Hi all, and thanks in advance for your help. I recently bought a house built in 1929. The floors are the original hardwood (1.5" white oak strip) and had only been refinished once since they were originally installed. Before I moved in, I had the floors professionally refinished and am delighted with the results. I don't know what exactly was used on the floors beyond this: 3 coats of oil-based semi-gloss polyurethane "tinted" with some amount of stain mixed in by hand, giving me a nice golden amber color.

Now for the problem: As I was excavating the old, destroyed linoleum in the kitchen and breakfast room, I discovered more hardwood extending from the dining room through an open doorway into the breakfast room. This wood was buried under two layers of linoleum, a layer of plywood, and a layer of tar-backed linoleum from the 1940s. I had all of this professionally removed, leaving me with a clean, bare wood floor.

I brought my refinisher back to do the breakfast room and he told me he could match the rest of the house, though there would be a line where the two finishes met up. After the three coats were applied, the breakfast room looked much more matte than the adjoining dining room. The refinisher came out and conceded that his guys must have used satin finish in this room by mistake. He told us that the top coat is the main one that gives the sheen and that he would lightly sand and apply a coat of semi-gloss. This improved things somewhat, but the breakfast room was still much more matte. The refinisher came back and applied a 5th coat, this time with 25% gloss mixed into the semi gloss. Now the breakfast room looks much too glossy and there is an even more defined line between the rooms. My wife wonders whether the breakfast room was not sanded enough to begin with and that is why the finish is looking different.

What is the solution here? Should I have him sand again and put one more coat of semi gloss? Am I in danger putting coat after coat onto this one room? WIll that room turn much more amber over time? On the other hand, Is there danger sanding off all of the coats and starting from scratch? Is it possible that the tar has changed the properties of the wood after all these decades in that room and it will never match? Any advice is MUCH appreciated. PS-- all of my rooms flow into one another, so there is no good place to "break" the finish. There will always be a line somewhere until I refinish all of the floors again (which is not happening for a decade or more).

Thanks!!!

The main problem you have is that the 2 rooms were finished at different times with a different sheen/mix finish. If your car has ever been in an accident, it's impossible to paint just half the door. The entire door must be redone.

If the finisher used 25% gloss on the breakfast area, is that the same mix they used on the living room? Both rooms were not done the same and that's your problem. Sounds like they used the wrong sheen like you said which started the whole attempt to match.

Wondering why they just didn't go over it with the same as the living room.

Other than redoing everything all rooms over, it's just a matter of trying to match.

I think you have 2 issues: 1) as mentioned above it was done at a separate time and 2) the other floor didn't age the same as it was covered. We had this same issue with some vinyl and carpet in house where the wood was covered for 60 yrs. It had one of those swervy metal things and after the floor was redone, you could see the distinction. And, it was nobody's fault, it's just that the light penetrated it differently.

(In our case, we woven in some new hardwood and refinished again to avoid a noticeable line).

And, yes, it sounds like they used the wrong finish. Usually, it's only the top coat that matters. And, when they add another coat (assuming they are screening), it take off 1/2 to 3/4 of the layer under...so I wouldn't worry to much about adding another coat. I never would have done 25% glossy, but now that it's done, you need to decide what to do going forward.

It will never come out the same as the other given the # of coats, types of poly and the underlying issue that it was covered. So you need to come to grips with that and determine which is the lesser of 2 evils. You could try another coat of semi (assuming that's what was used on the other area) or try a complete redo.

Debbie Gartner, aka The Flooring Girl
http://TheFlooringGirl.com
Westchester County, NY

all hese rtips and 93 coats of poly...he could have just recoated the brekfgast and dining room with one uniform application.

his mistake..saying he would match.

he should have told you there is a risk to doing this and that you would need to live with the results unless he coated such and such which you need to pay additional for..now he just inherited a headache.

5 coats of polly will never match what was already done now..the sheen will NEVER be the same..sounds like someone over stirred or used wrong.

recoat the dining room and the breakfast room together...