I just found this forum and am glad I did. I will try to keep my post as short as possible, but this fiasco is lengthy.

Brand new home, moved in first week of January 2011. The flooring was "iffy" to begin with. At first no one knew if the floors had two or three coats of poly, and if the stairs had one or two coats of poly. However, we were assured everything was ok. The original finish was Satin, however it was supposed to be Semi-Gloss.

Fast forward a month and a half. We had been using the rest of the swiffer hardwood floor cleaning solution we had left from our previous place. We started using a Bona product, and it turned the floors white. I contacted the builder, and asked him to send the hardwood floor guy he uses over. He stated it wouldn't be a problem to get rid of it, and he would buff the floors and stairs and apply a Semi-Gloss finish coat.

He did everything, I came home and immediately noticed "ridges" in the poly. I had figured this was due to the Bona, but it was in areas that the polish wasn't applied. It was almost as if the poly was spilled, or not spread out on the floor. I called him and he said he could fix that, and came back. He sanded one area down, and recoated it with poly. The next morning this is what I woke up to - http://i.imgur.com/nQlC8.jpg - Notice the high gloss -> semi gloss transition. He claimed he could fix that, here's that result - http://i.imgur.com/9kdUI.jpg the high gloss is now satin.

He then proceeded to rescreen and coat the entire house. This time I was left with two rooms semi-gloss, one room satin, and one room high-gloss. He did the house over a third time. Now the entire house looks like a basketball court in terms of gloss. It is so glossy I can already see scratches. Keep in mind my stairs are semi gloss, and I noticed that he did not finish the stairs above the landing, so those are semi gloss.

There's areas like this throughout the house - http://i.imgur.com/ibhEY.jpg - This in particular is in a high traffic area and I notice it every time I walk by.

I've since had some new hardwood flooring guys come out. The one I liked the most recommended we rescreen, and do a coat of Bona Traffic. He stated this would get rid of the high-gloss which I hate, and also take care of the inconsistencies everywhere.

Could I get some advice on how others would proceed with this? I have five (or six) coats of oil based poly (parks). I've spent a lot of money thus far and I am absolutely sick at how my floors are right now. Is the bona traffic the best option? Or am I going to unfortunately have to sand everything down?

Any help or advice would be gratefully appreciated.

the job needs to be resanded..there are too many coats pon the floor now.

the results were from using different batches of finish most likely and not thoroughly mixed together..

did he work from individual gallon cans? or 5 gallon containers?

satins and semi glosses are very sensitive ..there are additives in them to tone down gloss.
they need to be stirred..if you stir one can more than another, it will appear more flat, or more glossy if under stirred.

Traffic will not correct the build of finish..which will now be more susceptible to scratching due to over build of finish.

best plan of attack is to sand it all and start from scratch.

James

Thanks James. He worked from a 5 gallon can of parks pro finish. Who knows what was actually in the can though.

Looks like a resand is the best option.

parks is doo doo...the problem was still a mixing issue and also related to coating one area and not anohter,,,then trying it again and coating that area..etc..

coating has to be one uniform coat in most instances...he may still havefinished one 5 gallon can then opened another..
when doing this on the same job, you need to do it before running out, and add the new can to the old and mix it together..stirrin thoroughly...

otherwise you end up with gloss..aand or too flat...

my guess this si what happeend..and my guess also that he is not quite the pro...
no real pro uses park...except maybe in a pinch...their sealers are good though

Agreed.parks is a mediocre polyurethane. Two of the best that are readily available are Lenmar and Fabulon. I find Duraseal to be hard to work with and slow drying but many pros still use it.

Regarding re finishing the floor again (screen and coat) You have a lot of coats on the floor and some time needs to pass before you put more coats on it. After about 4 coats of oil, you will run into a problem of the under coats trying to gas off through the layers of poly that are on top.This takes a very long time. Maybe 3 to 5 weeks .

Regarding Traffic, it is a great waterborne finish but isn't necessary. Plus , it should not be applied on top of oil unless the oil is completely cured and no longer gassing off.