Question:
My refinished floors won’t dry Completely. I’m using Minwax. High oil polyurethane and its been 3 days. What’s happening?
Answer:
Dear Dan
Right now you should add some heat to the area, by either space heaters or turning up the house thermostat to 75 F. And get a large fan to blow across the area. If the poly hasn’t dried in 12 hours it has lost it’s ability to cure properly by now.
But in order to tell you how this happened I need to know a lot more about what sort of floor this is. What species of wood. Did you sand the floor yourself ? Was it white and clean after the sanding ? Was the floor heavily waxed in the past ? After you sanded it did you stain the floor, and what was the brand of stain ? What was the weather like when you applied the finish ? Is the floor built over a heated basement or a crawl space. And lastly what was the timing of all the coats and stain ? If you can answer all these question, I can most likely tell you what went wrong, and if the finish is savable.
In the mean time, ventilate, and warm the floor. And do a test with that finish on a new piece of wood, to see if the finish is a problem. Just apply one coat on the test board. I have had this happen to me in the distant past, and I can tell you now it is rarely a problem with a bad batch of finish.
As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.