Hey everyone: Well our prefinished oak floors that we had sanded off the finish by a professional and then recoated with Low voc waterbase still offgas something. Now that the weather is less humid and drier the smell has subsided in fact you don't really smell it but I am still having a problem with my sensitivities. The inspector came out 4 weeks ago hired by the distributor but have not got any info back. We measured the humidity of the oak and subfloor actually pulled some boards to do so and that is fine...no moisture there. We are mystified if it is just the tannims in the oak that bothers me and the waterbased isn't blocking them off. We asked the inspector who was the distributor that hired him and he won't say. And the flooring store we bought it from will not give us the distributors name all this sound too fishy for me. What really bothers me is with Lupus I can't fool around and these guys don't get that. Oh yeah the inspector said he had some ideas..what does that mean? Sorry for being so wordy any suggestions?????thanks

Wow!

I'm just assuming here, but it would seem you would be sensitive to a lot of things, not just the flooring.

Did you have problem and concerns with the previous finish, before the new finish was applied?

If the finish has been down for a while and the finisher used a product like Bona X then the urethane should be completely dry by now. Urethane applied correctly will basically create a plastic coating on top of the wood and seal the wood. If it is the floor there would only be two likely culprits as far as allergies are concerned. 1 the finish did not cure properly or two not enough finish was applied and the wood is not sealed. If he used a quality product #1 is highly unlikely unless there where some extreme environmental factors. As for #2 it is possible, but it is impossible to tell without someone inspecting it. I am not saying that it is not the floor, frankly I don’t know but, I would not rule out other factors.

I always recommend pre-finished floors to clients with extreme allergic conditions for this very reason. It eliminates a lot of variables. I am sorry that you are having this problem; you may want to have an allergist inspect your house to see if the floor may be a variable and if there may be other factors as well. Though good wood floor installers knows that finishes and wood can cause reactions you should in no way look to them as experts on allergic condition maintenance. The extent of their education on the matter is usually that they know one finish product is considered less allergenic than another. A really good installer will know which woods cause more reactions than others but this is not sufficient knowledge to rely on when dealing with extreme allergic conditions. A really, really good installer will send a client to an allergist to have them tested for wood and urethane sensitivity.

I would suggest that you are proactive in this situation. The installer, distributor, manufacture and the rest of the individuals in the chain are not allergy specialist. If they are a good they will try to rectify the problem but their best efforts may be in vain due to the fact that a multitude of variables could be causing your problem. You really need to bring in a professional that can make recommendations based on your condition and not based on the specifications provided by the manufacturer.