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Hi,
I just bought a house and decided to refinish the hardwoods before moving in this weekend. While researching, my husband and I found out that 3 coats of poly is really the best method when refinishing hardwoods, so we shopped around and found a company that was recommended to us that would do 3 coats at a price we could agree with. The company came and started the work right away and they even offered us a complementary upgrade to a water based finish after telling us this would greatly reduce the fumes in our house. They also told us that using water base would allow them to apply 2 coats of the sealer in one day, followed by the 3rd and final coat the following day. We thought GREAT, a water based sealer upgrade will allow us to move in much quicker to our home and have less fumes. Let's go with it.
Well, on the day the final coat was to be applied, I asked the floor company to let me know when they planned to be at the house that day to do the job as I wanted to be there to "supervise". They said they would give me a call to let me know when their guy would be there to finish the job. Well 5pm came and went and I never got a call. My husband followed up at 5pm to check on the status. At this point, we just assumed they just couldn't make it that day so we wanted to see if they would be coming the following day to apply the final 3rd coat. To our surprise, they told us they sent a floor guy to the house earlier in the day to apply the 3rd coat and forgot to call us to let us know. So at 5:30 I immediately went to the house to check the floors which looked bone dry, but I had no clue how to tell if a 3rd coat was indeed applied as told. I heard water based finish dries up in a matter of hours...
Oddly enough, the day before they were supposed to apply the final coat, I had stopped by the house to check on the progress and had decided to hang our Christmas wreath on the front door, but then retracted that idea when I noticed glitter particles were falling onto the double-coated hardwoods and I feared they would be sealed in when the 3rd final coat was applied the next day. I tried frantically cleaning up as much glitter as I could. You know how messy glitter can get. Eventually, I thought "No sweat". I was pretty confident the floor guys would vacuum up before applying the final coat. Even thought about giving them a heads up on the glitter situation but decided no big deal. They'll take care of it.
WELL to my surprise, last night I checked the hardwoods near the front door where the wreath was briefly hung, and there were glitter particles all over the floor that were definatley not sealed or stuck! I can't help but assume that no third coat was applied after all!!
What would you guys do in this situation? Should I confront the company and demand a refund? At this point I don't even want them to apply another coat of sealer to have to wait for it to dry. I just want to move my stuff into my house and get a reduction in price as I feel like I have been lied to and ripped off!!
I guess I've learned my first homeowner lesson: Never give a contractor a key to your house and never leave them unsupervised!!
Hi,
I just bought a house and decided to refinish the hardwoods before moving in this weekend. While researching, my husband and I found out that 3 coats of poly is really the best method when refinishing hardwoods, so we shopped around and found a company that was recommended to us that would do 3 coats at a price we could agree with. The company came and started the work right away and they even offered us a complementary upgrade to a water based finish after telling us this would greatly reduce the fumes in our house. They also told us that using water base would allow them to apply 2 coats of the sealer in one day, followed by the 3rd and final coat the following day. We thought GREAT, a water based sealer upgrade will allow us to move in much quicker to our home and have less fumes. Let's go with it.
Well, on the day the final coat was to be applied, I asked the floor company to let me know when they planned to be at the house that day to do the job as I wanted to be there to "supervise". They said they would give me a call to let me know when their guy would be there to finish the job. Well 5pm came and went and I never got a call. My husband followed up at 5pm to check on the status. At this point, we just assumed they just couldn't make it that day so we wanted to see if they would be coming the following day to apply the final 3rd coat. To our surprise, they told us they sent a floor guy to the house earlier in the day to apply the 3rd coat and forgot to call us to let us know. So at 5:30 I immediately went to the house to check the floors which looked bone dry, but I had no clue how to tell if a 3rd coat was indeed applied as told. I heard water based finish dries up in a matter of hours...
Oddly enough, the day before they were supposed to apply the final coat, I had stopped by the house to check on the progress and had decided to hang our Christmas wreath on the front door, but then retracted that idea when I noticed glitter particles were falling onto the double-coated hardwoods and I feared they would be sealed in when the 3rd final coat was applied the next day. I tried frantically cleaning up as much glitter as I could. You know how messy glitter can get. Eventually, I thought "No sweat". I was pretty confident the floor guys would vacuum up before applying the final coat. Even thought about giving them a heads up on the glitter situation but decided no big deal. They'll take care of it.
WELL to my surprise, last night I checked the hardwoods near the front door where the wreath was briefly hung, and there were glitter particles all over the floor that were definatley not sealed or stuck! I can't help but assume that no third coat was applied after all!!
What would you guys do in this situation? Should I confront the company and demand a refund? At this point I don't even want them to apply another coat of sealer to have to wait for it to dry. I just want to move my stuff into my house and get a reduction in price as I feel like I have been lied to and ripped off!!
I guess I've learned my first homeowner lesson: Never give a contractor a key to your house and never leave them unsupervised!!
If you haven't paid the contractor in full yet , take photos of the glitter and refusen to pay the final payment > Then be ready to go to small claims court with the photos . Additionally if the contractor wants to come and apply the 3rd coat you have to let him by law , but in this situation he must pay for your stay at a motel untill the floort is dry.
If you haven't paid the contractor in full yet , take photos of the glitter and refusen to pay the final payment > Then be ready to go to small claims court with the photos . Additionally if the contractor wants to come and apply the 3rd coat you have to let him by law , but in this situation he must pay for your stay at a motel untill the floort is dry.
Fighter: No, I haven't paid them yet. I haven't even given them a deposit. I took photos yesterday of the glitter on the floor as well as photos of them sticking to my fingers to show that they weren't stuck on the floor. Not sure if that will get the point across. They're actually still on the floor right now...
The odd thing is the company I'm supposed to pay contracted the work. The contractor I'm supposed to pay says they have never had an issue with this company in all their years of working together, blah, blah blah.
Maybe if I get the guy I'm supposed to pay to come out and look at the floors (and the glitter), he can propose a solution. This whole situation sucks. My husband and I have 10 friends lined up to help us move stuff into the house tomorrow. I feel like I have to push for a reduction in price at this point. Moving stuff back out of my house or delaying to move in for a few more days is not even an option.
Anyway, thanks for the advice. I think best bet is to have the contractor I am paying come out to the job site and see the glitter for himself.
How did they get in the house without you being there? You having other work done in the house?
Anyway, if the glitter is simply on the surface, there is no way the 3rd coat was applied. If you didnt pay them, they will be back, just tell them to fix it or they wont get paid.
We had our floors done in our house in October, 3 coats, water based poly. The water based stuff dried quick. I want to say less than 2 hours. We waited 10 days before we put any furniture on it.
Let me tell you, the hardwood floor business is one of the biggest scams in the business. I was getting quotes for $5-$6 a sq ft. Im not saying these guys arent entitled to make some sort of profit, but it was crazy. We ended up getting it done for less than half what we were getting quoted through a friend of the family (wholesale price).
How did they get in the house without you being there? You having other work done in the house?
Anyway, if the glitter is simply on the surface, there is no way the 3rd coat was applied. If you didnt pay them, they will be back, just tell them to fix it or they wont get paid.
We had our floors done in our house in October, 3 coats, water based poly. The water based stuff dried quick. I want to say less than 2 hours. We waited 10 days before we put any furniture on it.
Let me tell you, the hardwood floor business is one of the biggest scams in the business. I was getting quotes for $5-$6 a sq ft. Im not saying these guys arent entitled to make some sort of profit, but it was crazy. We ended up getting it done for less than half what we were getting quoted through a friend of the family (wholesale price).
We gave them the key because our house was empty, and we had to be at work during the week, so we figured might as well give them a key to an empty house and have nothing to worry about. Never thought about needing to supervise them until the day before the final coat was to be applied.
Wow, 10 days is alot of time to wait. Why did you wait so long? We were planning on moving in tomorrow with the last coat being "truly" done in my opinion on Tuesday.
We gave them the key because our house was empty, and we had to be at work during the week, so we figured might as well give them a key to an empty house and have nothing to worry about. Never thought about needing to supervise them until the day before the final coat was to be applied.
Wow, 10 days is alot of time to wait. Why did you wait so long? We were planning on moving in tomorrow with the last coat being "truly" done in my opinion on Tuesday.
Drying to the touch and fully curing are two different things. I'm sure the flooring contractor would have advised you if you couldn't move things in yet.
I'd say 10 days is a lot too, but I would surely wait a few days to make sure any heavy furniture doesnt leave any marks on the new finish. It also depends how heavy the coats are, which in your case, it doesnt seem like too much at all Sorry about that comment.
Wow, 10 days is alot of time to wait. Why did you wait so long? We were planning on moving in tomorrow with the last coat being "truly" done in my opinion on Tuesday.
It may be dried, but it takes MINIMUM 7 days to FULLY CURE. My hardwood guy told me not to put any carpets or furniture down for 7 days. If i could wait 10, would be even better. We got a semi-gloss finish, the Full gloss is thicker, may take even more time to fully cure.
Being the OCD guy I am, i insisted on the 10 days (wife wasnt happy). The floors looked great, we got them done in Ebony. So what happens, the macys furniture guy comes in with our sofa and as he is assembling puts a monster scratch in the floor. I was pissed, didnt tip him.
Your biggest mistake was telling the contractor you wanted to be there to supervise. That is the last thing any contractor wants is somebody with no knowledge or experience telling them what to do.
Nothing wrong with being home when you are having work done but you never tell a contractor you are going to supervise.
You don't go in the kitchen and supervise when you go out for dinner do you?
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Sorry about that comment.
