We had our wood floors refinished in July, 2003. The first floor is 3/4″ oak, and the second floor is oak, but is the thin type (about 1/4″ I guess) that is face nailed. As far as I know, the floor (except for a few patches) are original to the house which was built in 1900.

The refinishers are the best, most expensive in town and have consistently high ratings from customers. The floors were sanded, and are supposed to have been finished with 3 full strength coats of oil modified urethane with 40% solids (no stain) made especially for this company.

The work was done in July, 2003 and the third and final coat supposedly went on on July 25. The house was completely empty of all furniture, etc, and the finishers could do anything they wanted in terms of fans, temperature control, etc. In fact, the entire reason we had the work done at this time was because we knew we could have the house completely empty and would not have to live with the dust, smell, move boxes or furniture, etc. And the company was specifically informed of this in writing when we signed the contract.

The floors had until August 12, 2003 to cure, nearly three weeks. At that point we covered the floors with red rosin paper to protect them from the rest of the remodeling. We were not living in the house, though work was going on and boxes and furniture were stored in the house.

Different rooms got uncovered at different times. One of the early rooms was the maid’s room which had all of the end pieces of flooring installed. After the floor had been uncovered about a month, it no longer looked as though it had enough finish on it. We thought maybe it had been missed on the final coat because it is off in a corner. The sales person came by and agreed, and the finishers came out and screened, cleaned and applied another coat of finish. This was about 1 year after the original finish went on.

After we uncovered the first floor, the same thing happened. It looked ok for a couple of weeks, and then looked like it needed another coat of finish. Again the sales person came out, agreed, another coat was applied, etc. etc. At this point, I insisted that he inspect ALL of the other floors to determine if this was an issue on any other rooms. He inspected them and said “No, all the other rooms had three coats of finish”.

However, at this point of course, there is furniture, boxes, and all the rest of our stuff, which we had to move TWICE to be able to have this done. The company made ABSOLUTELY NO OFFER TO COMPENSATE US FOR ANY OF THE INCONVENIENCE THEY HAVE CAUSED.

Now we have uncovered the rest of the second floor, and the same thing has happened. At first, it looked fine, but within a few weeks, it looks like there is not enough finish on the floors.

Now I can compare the floors to a closet that I did my self using the same finish the company uses and that I know has three coats as I applied it myself. The closet floor did not have rosin paper on it. It looks much different (and looks correct).

So, my questions are:

1. Would the rosin paper somehow do something to the finish, like I dunno, absorb it? Remember the finish looked ok IMMEDIATELY after the paper was removed, but within a few weeks the finish “vanished”. And this happened all over, not just in a couple of spots.

2. Is there a way to scientifically test to see how many coats of finish were applied?

At this point I am so PO’d that I want absolute proof as to what was done. I want inspected by an independent third party who will stake their reputation on what they say.