Oil Polyurethane Floors

[Tyldak]

Thanks to a little miscommunication, our floor guy put oil-based polyurethane on our new floor, not water-base as requested. The guys who put in the floor, who had done fencing floors before, said to use water-base polyurethane. I know I told the contractor this, but I guess I didn't say it enough - should have written it down. Anyway, he went ahead and got oil-based and was already 75% done by the time I realized the mistake. The floor has been drying for a week now, and it's OK, but still clearly a little slippery. The contractor says that the floor just needs to cure more and get some foot traffic, and that it will get more traction. I have my doubts.

Anyone have any experience with oil-base polyurethane?

Anyone ever have to un-do/remove oil-base polyurethane?

Am I just being paranoid, and will everything be OK like the contractor says?

After all of the pain and agony marking and painting strip lines, I really don't want to have to sand the floors down and do it all over again.

[oiuyt]

I suggest PMing fencerbill (Bill Hall, who I imagine you know from your time in Boston). I'm not sure how much he reads threads outside of the armory. He likely has an opinion (or several! ), or can point you to somone else with similar experience.

-B

[Tyldak]

Talked to Bill - he offered some good information.

Talked to some people about some possible solutions that don't involve sanding down to the painted lines --- might not be hopeless. Will give it a couple weeks to see if the floor cures and gets harder. If no improvement will follow-up on the leads... If anyone else has anything to contribute, I'd be happy to hear you out...

[LTranter]

Ah.. something I know something about.. wood floors. My husband installs them for a living. If you wanted water based thinking you would get better traction, the difference really is minimal, if any. The trick here is that a water based finish will not stick to an oil based finish. You can try a real heavy screen/coat, but it may end up peeling off if it even sticks at all.

If you really want to fix this you can 1. sand down the floor and start again. If you have a contract with the floor guy that says water based, you may be able to stick him for not only the sand and finish but any work to prep the floor to where it was when he started the job such as painting the strips. 2. Try another coat of oil finish with some kind of grit in the finish. you won't get a slick look, but you will get traction. 3. live with it. At the very least, if you are paying for this floor, you should be able to get a discount on the services because this is not what you contracted the finisher to do. The only caveat there would be if you supplied the finish, but it doesn't sound like you did.

Good luck and let me know if you have any further questions.

L

[Tyldak]

Thanks much, L!

The idea of putting on another coat with a little grit in it hadn't occurred to me... ah ha.

I called the guy who installed the floor (the one who recommended water-base in the first place) and he said the same thing, there's not much difference.

It's not that bad, I guess I could live with it. I haven't been fencing on it. I just did a little footwork and did a couple short lessons last night and for me it was OK - a little slicker than a well-worn floor, but still not fall-down slippery. The fencer raising the most concern over the slippery floors did admit that she had older, worn shoes...!

We'll lump it for awhile, and see how it goes. If it stays bad, we'll look into putting another coat on with some grit in it. Thanks for the info!

P.S. And yah, no written contract --- (yet another) lesson learned!

[LTranter]

No problem. And in time, the finish on the strips guaranteed to wear down

L

[Tyldak]

Amazing what another couple days of drying and some cleaning will do. Last night was our 2nd night with the new floor. We got a big old dust mop and cleaned. The floor looked clean already, but sure enough, the mop dug up quite a bit of dust. The fencers who fenced the 1st night said the floor was much less slippery. I got out there and fenced and didn't notice any slipperiness.

[whiteandbluefencer]

Yeah, dust is a major factor! My club practices in a dance studio with wood floors, and sometimes it's kinda bad.