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edkitchen

What's oozing up from our refinished hardwood?

edkitchen
12 years ago

We had our oak hardwood floors refinished in the spring (not stained). The contractor first refinished them using water-based Bona Traffic but that left the color of the floor so uneven that he resanded and refinished using an oil-based product. This summer the floors rose up along the length of some of the boards (some sharp edges and some long, shallow humps a couple of feet long). What's weirder is that in a lot of places something that I'm guessing is polyurethane (it's hard and clear) has oozed up all along the cracks between boards. Now we're seeing small, hard beads/drops appearing out of the cracks. Our contractor and his flooring guy swear nothing was done wrong and the boards will flatten out as the humidity drops. He hasn't given us much of an answer about the stuff between the boards aside from saying it will eventually work its way out.

It looks a little odd, but mostly it's scratchy (even sharp) to walk on in places and we're afraid it will get worse.

New wood was installed in one room and finished in the same ways (at the same times). That floor has hardly any of these problems.

We'd love to know what's going on and whether it will get better or worse... Has anyone else seen this happen?

Comments (6)

  • Rudebekia
    11 years ago

    Any updates? This has happened to my floor, too.

  • brickeyee
    11 years ago

    Iyt ia now summer and cooling season.

    The humidity inside is very high, and the wood has expanded as it absorbs water vapor.

    Any finish that made its way between the strips of floor is being squeezed out.
    It is likely cured just fine, it is just under a huge amount of pressure from the expanding wood.

    If the blobs are large enough to be irritating you can cut them off carefully with a single edge razor blade, or call your floor guy to screen them off.

  • Rudebekia
    11 years ago

    What's tragic is that I already had my floors screened (with all the expense of the work and moving everything out of the house) because of this and now it has happened again! 100 year old oak and maple floors were refinished in fall 2010. Blobs appeared and ridges above seams in summer 2011. Screened in January 2012 (refinisher said to wait until winter; also said it wouldn't happen again). Now summer 2012 it has happened again. My once perfectly smooth floor to bare feet is now bump-bump-bump along the seam lines where little hard ridges of finish (not so much blobs as ridges) have arisen. I have searched the internet and find only a few people talking about this. Is this so unusual, or do people just live with it once it occurs? Is it the refinisher's fault? I'm in MN where we do have temp. extremes (like elsewhere, an unusually hot summer this year) but nowhere near the heat/humidity of other parts of the nation. And I do use the air conditioner but not all the time. I'm heartsick!

  • brickeyee
    11 years ago

    "Screened in January 2012"

    Just plain dumb.

    The wood likely had shrunk back by then and he did not screen off everything.

    It will be back until you screen during the summer when the strips are at maximum size.

  • Jennifer White Green
    8 years ago

    We have the same thing happening! Very frustrating. Our last house never had this issue when we refinished the wood floors but they used an oil sealer.