Let me preface: flooring contractor experienced in multiple ways of skinning the cat but confused with a few guys methods and curious if I am out of touch.

Please stay on topic... please

So I am ten years in the trade. running crews. doing my own thing. working along different guys doing things different ways etc. I understand theres more than 1 way to skin a cat. The company I am at now does a fair amount of volume based refinishing but quality control stays important. I replaced a lead guy that insisted on buffing a smaller - typical sized- living room dining room (lets say 280-350 sq ft) for upwards of 1.5 hours with 80 or 100 grit screen.
I often felt like this was

1- excessive (negatively excessive)...
2- closing off the grain too much and stopping sufficient stain penetration (typically duraseal)
3 - elongating dry times
4- creating dish out
5- getting very light results with typically nice dark colors (jacobean, dark walnut, special walnut, etc.

Recently we tried a guy out that supposedly runs a lot of work.
His process on all of his work consists of the following
going 36 - 60 on big machine and edger ( dark stains included)
following that up with 80 grit screen exactly how the other guy was doing it-
buffing more or less til he was blue in the face.

I already feel like 36-60 on dark colors is a complete joke and i disagree entirely on this and would never practice it so get lost if your going to preach this to me.

i do however think that 80-100 grit is a good buff for most anything. just not this friggin much. I mean you are more or less trying to fix a bad sanding with over buffing arent you

i didn't let this guy do anything but edge and cut some trim today and honestly dont intend to unless I get some feedback saying this is what you all do.

thanks a ton

I put a lot of time into the buffing of my floors but the above mentioned approach seems way off to me .

Rule #1 - Don't cut a floor with a heavier grit than necessary .

Rule #2 - Finish off the floor with a fine enough grit so that your buffer can easily remove sanding lines and edger swirls.

I typically use my hummel to cut most oak floors with a 40 grit on the hard setting and then a 100 grit on the medium or high/soft setting. I edge typically with 50 grit and finish off with 100 grit.

After scraping corners, I use a Bona multidisc with 120 grit 3M regalite papers to do a first buff.If needed, I will use a 5 inch orbital sander with 80 grit 3M regalite paper to remove any lingering edger swirls. After that , I use a 3M 120 grit screen to finish off the floor.

So I'd say for an area of 350 feet , I would spend about 30 to 40 minutes buffing. Also, I make sure I change abrasives regularly so that I don't polish the floor and close the grain too much