Hey everyone,

Ive been doing hardwood floors for 9 years and been on my own for 3 years now. Ive done TON of jobs and this recent one Im having trouble. I used Fabulon High Gloss polyurethane and been using Fabulon for the past few years with no issues. Story is I sanded 250 sq ft of white Oak floors in the kitchen and just did a screen and recoat in the dining room. I highly recommanded to do all the floors at once, but the homeowner didn't listen. So I did three coats of polyurethane on all the floors. Well I recieved a phone call a few days after I did the work and the homeowner stating theres swirls marks in the finish. I went over there the day after and sure enough theres swirl marks, but that are really fine marks. I told him I would correct them. And then NOW he wanted me to strip down the dining room and do the same thing I did the first time in the kitchen.

On Monday of this week, I went there and did the work. I had my guy strip the dining room while I did the correction of the swirl marks. What I did was I screened them with a new 150 screen and white pad and then vacuumed the area once all the screening was done. Then I put on a new 180 screen and screened the area and then same thing vacuumed once all the 180 screening was done. Then I did a 220 screen and vacuumed it. After vacuuming this time, I put a maroon pad on and vacuumed up afterwards. Once the dining room was all finished stripped down and screened its self, I vacuumed all the areas.

I then applied a coat of Fabulon on the kitchen and the dining room. I let it dry for 24 hours and went back and looked at the floors. The kitchen came out BEAUTIFUL!!! I knew the dining room needed another coat of polyurethane, so before this I screened them with a new 180 screen and then vacuumed them. After this I put on a new Maroon pad and did the area. Once this was all done I did my final vacuum and then applied the 2nd coat of polyurethane on the dining room ONLY. Now today I was on my way and the homeowner called me and stated there's swirl marks "NOW" in the dining room, but the kitchen "LOOKS GREAT NOW".

So I told him I would be back tomorrow due to not having any new screen at my office and correct the swirl marks in the dining room area and now hes all pissed off at me and said I screwed up his floors and I'm wasting his time. I'm I doing something wrong between coats? PLEASE PLEASE Help!

I believe your problem is that you are using too rough of a screen. Oil poly is soft and easily screened with a 220 grit screen, 220 or 240 grit 3M stikit sanding tape or equivalent.

So if you use a 180 , which I consider too rough, you can expect to see swirls. Some houses are dark and might not show the swirls but that doesn't mean they aren't there.

So simply change your screening procedure .Never use anything finer than 220 grit and you should be fine .

Thanks, I have resolved it. It wasn't as bad as the homeowner was complaining about. All I had to do is take a maroon pad with 240 sand paper stuck to it and sanded them out and put another coat of polyurethane down. Looks great now.