My oak hardwood floor was refinished by a contractor in January in Maryland. It looks great, but it doesn't feel good if you walk on it barefoot. Something hard has built up in between pieces. Starting from a couple days after it's refinished, when I use paper swifer to clean the floor, some tissues would be torn off and stuck to the buildup. I guess it's Polyurethane because of light color. I can scratch them off by finger nail. The buildups do not exist in all gaps, but quite enough for one to feel them. Any ideas why and how to remove them will be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

sounds like one of 2 tings..what we call poly beads...or white lines...

poly beads are little beads of poly that get squeezed up between the boards and form a little ball on the seams..
this is unlikely due they were done in January..this usually happens in the summer..poly gets between boards and doesn't dry..boards expand and squeeze the poly up.

the next possible thing it could be would be white lines..

was the floor stained? was it a waterbase or oil base finish? are the lines blister like that break away when you rub them with your nail?

last thing I can think of is filler getting squeezed up from between the boards..this again happens from expansion of the boards and they form little razor like surface..this is why it is not usually a good idea to fill between boards..but most Homeowners dont get it when you explain it..they think you just don't want to do it for them..

Thanks James.

The stain is Minwax Dura Seal. It doesn't say what kind of base it is, but the equipment needs to be cleaned with mineral spirits or paint thinner. So I guess it's oil base?

I don't see white lines, but they are blister like and break away into small beads or powder when I rub them with my nail.

Another strange thing is that this problem mainly happens in the open space for my living room and dining room. There are only a couple seams having the problem on the entire second floor and fmaily room. Kitchen has none, but the engineered floor in the kitchen has gaps and they are not filled. I'd say that about 50% of living and dining area has the problem. Underneath the dining room is basement and underneath the living room is craw space. The wood on the second floor and living/dining room are the same. I'm thinking whether it's because the second floor is heated better in the winter... Or different people performed the job in different areas?

Any suggestion on how to remove them?

Thank you!

Now that the polyurethane has had time to dry, the best result you can get would be to buff and re coat the floor. The poly beads can be caused by floor expansion as James mentioned.They can also be caused by contaminates like oil soaps or waxes that are trapped between boards. Sometimes hybrid coating systems like water borne finishes that are over oil based stains or sealers can cause this problem.

Again, once adequate time has passed to allow the liquid poly to solidify, a buff and re coat is the best cure.

lets simplify this some..what color are your floors? stained darker? brown, red?..were they kept "natural" color meaning no stain?

just clear coated with the poly? Dura seal now makes stain, waterbase finish topcoats and oil base..

what we do know is you have either an oil based topcoat or an oil based stain,..or both..

try to give some more details..fotos are great too..use an outside source if needed..photobucket..picasa etc

when issues are along the seams of boards only, this is always something related to an expansion of board/dry issue

Poly beads from spring/summer expansion.

As the floor was coated in January in the winter heating months, the flooring had shrank from the dry heat, from the heater.

The finish poured into the gaps, and glazed over.

Like placing the lid on the bucket, the gaps now contain a semi-liquid.
As the floor swells, the compression causes, the liquid to be forced upward.

Like a volcano, the pressure pushes up a (lava)finish flow.

Thanks for everyone's response. The floor is stained brown as shown in the photo below. Hope you can see the center horizontal seam right below the wood with big grain has poly beads forming a white line.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/canyon_sky ... 845499666/

Based on your explanation, I think it's better to refinish or lay new hardwood floor in the summer to avoid this problem. Correct?

Thank you all!

That does not look very severe to me but pics online can be deceiving. Anyway they are annoying little bumps. And even the most experienced finishers have that problem once in awhile. So, I'd go easy on the finisher.