We built our custom home 10 years ago. Installed appx 700sf of Red Oak flooring through dining room, Kitchen and entry.

We refinished the hardwood ourselves about 4-5 years ago. Just had a water leak in the refrigerator causing damage to the hardwood flooring. Knowing the difficulty from the last time and my age not getting any younger, decided to have a Professional redo it for us this time.

NOT Happy! Contract states 3 coats of Semi Gloss Polyurethane. The 1st coat we are now told was a sealer, 2nd coat (which we really liked the finish of) we were told was a "velvet" coat. The 3rd coat is the finish coat (this was as far as I know the only Semi gloss Polyurethane coat). This is definitely a higher gloss than we had previously. Told them we really liked the look of the 2nd coat (which we thought based on the contract were all semi-gloss Polyurethane).

Looking at the final product is full of swirl marks, as well as a few "light coat" areas where it looks like the Polyurethane was never applied. We have now received a paper from the contractor entitled "Swirl Marks", and stating that they are fairly common in maple MFMA flooring.

Now they want to come back and rebuff and put a "velvet coat" on for an additional $95.

Is this right? When we refinished previously we never had "Swirls". Is this an error on their part?

Help Please.

Thanks

Nope, not right.
They buffed too hard or with too rough of a screen or put too thin of a coat.

Tell them you would love to refer them to your friends but cannot with the floors as they are. Totally unacceptable.

Sometimes you will see swirl marks depending on lighting conditions, sheen of finish, type of flooring. Depending on the severity of the marks is the issue, to say totally unacceptable without seeing it is a very hasty answer. It would help if you could post a pic. I am not saying it is acceptable or not. If they think they can fix the issue then they must see what you are seeing and in that case it should be no charge to you, unless you are over analyzing the floor.

I guess it is a culmination of issues.

1. Swirl marks all over.
2. Didn't receive 3 coats of stated polyutherane.
3. They missed several areas of the top coating.
4. Found they also damaged hardwood flooring in the den which was not to be touched.

We do have substantial sky-lights in the Kitchen / Dining area. When I designed this house, we do alot of entertaining and wanted wide open areas. Artificial lighting is only used late at night. They did admit they saw the same swirls and "light spots" we saw.

I can't imagine asking one of our customers to pay us additional monies for a service that they have already paid for.

We are now out an additional 4-5 days of using the kitchen (total of 14 days).

Everything I seem to find online seems that they buffed the 2nd coat before it was dry enough.

1 2 3 4. Is how I read your initial post. Stand behind the swirl marks being unacceptable.

Even without seeing them, missed spots are something that should be fixed for free.

When have you ever had swirl marks that you couldnt fix? We have had them and one way or another fixed them. Any wood can be sanded swirl free!

screens probably got clogged with poly terds if they are excessive...

if the coating is in fact gloss...if you look close enough, you may see swirls....

if you are just stading and looking down. and you see obvious swirls...throughout...then it would not be considered normal...


as for damages,misses or "holidays" as old timers call em.....then...they obviously need to address those issues...

Second coat was not dry and they did not want to wait another day for the final coat. Second coat should had been high gloss, most durable coat and easiest to apply. Guy probably had some really old urethane he didn't want wasted and used it for the second coat.