I had my hardwood floors refinished in June of this year. The person doing the work used an oil base finish and put 3 coats on. Before he did the job, I mentioned I would not be in the house for 3 weeks after he finished the work. During my absence, the temperatures reached 90 degrees outside for a few days. There were no windows open in my home. When I returned in July, I noticed bumps on several areas of the floors in all rooms. I also noticed a couple of small slivers of wood in one room that had been "painted" over with the oil base finish.

The person doing the work has indicated that the heat from the house being closed has caused the floor to have the bumps - or blister. He is willing to come and "fix" some of the bumps. If he fixes part of the floors will that show?

I had read some on refinishing floors before hiring him. Is what he's saying make sense? I have heard from other individuals with experience refinishing floors that the preparation may be the problem - not the house being closed.

Thanks, in advance, for your advise.
Liz Simpson

Liz (if that truly IS your name! . . . Just kidding):
Question: How big are the "bumps"? Reason I ask is that they can be "drips" that he left when finishing. Or are they smaller? Kinda' like little gritty blemishes? Please, elaborate!
And you're probably right about the heat and closure of the house NOT causing it. The critical timing with oil-based poly is the first hour after laying it.
Get back to us and I'll give you further information.
Charlie Benghauser
Delta Plus
Prescott, Arizona

Thanks for the response Charlie. Yes, Liz is my real name.

The "bumps" on the floor don't look like drips. If you look at the floor at an angle, there are tiny raised points (an analogy would be bumps on a person's skin from a rash or acne) in sections on the floor. This would be versus a flat or smooth finish which I expected after the refinishing. Other than the splinters I mentioned in my first post, I really can't see any material under these raised points.

There was some dust remaining in the house after they were finished - on the top of the baseboards, on the mantel, in the bathroom as the barrier they put up didn't keep out alot of the dust. I don't know if that makes a difference.

I appreciate any information you may have and also to confirm or refute the flooring person's explanation for the "bumps". I also would appreciate any advise on how spot fixing certain sections of the floor would look - will it look different or will it not be noticable? Or is the better solution to redo the refinishing?

I had the floors refinished as I'm planning to move into this house in August (later in the month). Therefore, I want to make sure that the floors are set before I can move in my furniture and unpack boxes.

Thanks, again, for your advise.

Liz Simpson

Hey Charlie, what is Delta Plus?

You mean bumps from dust and trash in the final finish coat?

Liz:
OK. Sometimes (depending on the product and applicator) the high heat MAY have caused bubbles in the finish IF the product set up too fast due to the high heat before flowing out. Also, air movement when laying the finish will also (possibly) trap bubbles before flow-out. Air flow during application tends to make finish "skin over" prematurely.
But, from what you said about all the dust . . . I tend to think it's like what Floorguy is probably thinking . . . "bumps from dust and trash in the final finish coat". Now that's just plain sloppy!
I guess there's still alot of "professionals" who haven't advanced their procedures to "Dust free" (actually, we're only 99% dust free). But if they don't take care in the first place to keep dust out of your house, it's not likely that they've kept it out of your final coat of finish.

I digress.

Solution: Screen and recoat. HOWEVER, they must do better with dust containment or it will just happen again. I can't run their company for them!

SK - Delta Plus is my company name. I used to be the National Rep. and Distributor for Delta Tech water-borne poly. They quit making it, so I went back to doing just residential finishing/refinishing.

Hope this helps. A little wordy, huh?
Charlie

Thanks for your responses. The refinisher is going to return and buff the floor. I'm not sure from your (Charles) response if that's what you referred to and are calling it something different. Can anyone comment if this is the correct approach to fixing the floor bumps?

On the original refinishing, when the sanding was done and when the coats of poly where applied, the windows were open. However, as they finished, they shut the windows and the house was closed up overnight. This happened over a 3 day period ending with the house being shut up (after the 3rd coat applied) for almost one month. I'm not sure if this affected the "setting" as you (Charles) indicated.

Thanks, again, for the information and for answering my questions.

Liz

Liz:
When applying ANY finish, it's an absolute NECESSITY to have no air movement whatsoever. It sounds like there was air movement if the windows were open.
Make sure they have windows closed, air conditioning turned off, fans turned off, too before they reapply this last coat.
Charlie
P.S. Let us know how it finally turns out.