Had my red oak floors refinished last week. Came home to a wonderful new look(coffee), however, I notice what appear to be small air bubbles in the poly. They are dark and look kind of like cauliflower. They vary in size but most are around 1/8". If you're supposed to sand between each poly application, why didn't the bubbles/bumps get sanded off? They put down 2 coats of Masterline oil based satin. Should I make the contractor fix all these that I find? Is it normal?

Thanks for any feedback.

Are these bubbles along the edge of the boards, or randomly dispersed throughout?

They are randomly located throughout. Also, we've noticed dog hair, dirt and other bumps in the flooring as if they did not thoroughly clean the floor between sand,stain, and poly applications...

Is it normal to run your hand over the floor and feel bumps and grit? Don't get me wrong, its not like this everywhere but in spots. I don't want to be critical, this is our first time with hardwood floors... just trying to get realistic opinions.

thanks

Sounds like the top coat has material lodged in it, photos would surely help. The dark bubbles sound like the stain was not fully dried before application of the finish. But if overall, the sanding and finishing look good, I believe a thorough buffing and recoat would resolve the issues you have.

thanks Dennis,
They applied stain on Thursday afternoon and began the 1st coat of oil based poly on Friday late morning. I assume the stain had enough time to dry.

The owner states that the small bubbles will go away over time. They are willing to fix the larger ones.

Another "defect" we noticed is one area has swirl marks from the orbital sander. To me, they simply didn't fine sand enough. The owner states that this is "soft" wood and that its normal to have swirl marks. They claim that if they try to repair it, it may not help. This seems strange to me. WHat do you think?

THanks

Its a tough call, most likely the swirl marks are there until or if you refinish the floor completely sometime in the future. Unless they are really obtrusive, in which case you would have to start over now. The debris in the finish on the other hand would be most effectively dealt with now by a buff and recoat, unless they are minor; in which case treating the affected areas individually can be done BY A PRO.

Must be a real pain to try and do a good job with a customers dog hair floating around the place.I would never call anyone on that, bubbles probably unless your down there with a magnifying glass. All issues should only be seen from a standing position, not on you knees and not in reflective light. Floor finishes are not like a table top finish.

Haha, caught me! Most of the issues we've found have been on our hands and knees in reflective light (or flashlight). We've never had floors refinished before so we have no baseline for "quality". We found swirl marks along the entire perimeter of the flooring right up next to the baseboards and cabinets. So I assume the "edge" sander did not provide as good of finish as the larger machine. So in my mind its not soft wood like they tried to get us to believe. BUT, we can only see the swirl marks if we're down on the ground looking at it. The dog hair was a minimum since the dog is only allowed in one area of the house, but I agree, I can't be too picky.

We want to be fair so if we should only address issues from a standing position, so be it. Anyone else want to weigh in???

Thanks.

vzv0n1, perhaps I did not make myself clear. The standing position in non reflective lighting conditions is an accepted industry standard for inspecting floors. I doubt anyone here will say your ok with getting on your knees.

Yes...Crawling home on your knees when it's light is not acceptable. Sorry couldn't resist.

You made yourself clear, forgive me for not knowing the industry standard. I suppose all the bumps of debris we trip over while we're walking barefoot on the floor doesn't count in the industry standard either...

Shuffling your feet is not allowed either. lol

In my experience wood floors have bubbles when the can is shaken not stirred according to manufacturer instructions. They have bumps if the floor is not buffed and vacuumed correctly. A lot of time if there are edges that are not crevice tooled they will bring dust into the final coat. If there are swirls on the edges it's because it was not fine edged correctly. Some try to get away with 2 cuts of sandpaper. Pine needs 4 different grits to be done right while woods like oak are more forgiving. And yes if you crawl around on the floor you can find much more than if you are standing up like you normally would.