I recently had an oak floor finished by a contractor and he said he would put on two coats of solvent based bacca -glitza followed by a top coat of water based finish. Now at 48hrs after the water based topcoat was finished Im noticing some spots where the water based finish is peeling away from the solvent based finish beneath. The contractor said he has been doing this hybrid finish for several years with no problems . Is it ever advisable to put a water base finish over bacca glitza solvent based finishes? It seems that this adhesion problem will continue to haunt us unless it is removed. Any suggestions for removing this stuff? Thank David

Although I have never tried that, I often wondered about those who said they did it with great success. The solvents in the Glitsa continue to off gas for awhile, which could cause problems with adhesion for a waterbased top coat. I had a buddy who used to use lacquer as a first coat and top coat with a waterbased finish, until a job failed. That is the risk some finishers take when they employ "tailgate chemistry" and used hybrid finishing systems. The only correct remedy is to resand the floors to remove all the finish. And this time, use the system recommended by the finish manufacturer.

I had 2 coats of swedish syntecko layed down with traffic on top and have been very happy for 1 year. yes my installer also said he has been doing it for years, I am glad it worked out.