Hi,

I have been using above products for some time now w/o problems. On my current project I applied many coats on a landing and treads to get a glass smooth finish. Normally I use the heavy Duty Poly (black can) and for the last coat I use the Pro super gloss 350 product (light blue can).

I ran low on the black can and put down 2 consecutive coats of the pro product (over a couple of coats of the standard product), sanding between with 220 grit. After the second coat of the pro product dried for a couple of days I sanded it but noticed that in some placed the finish was still soft and released from the surface. I'm not too concerned because I was able to feather the defects.

Yesterday I applied some of the pro finish to a scrap board (first coat) and today I can still easily scratch through it with my fingernail.

Temps have been 75-80 deg and humidity is 50%.

I'm wondering if this is normal. Apparently there is a significant difference between these products because the pro product says wait 4 days before applying a third coat. Perhaps the dry time is just very long. It has always bugged me that the Fabulon web site says almost nothing about the difference between these products. As many times as I have used this product I would think this would have happened to me before now but perhaps I was lucky or I inadvertantly waited several days or more before recoats.


Thanks

It is known in the pro finishing community that most 350 VOC polyurethanes are very slow drying. I will not use it. Plus, putting the coats on in anything more than very thin coats require even longer dry times. I have tried various brands of 350 VOC polys and have yet to find one that dried adequately in a reasonable time frame. Generally, a 550 VOC poly will dry well overnight with good conditions. With 350 VOC polys, even perfect conditions hardly seem to matter. Those formulations took out some of the driers to make them meet VOC standards. If you cannot get or use higher VOC formulations in your area, switch to a quality waterbased finish or consider trying Poloplaz Primero

http://www.poloplaz.com/products/primer ... index.html

I have not used it but the reports by many pros have been quite favorable. The manufacturer will often supply a sample for contractors to try.

Thanks for the info - after reading your post I went and looked at a 3 year old can of Fabulon pro I had lying around and it does not say "350" on the can. The VOC's are listed at about 500.

That was the product that I originally used and it has the best flow out of any product I have used (haven't used that many though so I may be easily impressed). With meticulous prep you could get a tread or landing to look like a sheet of glass. Dried overnight also.

My guess is that they are not making the 500 VOC product anymore but I'll check.


The product in the black can dries fast even when applied fairly thick but does not compare to the pro product in terms of flow out or sheen.

Update - you can get the "old formula" in quarts only now.

It's been that way in California for over 10 years now. The only oil-based poly available in gallons is the low VOC crap sold in HD. None of us pros use it. So we all just buy quarts in cases from our local distributors. It's real dumb and hasn't stopped the use of 500+ VOC poly. Just made it more inconvenient. The goal is to out law all finishes above a certain amount of VOC's. It varies here by the region.