What have I done to my floor?

[aaronfude]

Hi,

I may have screwed something up in my first attempt to refinish a floor. It's just a small landing, so it's not that big a deal but I'm still upset and hoping to fix it. What I have so far can be seen here:

is blotchy and even looks purple in some places. Also, I think the floor is now pretty uneven although it may have been that way before and I haven't noticed. I have reasonable experience refinishing furniture, but this was my first stint with a belt sander.

But I guess what I would like to have answered now is whether something is obvious from the picture. It almost looks to me that I didn't put enough poly on the floor and so a second coat might help. (Do you poly floors the same way to poly furniture: by dipping the brush and trying to make the coat as thin as possible?) Is anything else evident from the picture?

Thank you so much in advance,

Aaron Fude

[Tom Banes]

Think it may not be as bad as you fear. If you sanded it to bare wood, it'll take 3 or 4 coats of most polys to build up a finish that looks reasonable. From your picture the first coat acted like a sealer coat, just soaked into the wood in some places, didn't soak in much where the grain was real tight. Try a couple more coats, scuff sanding (220 grit) between for adhesion.

Regards.

Tom

[jtees4]

Minimum four coats.

[Frank Arthur]

[dadiOH]

When top coating, first coat soaks in. It soaks in more where the wood is soft than where it is hard. That's why it looks blotchy. It looks blue where the hardwood is because the finish didn't soak in much there and is shiny; being shiny, it is reflecting sky light which is blue.

Cure is to add 2-3 more coats following the directions on the can.

[James "Cubby" Culbertson]

You've put one coat of finish one it. Time for more. I hate poly for most things but I guess it makes sense for a floor. In any case, it just needs more finish. It looks like pine which will soak up the finish in the soft part of the boards more than the hard parts. I'd give it a light sanding and add another coat. Then repeat about 4 more times until it looks like you want it to. Cheers, cc