Hi,

After being away for a week, I came home and found that my newly installed and finished white oak flooring had bubbles in the finish. We used duraseal Medium Brown stain with 3 coats on oil poly. The installer came back to buff and recoat the floor, which flattened out the bubbles but they are still visible through the recoat that he applied.

Does anyone have any tips as to what to do next? Do I need to ask for a full sand and refinish? Or is it possible to just have him sand the poly more aggressively to get down through all the problem spots and then recoat?

Thanks!

With a lot of coats of oil poly it will take time to cure enough that braiding the surface will not take a whole layer off. Wait at least a week to be able to work on it safely.

Thanks for your response Pete. So do you think I should ask for another sand and re-coat (once we allow proper dry time) and request that they abraid more material than last time so that the circles in the lower coat of poly are removed before the recoat? It appears that they didn't sand deep enough on the last recoat and not all of the bubbles were removed.

The finish dries from the top down. When re-coating within a week the surface starts to get hard but it is still not completely cured. Sanding the surface with a 180 grit on a random orbit sander will smooth the bubble outlines. The rest of the surface scuffed with a 180 grit screen under a couple of white pads ought to allow good adhesion without leaving scratches that show through another coat.Most applicators will try to get minimum thickness each coat so bubbles do not occur. When bubbles do happen you know the finish is thicker there, so you are getting your monies worth on that coat.It's just that the air currents were not conducive to letting the finish flow after the bubbles collapse as the finish dries. This makes the outline of the bubble show.
It is tough to sand out the ring without lifting the coats underneath because they haven't cured. Another coat of finish should make every thing smooth.