I had a room refinished. The contractor stained yesterday. Today, he sealed and then applied three coats of StreetShoe, water-based satin finish. He only waited 1 hour between coats. However, I read the technical details for StreetShoe, and they said that you should wait 2-3 hours between coats.

Has the contractor's decision compromised the long-term integrity of the finish? Thanks for your help.

as long as it was dry it will be fine. Some floors dry faster than others, each one is different.

That doesn't say that it was dry before recoating. I'd say that the contractor's schedule was more important to him.

If it was dry enough to walk on without being tacky it is fine.

id say watch who you throw under the bus because it may be you that is hit next.

Thanks for the replies.

I spoke with the contractor, and the owner did not have a strong response when I asked her why, in my case, a 1-hour wait time would suffice rather than the 2-3 hour wait time mentioned right on the bottle. She just said things like, "Don't worry, it'll be fine." Plus, she reminded me of the one-year warranty. Her firmness was reassuring.

I'll just have to be optimistic that her company uses the shorter wait time on a regular basis and has had few problems. It wouldn't seem to be in their best interest to rush jobs knowing there could be expensive call-backs and re-do's later on. Perhaps they are using a wait time that is adequate, even if it isn't ideal.

One final question: If we assumed that the wait time WAS too short, what would the symptoms be and how soon might they show up? Hazing? White marks below the service when objects are dropped? Etc...

Makes no difference in this scenario. However it is recommended to utilize a moisture meter,scan mode, to determine when it is ready to recoat.

Out here we read those instructions but hardly pay attention to them, in reality they are written for the areas of the country that are or having extreme humidity. Any coating or adhesive can dry out here as fast as you can put'r down. So I would not question the installers actions unless something goes wrong with the finish.

Then there's this thing called hotcoating. But never you mind about that.

if it was too soon it can crinkle your undercoat and will look like an alligator. otherwise its time to start living on the floor and quit worrying yourself about what could happen and how someone is going to rook you because he didnt follow the directions on the bottle. its a floor its not a piece of furniture it is made to be lived on, it will scratch it will dent, you cant always park your floor 100 yards away from everyones feet like its a new car . lots of other more important things in life to worry over especially when there is no problem to begin with.