Okay, I'm not happy with the way my select red oak refinish turned out. I have a lot of swirls everywhere and the sheen is uneven in places, I can see exactly where the buffer went. Also, there are a large number of spinners. When I talk to my contractor about it, all I get are excuses for why this is all perfectly normal. He claims I have to wait for my floors to mature. He said in 60 to 90 days that everything will even out and the floor will look great. This is when he starts talking some mumbo jumbo about resins needing time to bind together. My gut instinct says he is full of it but I need to hear from a pro whether or not he is making this stuff up. The flooring is unstained with 4 coats of glitza poly 500. Thanks!

sounds like he used a screen between coats...120 and less are too aggressive and will leave marks..that will not change over time.

4 coats is too much in opinion for oil base..and I guess it was gloss?

I have 4 coats because the original work received 3 coats. After I could get onto the floor to inspect, I saw he had messed the hallway up so badly that I had to force him to redo a large area back down to bare wood (he refused to redo the entire floor, 780 square feet). He had left large gouges in the hallway from the hand sander. So he repaired the area he messed up and put 3 coats on the repair and then a final 4th coat over the entire floor to tie everything together. Now I'm stuck with a blah 4th coat due to the swirls and uneven sheen, it is a semi gloss finish. Am I right in thinking he is making up the stuff about resins needing time to bind?

Yes.He's making that up. Blotchiness in the coat can be from air flowing across it , applying very unevenly , not mixing all the finish together properly before applying or possibly by mixing multiple sheens together for the sake of using up old inventory.Resins bonding falls under the category of Cow-Doody

A red oak natural finish floor is about is easy as it gets. If he cant pull that off without leaving a bunch of machine marks I'd question his skill level. If it was maple or a dark stain maybe then some are acceptable but not on a natural. Resins cure in about a week & that's not going to improve machine marks at all. He is hoping you will go away and the best way is to buy some time. Buffer marks are pretty amateur and easily prevented. Anyone can get one occasionally all you have to do is pick up something in the screen and there everywhere.

Go to www.woodfloors.org Click find professional fill in form for an NWFA Inspector in your area and get a inspection report. Then perhaps they will pay attention to you