We're having our floors redone and after reading a lot about this, have decided to go with Moisture-cured polyurethane.
The contractor has objected to it any way he could and in the end it has come down to him doing it provided that I shut off the gas to my building (3 floors, 6 apartments total) because he said that during the first 5 hours of application, the vapors are so flammable that if they sneak out of the apartment and hit someone's oven pilot, for example, it'll start a fire.
I have read about the toxicity of the vapors and the foul smell as I scoured the internet looking for answers, but no one has mentioned any safety concerns.
Is this product THIS dangerous? Shouldn't I then also warn my neighbours not to smoke for those 5 hours? What about electrical sparks inside light switches?
At this point it's very hard for me to draw the line between what's reasonable and what the contractor is trying to use as obstacles to do the job the way we'd like it to be done.
Thanks for any and all answers and apologies for posting this message in another newsgroup.
I could be wrong but the oil based is the one with the flame hazard. IMHO he is making up every excuse not to use the product that you want. I would find another person to do the work. Anyway the can will tell you what you need to be cautious of.
There are 3 types, from what I've been able to understand through all the research I've done online:
Water-based.
Oil-Based.
Moisture-cured.
It's possible that both the regular and moisture-cured poly's are both oil-based, but what we want is definitely moisture-cured because it doesn't turn yellow over time (or at least there's one type of it that doesn't).
Through some of the reading I've been doing I came accross web sites for some products that report flash-points as low as 80 deg. Fahrenheit, but since I'm not sure whether those are actual products or COMPONENTS of the actual products, I have to ask.
Yes. "Oil-based" is really a misnomer--"oilborne" or more precisely solvent-borne would be more accurate terminology--the base is urethane in either case.
Waterborne is clearly not moisture cured, otherwise the water in which it is carried would cure it.
A non-waterborne single-part polyurethane finish that is not moisture-cured would be a rarity. And specifying "moisture cured" does not mean that you are going to get something that is non-yellowing--you'd do better to just specify "non-yellowing".
As a flooring contractor. I also will NOT use moisture cure. Yes it is toxic and flammable. You can got the same results, Non yellowing and durability with a high end Waterborn poly Try Street Shoe by Basic coatings.
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Traffic by Bona
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gallon will run around $90, which will coat appx 500 Sq.Ft, So do the math If you have 2000 Sq.Ft and want three coats, it will run you $1080 just for the poly.
And people ask why we charge so much!
Or just go the borg and get $20 poly, spend $240, and have it wear off.
If you force him to use a product he is not familiar with, the results will reflect this.
We had oil-based finish when we moved in and we loved the high-glossiness of the finish.
We then went to water-based, and even though at first we were happy with it, we have come to realize that we definitely like our wood floors as glossy as possible.
oil-based, however, oil-based finishes turn yellow over time. Up to this point it was a matter of deciding between a not-so-glossy-not-yellowing finish and a very-glossy-but-yellowing-finish.
After doing some research, we came accross moisture-cured, which seems to combine the best of the two worlds we like: very-glossy and non-yellowing.
I know I'm a very demanding customer, but it is my philosophy that price is the one thing you don't argue about with a contractor. If price is a consideration (and sometimes it might be, even for me), I will work WITH the contractor looking for options that might make the job less expensive, but will NEVER EVER ask him to charge me less for his labor. I respect every contractor's time and that time's value as much as I want my own respected by my own clients.
One thing that is very important with contractors is that they're as happy providing the service as the client is getting is. An unhappy contractor is like a curse... everything goes downhill after that.
I am trusting that my contractor is professional enough to just say NO if that's what he really wants to do, so, in effect, I'm taking back what I said about his trying to put obstacles in the project. He had one objection and we have managed to clear that obstacle. I'm sure he's also aware that a botched job is definitely not in his best interest; he comes very highly recommended and they did do our floors for us once before (water based) and were very happy with the work.
So far, the maple floor has been laid down and his carpenter did a really GREAT job (my opinion) and he fixed a few details in our existing floor in another part of the house in a way that surpassed my expectations.
So, going back to the dilemma, we decided to go with the moisture-cured because we want the very-glossy finish that won't yellow over time. Regarding the durability, we don't wear shoes in the house, so our floors are always in excellent shape.
Please let me know if there's anything else that I should be aware of.
Thank you and everybody that's pitched-in into this discussion for all your input!!!!
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