Posts Tagged ‘Swedish finish’
Cure time, dry time, when to move back home
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011
A frequent discussion I have during estimates is regarding when people can have their home back. When can they walk on the floor? When can they put back area rugs? I’ll dive into this as best as possible.
Cure time- A finish is technically cured when 100% of the solvents have left the coating. This is quite variable between the types of finishes. A general rule follows:
- Waterborne finishes-(7-10 days)
- Oil modified polyurethane- (30 days)
- Conversion varnish-(30-60 days)
- Allow 24 hours following the application of a final coat until you return and walk on the floor
- Allow one week until you put down area rugs.
- Replace the felt on your moving furniture and allow 2-3 days before using chairs that move or slide.
Tags: hardwood floor finish, hardwood refinishing, low-VOC hardwood floor finish, Swedish finish, waterbased finish
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Water-based finish versus oil based finish color
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
We recently refinished the hardwood floors at a house in north Portland and they were old growth fir flooring. The floors had previously been refinished using a waterborne finish and judging on the color and age they were probably done somewhere in the 5-10 year period beforehand.
The kitchen floor on the left was a little too worn through to refinish, so we left that portion in its original state. The floor on the right was after our process and was refinished using a Glitsa conversion varnish finish. Conversion varnishes are regarded as the true “Swedish” finishes and really enhance the warm caramel/amber color of a fir floor as you can see from the photo.
We hope that this photo does a good job of illustrating the color enhancement difference of hardwood floor finishes over time.
Tags: Fir flooring, Swedish finish
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Jobsite conditions and rare finish issues
Thursday, June 23rd, 2011
I’ve recently been scratching my head over issues that are so rare that it took some digging through contacts to resolve. Here is the full explanation of diagram of a phenomenon know as Benard cells:
Bénard cells: differences in surface tension
To achieve good flow, the surface tension must remain uniform over the complete surface of the coating layer whileit is drying. During the drying of a solventborne coating film, the solvent on the surface evaporates causing differences in temperature, surface tension, solvent concentration and density within the film. To balance the thermodynamic disequilibrium currents occur in the coating film. These currents produce eddies in the drying layer, a phenomenon known as the formation of Bénard cells. The surface tension is higher at the edges of the cells than at their centers and coating material flows from regions of lower surface tension to regions of higher surface tension. The resulting unevenness in the surface dries into the coating film. This produces an irregular surface as the coating shows marked texture.
I wanted to simply post about this phenomenon as a way to let people know that floor finishing can be a very tricky business and so many variables apply to coating a floor that it is often unfair to blame contractors for an issue this rare. It took a number of phone calls to various experts in the field to uncover this phenomenon and an appropriate fix. This is a case where even my experience was not enough. My network was the real strength in resolving the matter.
Problems will happen with any hardwood floor during installations and wood floor refinishing. The goal is to minimize the number of problems and if they do occur, then to quickly arrive at an answer to expedite the fix and get homeowners back in the home with minimal impact on their life. If we had approached the issue with recoating the floor, then the problem would likely have been the same with each attempt. We were able to fix the problem with a minor buffing with a polishing pad in a couple of hours.
Tags: hardwood floor finish, Swedish finish
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Big dogs and durability of hardwood floors
Sunday, January 16th, 2011
All too often I get the question about finishes and durability by people who have big dogs. There is no magic formula, except concrete floors maybe, but here are some ways to enjoy the beauty of your hardwood floors and still have a big loveable dog.
Grooming is everything- I know it can be a slight expense, but regular visits to the groomer will do a lot for keeping dog nails short and scratches minimized.
Tug of war and fetch are best left for outside your house or on the carpet.
Dark stains show scratches more readily. I have a 55lb, 2 year old Louisiana Catahoula Leopard dog and he is wild. Even my floor has scratches, but because my red oak floor is very light and a very flat sheen (ultra matte) the scratches are way less apparent. A lot of it has to do with the whole picture, not the floor finish.
Swedish finishes are “durable” because they wear well and scratch clear, but they WILL scratch. Optically speaking, scratches are hidden better and not because the finish is harder. By the way, there is a lot of misunderstanding that “Swedish” means no wax. Even Swedish finishes (conversion varnishes made by Glitsa and Synteko that smell more) have slight amounts of wax in them, and that is per a chemist at Glitsa (I’ve toured the Seattle factory and had this conversation).
All floor finishes will scratch and the best defense is a good offense. This means regular grooming and more frequent maintenance of your floor by screening and recoating your floor. In the end all hardwood floors get scratches no matter what finish you use.
Tags: Hardwood floor durability, hardwood refinishing, Swedish finish
Posted in Hardwood floor durability | 2 Comments »
Restoring a botched sanding job
Sunday, January 24th, 2010
The other day we received a phone call from a distraught homeowner. She had unfortunately hired a “fly-by-night” contractor for a job. Originally when he was hired he was there to install tile, but assured the homeowners he could also refinish the wood floors. Because of the unethical nature of this person, I am willing to release that his company was called “A Touch of Class”, or at least that was the name under which he was operating. After checking his license I determined that was an inactive license with several judgments and orders to pay damage fees.
During this first portion we sanded the floor at a slight angle to remove the drum marks from the original sanding process. Here are the results after the first round of sanding.
Afterwards, we filled the floor to remove gaps and the process is shown here.
To illustrate the dust collection process we have a video clip of the process as seen here.
Final finish sanding is done using a Lagler Trio.
After all sanding was completed, we dampened the floor to prepare for staining. The floor was stained as a mixture of Coffee Brown and Golden Brown. Afterwards, two finish coats of a traditional Glitsa Swedish finish system.
Tags: hardwood floor finish, Hardwood floor Portland, hardwood refinishing, Swedish finish
Posted in Contractor Perspectives, Floor Projects | 2 Comments »
The price isn’t right
Sunday, November 8th, 2009
One of the things I have been startled about lately is how the hardwood floor refinishing market in Portland has been subject to really large variances in price. At our company we try to deliver a service with considerable value that includes very personable customer service in addition to a quality product. We make a very disciplined effort to hide no element of what is included, which are the questions that consumers should ask in order to make an apples to apples comparison:
1) How many finish coats will be applied? This determines longevity to a great degree assuming that the coverage rate is equal between the coats.
2)What type of finish will be used? Home Depot polyurethane versus GlitsaMax 2 component waterborne urethane isn’t really a contest, the latter will start to outperform after 2-3 years easily. Just look at my floors, which are the test subject of 2year old and 4year old boys dragging toys and dropping everything. They look brand new one and a half years later.
3)How is the floor being filled? Is the floor being trowel filled across the whole area to alleviate gaps or simply spot filled in the large areas? This has a considerable impact on labor in the process.
4)How clean is the contractor? I think most people who want a refinish might care about a clean house. Does the contractor vacuum the house and vents after sanding and before coating the floor? Do they use dust collection? These are questions to ask when you want to know how MUCH service you are paying for.
5) Is the contractor licensed and CURRENTLY bonded? Do they pay their taxes? These may seem like simple questions but I assure you they are essential because if the contractor does not have a current bond, then any damage they are liable for upon entering your home comes from your pocket in most cases if there is no bond. Paying taxes is essential for supporting our parks, schools, etc… so it goes without saying that it is important for a community.
6) Do they contribute to any organizations or have ANY credentials beyond a license?
Our memberships and certifications alone cost us close to $2000 per year alone not counting any time for involvement with committees or helping educate other members. This may seem like a minor element, but I say that it is the fundamental building block for a quality contractor for two reasons. The esteem of being known for quality work goes with being in an organization and secondly the access to the latest information ensures better quality in your business.
I hope that these questions stay current amongst the consumers of Portland so that during the trying times we can all maintain or hopefully elevate the state of this industry rather than take the path of least resistance by lowering quality and price simultaneously.
Tags: Hardwood floor durability, hardwood floor finish, hardwood refinishing, Swedish finish
Posted in Contractor Perspectives, Hardwood floor durability | No Comments »
Old houses and historically accurate repairs
Saturday, September 19th, 2009
I was working last week on the home of my friends Patrick Galvin and Ellen Galvin in order to restore a section of flooring in their home that was buried under carpet. As you can see in the following sequence of photos the removal of the carpet revealed a couple of surprises.
After removing the carpet we installed salvaged old growth fir flooring reclaimed from a school in Milton-Freewater. The floors were sanded and finished according to our standard process. As you can see in the next photos the floor maintains an original appearance. This is critical not only for appearance, but for maintaining a historically accurate appearance.
Tags: Fir flooring, Hardwood floor Portland, hardwood refinishing, Swedish finish
Posted in Floor Projects | 1 Comment »
Hardwood finish and adhesion, the overlooked but critical factors
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009
The tremendous range of hardwood floor finishes available these days has become almost exhausting to keep pace with any more. In the previous blogs we have discussed wood floor finish options and pro and cons. This blog has less to do with actual chemistry and understanding mechanisms of adhesion.
There are pretty much two ways by which hardwood floor finishes adhere to a floor, chemical or mechanical bonding. Chemically bonded finishes integrate into previous layers and essentially fuse into one layer of finish. Acid curing “Swedish” finishes will chemically bond to a wood floor and merge into one finish layer. The significant advantage of this type of bond is that it is virtually impossible for the finish to have adhesion problems to a wood floor regardless of the final burnishing steps or the species of the hardwood. Some species of hardwood contain a high content of oil and sometimes silica and this may create potential adhesion problems for a finish.
The second form of bonding of finish to a wood floor is a mechanical bond. A mechanical bond of a finish requires a roughed up surface so that finish can literally fall into the texture of that surface and “grab” the substrate. The layers of finish in a mechanically bonded system are much more sensitive to compatibility as they are applied in succession. For example, if you stain a wood floor with a penetrating stain, and then apply a weakly bonding quick dry oil sealer, followed by coats of waterborne urethane, there is a real chance for the finish layers to be torn off the floor following application of tape or some other sticky substrate. I have witnessed this firsthand and received many phone calls from distressed colleagues.
The final finishing grit of the sanding process can also affect adhesion. I know that there are sanding machines present that rotate with such significant speed that they may close down the grain of the hardwood floor at certain sandpaper grits so that a mechanically bonded finish will have problems sticking to the floor. In this case I recommend re-opening the grain by wetting or “water-popping” the floor.
A final and overlooked factor affecting finish adhesion occurs during abrasion of a finish coat layer in order to accept a new finish coat. The abrasives used to abrade the floor will typically become dull within a suggested square footage for usage. If a contractor continues to abrade the finish layer with a dull abrasive, the surface may again become too slick for the new finish layer to hold on. The result is that the finish will peel off the floor in big sheets.
Although this blog may not be particularly intriguing to all, it may serve as a reminder that there are sometimes questions to ask your contractor that go well beyond the price of the job.
Tags: adhesion, Hardwood floor durability, hardwood floor finish, low-VOC hardwood floor finish, Swedish finish
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White Lines Syndrome
Saturday, August 1st, 2009
The latest trend in wood flooring has definitely been for darker floors and wider boards. Exotic wood flooring has also seen growth in market share. One of the unspoken problems is that when seasonal movement occurs within the boards of the floor some finishes can actually become stretched out during this process and they leave a white line down the seam of the boards. This problem is particularly bad with waterbased finishes that have come to dominate the market with low VOC laws emerging in many states. Waterborne finishes lay across the floor and essentially act as a hardened sheet of plastic that resists traffic.
Using an acid curing conversion varnish or true “Swedish” finish is the best option to prevent this problem. This is because the acid curing finishes will truly break their bond at the edge of each board and stick to the edges of that board during seasonal movement.
If you are planning a flooring project that requires wider boards, dark stain, or both I recommend thoroughly discussing the project with your contractor to prevent this problem. In fact there is so little published information for this problem because the industry doesn’t want you to know that there is a dark side to new technology. When white lines occur across your wood floor they almost always require a full refinish to remove and that is never a fun option for your time. If you would like more information please contact us for a PDF of the problem.
Tags: hardwood refinishing, low-VOC hardwood floor finish, Swedish finish, waterbased finish, white lines syndrome
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Why can’t you sand that old fir floor?
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
All the time I meet different people for an estimate who assume that their old Fir floors cannot be refinished, so they think that they will install new flooring over the floors. Usually the floors have been covered in paint, carpet, or linoleum forever and as time has gone on people have realized the best looking of their options is a wood floor. One important thing to understand about the floor sanding process is that usually only 1/32″ to 1/16″ of flooring actually is removed during sanding. If you consider that a wear layer on a floor is typically 5/16″ and a quality refinish will endure 10-20 years of wear with proper maintenance, then you can see that most floors ,even those that are 100 years old or greater, have some remaining life. I have seen some of the worst hardwood floors be revived in 5 days to a state of beauty that few would expect. My answer is almost always, “Yes, you can sand that old Fir floor!”. It’s more cost effective and has less impact on the environment because you reuse an existing resource.
Tags: Fir flooring, hardwood refinishing, sustainability, Swedish finish
Posted in Floor Projects, Sustainability Talk | No Comments »
