I woulden't let them back in the house . they are only going to do more damage.NWFA site can recomend a sander in your area .

Yeah, I know. But I'm not certified like you and I schedule those inspections around my other work so it usually is just a matter of stopping by before or after my work day. And I don't do very many; mostly for contractor buds who have a project they need me to advise them on or homeowners who think they have gotten a bad job. Personally, since I really an installer/finisher, the pay seems fair for a hour's work. I take some measurements and pics then e-mail my one page report. I try to keep it simple.

Gary, thoes are the words that scare me! That you would turn to a person for an honest opinion and he would say it is bad just for the work! I find that so very sad but true. I don't think like that and can't understand how thoes that do sleep! Wish you were here in Texas

If an independant inspector finds that the floors need to be redone but I simply cannot go through this whole thing again at this moment (cannot vacate the house for another week, too much going on right now), what can I reasonably request from the finisher? And even if I was ready to do this again, why would I let them do it? They did a poor job with both sanding and applying the finish. I have already paid them 50%. I just do not know what is ethical and reasonable in these situations.

BTW, when they connected their sander directly to the fuse box, they shot the curcuit for my basement freezer twice, and I had about $300 worth of food there that I had to throw out.

None of this will be easy. As I see it, you would need to get an independant inspection stating that you have an inferior job. The inspector needs to be certified by some authority for his/her report to carry any weight. Then you would need to get estimates to redo the work from licensed, reputable contractors in your area. If you have an attorney, you could turn this over to him/her and have them write a firm letter demanding a refund of the money you have paid so far. Or you could just ask the owner of the business to refund your money. In most cases however, a customer should allow the original contractor the opportunity to repair their work UNLESS their relationship is terrible OR the contractor poses a risk to the consumer. If the original contractor is reasonable, admits his fault, apologizes and asks to repair it, the consumer is sorta bound to allow him to repair it if the original contractor says he/she can improve the condition. I've seen situations where the same contractor sent different guys out to redo a floor using the same tools (sander) and the results were the same because the sander was out of adjustment. Don't let this happen to you. No matter what happens, none of it will be very much fun

YOU ARE SO RIGHT, IT IS NOT FUN! My conversation with the company I hired was less than pleasent. I have had enough of being nice and he knows it now. Woodman was to show up Monday as he has to re-do the dinning room now because he tried to top coat it with traffic in one area about 5x6 feet. STREEKS and cut off mark! I called NWFA for help and got a return call and I am in all rights to have issues corrected. I stated before that they cut a piece of existing wood and it looked like a patch job. They came back out and re-did it. All was well and looked great UNTIL HE BUT TWO COATS OF STAIN(DIFFERENT COLORS) AND WITH-OUT LETTING IT DRY PUT TRAFFIC TOP-COAT. When I asked him to let it dry he looked at me and said, no no it's O.K. We come tomarrow to put finial traffic. If any one disagrees with the NWFI please let me know. He stated that it has to dry so the finish has something to stick to. Company told me there was nothing he could do to please me, that's not true, I want it done correctly. I have paid him 1/2 and will be willing to let him fix one last time as long as the woodman does not enter my house with an attitude as I am the one who has been inconvenienced for MONTHS. If he can't do the job, I will hire another person and will charge it to the company originally hired. It has been a long road.

That is always an option. However, try collecting that bill! If you independantly go out and hire and pay someone to do another contractor's job, the first contractor now has a way out of responsibility, as he can claim the second guy screwed it up and that his work was just fine. If you do this, you should obtain documentation that you tried everything you could to allow the first guy to repair it and that it needed repairing in the first place. Just your word or opinion in a court will not be good enough.

Gary, I need your opinion! The woodman is comeing tomorrow at noon and he says it is O.K. to use two coats of wet stain one on top of the other with out drying the first stain and than 1 coat of traffic water-base while stain is still wet? What is your experiance with this? Thanks!

This guy is clueless ..

That is a recipie for a complete mess!!! The finish will be very soft and scratch easy once it does cure.

Hows he going to do what you described. without tampleing across wet finish, to apply that second coat on the first coat of "wet finish"


Sounds like he is feeding you line after line of BS, or he is truely clueless and a complete rookie, learning on your wood floor.

This is easy. On the back of the container of the Traffic finish is the instructions on how to apply it. Before your "woodman" finishes the floors, ask him to read you the part where it says to apply over wet stain. It doesn't. If fact, ALL waterbased finish manufacturer's make a big deal about how an oil-based stain must be absolutely dry before coating it with a waterbased finish as oil and water don't mix. Just have him read the back of the container; it's right there. Or right here:
http://www.bona.com/?sr=us

click on above link. Then click on PDF link that says "product description."
On page 2 it has the directions for use. Read fourth paragraph, #5. It says "apply 2 coats of Traffic over THOROUGHLY dried stain.

Oh, stain, not finish. Tough day! Stain... Still, like Gary points out, and confirms, it sounds like he is feeding you line after line of BS, or he is truely clueless and a complete rookie, learning on your wood floor.

August 9th, Owner and woodman showed up at noon. Addressed the fact that dining room had to be screened and re-apply traffic. Out another two weeks there for drying time! Looks ok (looks a little like build up along walls and some pimples under the traffic) Can live with. They never replaced the threshold at the front door, quess I have to ask!

Woodman says it is ok to put wet over wet! I did ask if either of them could read, so why should I assume that after talking to NWFA it is NOT O.K. oWNED ASKED IF HE COULD RE-DO (ONLY A 18 INCH SQ. RIGHT IN THE CENTRAL WALKWAY). wAS NOT HAPPY, said he did not have a scraper on his truck. Instead he used the screen off the bottem of the machine he used in the dinning room. Scraped by hand, board only not taped off or any side areas, slaped a strip of stain and said he would be back at 9AM. NO SHOW- NO CALL AND I SPOKE TO THE OWNER AT 8AM TO ADDRESS MY CONCERNS ABOUT THE PLAN AS I DO NOT WANT TO HAVE TO SCREEN AND RE-DO WHOLE ROOM 30X20.
I have someone that was recomended by NWFA comming to take a look and a call into the laywer's office : :