My timber floor dents - is this normal?

[Evalina]

Hi all!

This is my first post.....please be kind . I have a problem with my polished floor, well I think it's a problem. Who knows, it could be completely normal.

I had them sanded and stained quite dark and then polished by a reputable company here in Adelaide almost ten weeks ago. There was supposed to be three coats of a urethane coating over the top, but I'm not sure if that many was actually done. My problem is that I can mark my floor very easily with just a light touch with my fingernail. I am talking almost no pressure here. It indents the floor and it's giving me the :mad!!

I had polished floors in my last house, once again urethane, but done by a different company. It was really hard to dent those floors.

Scratches from grit etc I am used to and I use a dust mop on a daily basis, but these indentations are something new to me......it just seems like the floor is too 'soft'. I initially thought the floor needed to cure and would harden up, but this hasn't happened.

Does anyone have any ideas why this is happening? Thanks for your time.

[Gumby]

Hi Evalina and welcome to the forums.

I have a polished floor and the finish on the top is rock hard. I'm not sure what they used but by the sound of yours, it's wrong.

You will get scratches but certainly not from a finger nail!

My floor is about 18 months old. I won't tell you what my son's friend's stiletto heels did to it at his 21st :mad:

[HappyHammer]

Welcome Evalina.

I'm with Gumby my Blue Gum floors in Sydney wouldn't have been scratched by a lightly applied finger nail. Did you have to leave the house when they applied the finish? We overnighted at the in-laws because the smell was so strong.

HH.

[Evalina]

Wow!

Thanks for the quick replies!

My floor is radiata pine, but its been in the house for 35 years.
We did the floors before we moved in, so they were left alone for three days before anyone walked on them, and as for the smell....GOOD GOD!!! It took almost a month for that stench to go, even though I had doors and windows open continuously.......I had a continual headache for all that time.:mad:

I am used to timber floors and stilletos......my last house had a couple of marks on the floor where I forgot to take my shoes off. Never did that again! however, there was no way I could dent that floor with my fingernail. Spent many an hour scritching paint and stuff off the floors after hubby painted walls.

This floor though, is very dentable........I want to confront the contractor but would like enough information behind me so he doesn't just say ' Not my problem'

Thanks for any help you can give me.

[HappyHammer]

Hmmm, is it something to do with it being pine? Not sure whether the urethane reacts differently versus hardwood, ie absorbs further into the timber? Could just be talking complete crap now of course

HH.

[Ianab]

My floor is radiata pine,

Thats pretty soft wood for a floor... I've built some stuff out of it, and yes it dings up pretty easy - I can fingernail mark it
Just compared that to a Bluegum cabinet I've just finished, I dont think even stilletos would dent that
An area of unfinished Matai flooring in my place is still much harder than the finished Radiata.

Yes a good floor coating will make it a bit tougher, but still pretty easy to dent the underlying timber.

Cheers

Ian

[Shaun04]

Wait till Larry McCully sees this, im sure he will have an answer as he is a Timber Floor Contractor.

[Larry McCully]

Hi evalina, If the contractor had have used a single pac solvent based polyurathane, then you would have difficulity in scratching it
By the sounds of it the contractor has used a low grade tung oil based coating. Now that is fine but tung oil , even thou it is used a lot on timber floors has a weak durability factor, and can be scrached easlly, And it might only have two coats and not 3 as is standard. You say that you thought it was a urathane coating on it. Can you ring that contractor and ask him what he used on your floor and post back the reply on this forum.

[Larry McCully]

Hi shaun

[durwood]

Evalina says she thought she had urethane probably because she probably asked for it. Any reasonable paint coating should be better than what she has.

A touch with a finger nail would not leave an indent normally, the clear should be hard enough to improve the resistance to marking of the wood. I would suspect the timber uncoated would be harder than what she describes.

FInd out what what product was used by the contractor and then check with the manufacturer about his product.

There are instruments which can measure hardness of finishes.

I suspect the contractor messed up and used the wrong material or mixed it wrong. Even with the cold weather it should be well and truely hard by now.

[Larry McCully]

Evalina, Question.. Is it only the timber denting when you run your finger nail accross it or does the coating scratch , a dent is not a scratch. Could you please clarify that RFI. (Request for information)

[Extracare]

I polish floors for a living and I can tell you that polyurethane is not very hard. A coat is as thin and not much stronger than glad wrap - without the stretchiness.

Radiata pine will mark easily, the pressure on a fingernail is quite a lot given that it is applied to a very small area (the tip of your nail).

Since the floor has been sanded you have exposed fresh new timber and it will be easy to dent. Also, since the newly sanded floor looks so perfect you will see dents that you wouldn't have noticed previously.

Have a word with your contractor, if he's any good he'll talk you through what is happening, but it doesn't sound abnormal to me.

[glock40sw]

Radiata Pine .....God I love real hardwood

[Evalina]

HI!

Yep, it's the floor denting, along with the polish. However the polish is not actually scrstching, just denting. Although there are alot more fine scratches on it in 10 weeks than my other floor had on it in three years. It too was radiata pine and I simply did not have this problem.

I didn't have just one coat of urethane, I was supposed to have three. Would it be stronger the more coats you have?

Thanks for your replies. Keep em coming!

[Larry McCully]

Ok, Your pine floor will indent as you say. It is one of the softer woods and in the biggining was not intended to get sanded and coated. It was a timber used as a substrate for vynal, lino and carpet. It wasnt untill the early 90s that it came into vogue as a timber to polish. I spent many years in north Queensland sanding hoop pine , which will dent as easly as you are experiencing on your floor. Sharp objects and stellitos are the offenders. However if the coating is scratching easly and you are experiencing a abrassion , then you need to access a number of factors that contribute to the abrassion.
1/ site conditions around the house.ie soil being walked into the floor from shoes.
2/ What type of shoe being worn on the floor.... Work boots school shoes or any shoe that will contain small bit of grit that will cause abrassion.
3/ What type of coating was used on the floor. Different types of coatings have different durability factors. solvent based polyurathanes are the hardest then going down the scale to tung oils. In between are waterbased and phameldihide based and acid based coatings.
4/ What type of dust extraction are you using, check the head on your vacumm, some people use the old carpet vac heads, there is a metal strip on the bottom that loves to scratch coatings, How is the condition of the broom you are using and its softness.
5/ Because it is scratching easly, consider asking everybody to take their shoes of before entering the house.

But i am interested in what the coating and the brand name of it is.