and read my lengthy article on “How to Apply Polyurethane with the Bubble” you will see that I wait out each and every coat of poly, till dry. And frankly I don’t do any work with oil modified poly when the weather is going to be hot and humid. Unless the house has AC. When this finish experiences temperatures over 80 F and 75% Relative Humidity, it starts to do strange things like you are experiencing. Any good floor finisher could buy and read this article, or contact his finish supplier. That’s why you hired these guys, for their specialized expertise. (or not)