I just bought a house, one of the many projects was to lay a new floor in one room, and then have all the floors refinished in a natural stain with a satin finish.

The guy I hired agreed to 1 sealer and 3 coats of polyurethane to be applied. After coats one and two, the floors were still wet when I went to the house at night so I couldn’t tell much of anything. After the 3rd and final coat dried, I was not pleased with what I saw. Swirls marks all over the place, and what I’ve seen referred to as an “Alligator skin” like appearance in a number of places. I spoke to the floor professional, and he said, “No problem, I’ll have the guys screen the floor again and apply another coat of Poly.” Much to my dismay, I saw the same result. Obvious swirls and alligator skin in different places now. They did it again….SAME RESULT.

They’re now screening AGAIN, and applying a 6th coat of Polyurethane. I fully expect to find the SAME result again when I go there later. Please help, what is he missing here, or doing wrong? Or are they just awful floor professionals, and I need to cut my losses and have someone else fix his “Not-so-handy” work?

Thanks in advance.

Several things can cause alligatoring of the finish.

Applying in too cold of conditions.
Applying the next coat before the first has dried.
Applying a thick coat.
Using a thinner to flash off making the finish dry too fast.
Plain old contamination of the finish.

Of all those, possible causes, I'd say they are laying it on too thick, or trying to do multiple coats in a day.

Chris, If they are up to the 6th coat to try fixing this floor it may be time to try another finisher. They could have scraped out any sanding marks or swirls in the wood on the sealer coat. The swirls can also be in the finish. Ten coats will not fix this. It may need to be resanded.
Buddy