So here's the rub. Our sanders used Thompsons on a floor that was supposed to get an exterior grade poly ( usually FLOOD UV ). It's a tight fir floor on an exposed deck with a roof and screens. the customer just installed new roll up canvas that can be dropped to protect it against our winters.

Our guys used lambswool and put two coats of water sealer on this floor. Obviously our mistake. We waited 30 days to go back because Thompsons says you can coat over it after a minimum of 30 days. Well, with all the extra sealer applied, I decided to buff the floor first with a red pad.

I used both sides of 3 of them on 150sq.ft. and it clogged all of them up with excess sealer. So, with obvious flags being raised, I chose not to coat the floor and spoke with the homeowner trying to come up with a plan of action. One part of the plan was to give it some more time ( 2 weeks ) and contact Thompsons to see what they say. I just emailed them a few minutes ago, but I figured I'd shoot out a query to the community to see if anyone had a thought on it.

Worst case scenario, we resand and start over, but I'd like to save the floor if possible to avoid sanding any more than necessary. They are good long term customers, so I'm going out of my way more than usual to solve the problem the right way, instead of covering it up, or just slapping some FLOOD UV on it and crossing my fingers.

Would love to hear opinions on what to do and what not to do.

You have to resand the deck or do your customer a favoir and leave his deck alone.
Thompsons, which is Garbage by the way, only calls for one coat as most decking products do.

Doing 2 coats made the sealer sit on top and not cure the eay it is designed to do..within to wood pores.

You now are trying to buff a floor with a pad> what did you expect to happen? in essence its like trying to buff a shellac finish now.
The next disaster I see waiting to happen is you now want to try and go voer the top with yet another product.( again designed as a one coat penetrating STAIN...not finish as per my quick research on it as I never heard of it.
How do you suppose this stain will penetrate a sealer?


I will leave you with this.

If you do not know your products, or which products to use, you shouldn't be taking on jobs like these.
Decking and exterior products perform best with oil based penetrating stains.
any type of surface build will fail prematurely.

Any clear finish will not protect against UV frays and will gray out quickly.
A finish needs pigment to protect against this.

This job needs to be resanded and a quality product applied, despite overhead coverage.

I would recommend TWP 1500 or TWP 100 depending upon your state VOC laws