Thread: Need Hardwood Re-finishing Advice

Lately I have been doing more with hardwood floors and have had pretty good succes with the Laminotor Plus system however it falls short of being viable on floors with several spots of bare wood, which lately is mostly what I have been coming across. If there are isolated spots I would touch them up with spar uretane or fast drying polyurethan in spots after prepping the floor. If there were too many spots that needed this I would usually refer it out to be re-sanded.

I guess what I am looking for is something to have in my arsenal for floors like this that will cover these spots better with one product or at least be advised on what kind of urethane that I should use as a primary coat prior to using a top coat product like laminotor plus. I am looking for something that can be used after cleaning the floor using a cleaner like laminator plus's deep scrub and maroon or green scrubbing pad. Thanks

Bona has a product called Bona Prep. Its mainly used to prepare aluminum oxide or factory finishes to accept a new coat of polyurethane http://www.bona.com/en-gb/United-Sta...at1/Bona-Prep/
Spray on then abrade with a maroon pad, towel off, dry then recoat.


doug

Thanks for that link Doug, it sounds like they have some great products. Which finish would you recommend? I forgot to mention that I sometimes I stain the floor where needed with Minwax stains but I am open to other suggestions on that as well since there is quite a bit of downtime to using that stain prior to re-coating.

Darron, Most bare spots have to be sanded out and restained. If the stain has not been effected you still have to sand and blend them in. In several cases that I have seen, most places in my area have the floors completly sanded then restained and finished.

I have done a little sanding here and there, would screen sanding work?

www.basiccoatings.com is another option

www.floormasters.com is a forum dedicated to just hardwoods

basic products are geared toward the consumer or diy customer. If you want consistancy and quality Bona has more products for more situations. all wood floors are not created equal, and using the wrong poly on the wrong wood can lead to curing problems, adhesion problems and a host of other expensive fixes.
I have used Street shoe in the past I just didnt like way it flowed and it took way to long to dry so I just stay with Bona its what im used to

doug

Thanks guys, I found a distributer for Bona products in my area so I am going to check that out, I would like to eventually try the basic products as well at some point.

Thaks again guys, today I stopped at Jeffco hardwood flooring supply which was a good discovery for me, didn't know about it untill recently. They had both the Bona and Street Shoe by Basic that was mentioned here amoung other brands but that was it for waterbased poly's. In any case I ended up with Bona Mega to try, it was a little less expensive than the Streetshoe at $55 per gallon but later I do want to try the Street shoe. The guy there said all water based poly's are hard to apply cuz they dry so fast but I still wanted to try it.

Before I try it though I wanted to see how or if it can be used with the Laminator Plus system. I was thinking to scrub with LP Deep Scrub, lightly sand and stain where necessary on a floor that I have coming up. Once stain is dry would I use Bona Prep or could I go staight to using Bona Mega. Once one coat of Mega is dry I was wondering about putting top coats of LP finish down or should I just stick with Bona Mega. The reason I ask is beecasue once I used Minwax stain and poly on some stairs followed by LP finish and it looked awesome. Thanks

Well I ended up recoating a high traffic hallway at my house with Bona Mega after first stripping off the old LP finish. What a bummer, it was hard for me to level it out and the first coat looked like crap in a few spots, a few house later I abbraded it and re-coated again and it looked better, today the dogs got to it and already scratched and scuffed it all to crap, it was pretty distressing how easily it scratches after 12-24 hrs later. I was wondering if Bona Traffic or Street shoe would hold up better and be easier to apply.

First coats on bare wood always look a little rough. Consider them a sealer coat. You really dont see good results untill the 3rd coat.
Heres how I do it on bare wood- 1 stain with a good solvent base stain Miwax is ok but dura seal product are the way to go. let dry.
2-apply your first poly coat with a round foam applicator and a tee bar attachment (ask your supplier he will know) the trick to WBP
(water borne polyurethane) is to not over work the finnish, put it on and let it be, the more you mess with it the more it will bubble ect. the technique you use is what really makes the finnish, I found the "snowplow" technique works the best. slight angle on the applicator keeping a wet edge in the direction that you are moving. pour enough finnish in a puddle at the start to do one or two passes, turn the corner without lifting the applicator then pad out the finnish and start again.
After the finnish is dry 5-7 hours abrade with a maroon pad used for wood finishing not the ones for carpet cleaning.Next vacuum and remove dust with a damp cloth. The second and third coat will be easier to apply and wont require as much finnish.
# dont over work the finnish
# abrade with maroon pad
# vac and tack
# vac and tack again
hope this helps, sorry if it sounds like ramblings of a madman. call me if you have any questions its actually quite easy once you get your technique down and you remember to not finish yourself into a corner LOL!

doug 714-525-7136

Originally Posted by fresh1

First coats on bare wood always look a little rough. Consider them a sealer coat. You really dont see good results untill the 3rd coat.
Heres how I do it on bare wood- 1 stain with a good solvent base stain Miwax is ok but dura seal product are the way to go. let dry.
2-apply your first poly coat with a round foam applicator and a tee bar attachment (ask your supplier he will know) the trick to WBP
(water borne polyurethane) is to not over work the finnish, put it on and let it be, the more you mess with it the more it will bubble ect. the technique you use is what really makes the finnish, I found the "snowplow" technique works the best. slight angle on the applicator keeping a wet edge in the direction that you are moving. pour enough finnish in a puddle at the start to do one or two passes, turn the corner without lifting the applicator then pad out the finnish and start again.
After the finnish is dry 5-7 hours abrade with a maroon pad used for wood finishing not the ones for carpet cleaning.Next vacuum and remove dust with a damp cloth. The second and third coat will be easier to apply and wont require as much finnish.
# dont over work the finnish
# abrade with maroon pad
# vac and tack
# vac and tack again
hope this helps, sorry if it sounds like ramblings of a madman. call me if you have any questions its actually quite easy once you get your technique down and you remember to not finish yourself into a corner LOL!

doug 714-525-7136

Thank you for your detailed advice. I did get one of those T-Bar applicators, it does take some getting used to for sure. What do you use to get around doors and in corners, I had trouble with the T-bar with that Just to be clear this was a clean and recoat, I stripped off the old LP finish with Deep Scrub but the original poly and stain was still intact. The second coat did look a lot better for the most part before the dogs got to it. Does this product hold up well for people w/ pets. I was wondering how long to tell people to stay off the re-finished area. LP if nothing else did dry and harden very quickly.

Thanks again guys for the help; Scott W- I do sometimes use the Bridgepoint finish, in fact I used some Matte finish on a job last week, it is very easy to work with and may still use it on jobs that are not in too bad of shape. My concerns are that it doesn't work on bare wood in spots that are very worn down and I am concerned about how it holds up compared to poly. Other than the ease of application and faster drying time though I don't see much advantage to it becasue it costs almost as much as the WB poly's mentioned in this thread, and more than most oil based poly's but it doesn't have the durability or longevity of a polyurethane. It does have a very nice look though and I may still use it in certain situations.

Joe, I do plan to try the Streetshoe when I finish the Bona. I still have over a half a gallon left of the Bona Mega and I have a small kitchen to recoat next week so I will give that another shot. I will say that other than the scratches and where I screwed it up the Bona looks pretty good and it seems that it has hardened up alot better and is more scratch resistant.

Good info Scott, thanks!