Alkathane Finish Problem

Hi all,

I have recently laid Grey Ironbark floors through my house, done all the laying myself, and had a pro in to sand and finish.

After talking to a few people I decided to go with the Alkathane finish (feast watson) as I was after a natural looking satin finish that would be pretty hardy.

On the first coat where every end of the boards met I could see a dull spot, almost like the finish was being sucked in by the end grain, I asked the contractor about this when I let them in the next day to do the finishing coat, and was told that was just the first coat and what I suspected was happening wouldnt happen after the second coat.

After the second coat, I met the owner of the company for an inspection and to pay, and you could still see the dull ends on most joints where the ends met. He told me that that will happen with that type of finish and over the next few days the rest of the finish will dull and you wont notice it, the rest of the floors looked fantastic, so I paid and took the professionals word for it.

Now we are about 3 weeks later and the dulling has gotten worse, it realy looks like the end grains in the timber have just sucked all the finish in, as well as in spots on the top of the boards where there are small cracks or kind of open grain imperfections naturaly in the timber.

After speaking to a few other guys they have said it sounds like the finish was watered down to dry quicker? and this should not happen unless there are some major gaps where the boards are butted together, which there are not.

Sorry for the lengthy post, trying to get as much detail as possible so I can get some advice.

So what should I expect from this finish, and am I in my rights to have this rectified?

thanks

hi
Unless the contractor used somthing other than the product you specified, I doubt you have any case against them. Get a rep from feast watson to have a look.

OK , the first coat should and in most cases now days be a fast drying sealer. it dries in about 20 min. the second coat is a coat of the finish product as is also the 3rd coat. It is very uncommon for the coating to darken down the ends . The sealer dries at a even rate and is uniform in its appearance. the only time that coating darkens a portion of the timber is if areas on the floor was missed by the sealer and at the 2ndcoat that area was coated by straight polyurethane. But in your case the chances of the contractor missing every joint at the end match would be of the planet. How ever if the contractor used a putty to fill any gaps at the end match and that putty was darker than supposed to be and possibly if the putting up was done after the final sanding cut and before the buffing stage or between 2nd and 3 rd coat and did not completely remove any excess of the join, this will appear as a dull smudge and resemble your darkened ends. So possibly it is only putty. You will be able to test this by trying to pick some out. If it is putty then you will know. The floor will not match down to it in colour all that quickly. If the above is the case then it is up to you if you want the contractor to rectify the problem. or live with it. The floor will darken down over a period of time . in some cases it may take 1 or 2 years to darken down. the putty will stay the same colour and you may get some sort of match then . the best thing is to get feast watson in as well as another floorsander in to give you a report.

[quote=Malic;376641]Hi all,



When you thin the coating down all that is going to happen is it will dry quicker and not reduce any colour.

Malic.
Grey Iron Bark what a fantastic flooring choice! The Feast Watson product probably not the best choice. But, that's only my opinion.

The problem stems from the natural silicone type oils found in these exotic Aussie timbers. The phenomenon you have described is refered to as 'Blooming' and as such it simply means that the coating as folded, or peeled back from the timber which makes it appear to of been sucked in, when in fact, it's been rejected.

If I've read your post correctly, you only recieved two coats of finish and unfortunately that highlights this particular problem, the cut back between the first and second coat exposes these oils in the timber making it appear worse.

As Larry has already correctly pointed out, the floors should of been sealed initially with a quick drying floor seal. This seal locks in the troublesome oils preventing them from leeching out to the surface.

So, how is it rectified?
As you pointed out, the floor looks fantastic apart from the butt joins and some of the more open grained areas looking dull leads me to think that the boys have done a fine enough job of sanding the floor. So I'm suggesting, from previous experience, that another one, or better still, two more coats of this Feast Watson coating be applied to the floor.

If you do have them re-coat (and your within your rights to push for it) they should only do the finest of fine cut backs between the coats to ensure they don't continually reactivate the oils.

Well, hope that helps a little.

That's timber floors for ya, when it all goes great there's nothing more impressive, but, when there's a hiccup it can be a massive hemorrhoid for both the contractor and the home owner, as I'm sure your becoming aware.

Good luck with it all.

Dusty.

Awesome, thanks for the info all,

Larry, the areas I have a problem with are not where the putty is, just on the end joints, there is no putty in any of the end joints, only in a few imperfections, and not even all the imperfections at that, its exactly like what Dusty has said, that the ends look like they have just sucked all the finish in, they're lighter if anything and real dull.

Dusty, I had on coat of sealer, 2 coats alkathane, the Grey Ironbark was worth every extra cent, real happy with the timber.

I called the guy yesterday after the carpenter who gave me a hand to lay them came round to do some skirting with me, and pointed out some other problems I didnt pick up, like circular sanding marks in an open area of the floor, and the contractor will be out on monday even though he didnt sound too impressed, and if worse comes to worse I will get some one else to have a look.

Thanks again for the info, I will get some photos of it today and see if I can get them up here so u can see more what im talking about.

cheers

Just wanted to add these pics to show what im talking about,
first time i have tried to add so after a few edits i hope they show up ok

ok ill just add links to image shack as I cant figure out how to attach the thumbs :confused:

First one shows the end grain problem, its hard to pick up with the camera but gives the general idea of whats happening,
second one is just a show off pic :p

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/4738/p1020881qg5.jpg
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/2376/p1020882dd4.jpg