We recently had all new floors put in our house and chose American Walnut. The installer put three coats of poly on - satin, semi, then final of high gloss. We didn't like the high gloss look and asked for a fourth coat of semi-gloss. The high gloss was like a mirror and was perfect, but way to shiny. They pur the semigloss on and after it dried, the finish was gorgeous. However, there are lots of very fine seams, most short 2 - 3" but in random areas, that it appears that the poly did not fill and level these hairline seams to a seamless finish. Our installer said he has done all sorts of hardwoods - cherrys, Brazilian walnut, oaks - and has only seem this one other time and that was also only with a semi-gloss finish on American Walnut.

Any idea if this is some peculiarity of American Walnut finished in semi-gloss? As I said, the high-gloss finish was mirror-like and seamless.

Is there any correction that can be done to eliminate the hairline seams short of refinishing the entire floor and going to high gloss?

thanks,
Don

i have no idea what you're talking about..

try posting a pic

American Walnut is a little different but has no inherent problems with being finished with oil base poly. If you have lap lines ,puddles or misses , it would be error on the contractor's part.

I have a .jpg file picture of the floor but am not sure how to copy it to the posting.

I have also since talked to the local distributor for Fabulon about the floor appearance. His opinion is that with high gloss, the small seams that show in some places are masked by the gloss but are really still there. Switching to semi-gloss just makes them more noticeable and that this is just a characteristic of hardwood floors. His opinion is that because walnut is a dark wood compared to something like red oak, the small seams are more noticeable.

I have since lightly sanded and applied two more coats of semi-gloss Fabulon and still see the small seams.