Question: Hello, I am a craftsman who installs floors, and have used water based catalyzed polyurethane, because I considered it less toxic, and have thought it to be easy to use. I see you list as a con of WBP, that it is toxic, could you tell me more on this? Thank you, Ben Answer: Dear Ben While certainly you are exposed to less fumes as you coat the floor, some of solvents in this finish can cause dizziness. Read the Dura Seal article in the Floored News section for more about these mildly toxic solvents called glycol ethers. But the real fly in the ointment is the azridine catalyst or hardener, that is supplied with the commercial water based finishes like Street Shoe and Traffic. I attended a seminar at a fancy hotel given by Basic Coatings here in Toronto about 15 years ago. They were demonstrating the Street Shoe product, and I saw the factory rep don rubber gloves up to his elbow, before he snow plowed the finish. At the time I found it quite alarming, and the few times I needed to use this finish, I also used rubber gloves. But I didn’t know why. I had thought the little bottle of azridine was poisonous by not too deadly. Well now I know better. This stuff is a confirmed carcinogen, and when absorbed through the skin ( it easily does) causes tumors, and prolonged exposure to this seems to cause skin reactions, and allergies. You should never pick up a bottle of this stuff with your bare hand. And be careful not to splash it on yourself or your clothes. I only will use it (street shoe) as a substitute for MC poly, and only for commercial jobs. As I do almost all residential jobs now, I have thankfully not had to use this stuff for years. The MC poly was deadly to my lungs and I almost died after getting a lung-full of the xylene and toluene fumes years ago. But If I were you I would switch to the safer oxygen cross linking variety of water based finishes, as described in the Dura Seal article. Oh, and the other water based finish catalyst called Carbodiimide is fairly safe, but makes a much weaker finish ( as in the flecto renewal system). But if you want to avoid handling the azridine, you should try the Dura Seal 2000 water based finish system. It has the hardener in the cap, and you puncture this seal on the cap and let it flow down into the gallon without touching it. The Dura Seal rep in Texas told me that once the azridine is in the finish it is harmless. I’ve heard nothing to confirm this other than from Dura Seal. So I will still wear rubber gloves to apply and clean my applicators. This method doesn’t allow you to use a partial gallon of course. I don’t think it’s selling that well just for that reason. I should mention that I suffer (not too badly) now from Hairy Cell Leukemia, which is a rare, and rarely fatal blood disease. And I can’t help but think back on all the chemicals I’ve handled over the last 24 years, and wonder why me ???? I’m just in the middle of writing a health and safety article for this web site, and I wonder if anyone will bother to read it. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: Do water-based finishes hold up as well (to water and dirt) as oil-based finishes. I’d rather have the water-based, but want to make sure it won’t have waterspots if a little water gets on it and I don’t wipe it up right away. Thanks! Answer: Dear Tracy The answer is, water based finishes can be better or a whole lot worse than the standard 3 coats of Oil Modified Polyurethane. Let me explain. The few reputable brands of oxygen cross linking water based finishes should be as durable as the OMP. And there should be no doubt that the professional catalyzed water based finishes will outlast most all other finishes by a long shot. But most of the catalyzed water based finishes are really expensive. These are really only used in commercial and gym floor applications. But now there are the brands of water based finishes that are sold in stores. They are generally the weak kneed acrylic based finishes, with no hardener additive. These are not really floor finishes, but just light duty wood finishes, and are generally sold as such. These tend to last only a few years at best. These are cheap to apply, but are not worth anything in the long run. That said, my greatest objection to the water based finishes is their pale bluish white film, and the fact that some will cloud more when they age. But if you read my article in the Floored News, about the Dura Seal 1000 water based finish, there is the promise that these oxygen cross linking formulas have the best of both worlds. If you use 4 coats of this material, and scuff sand well between coats, you should have a finish that will wear about as well as OMP and will have a pleasant amber tone to it. We still don’t know just how well this finish is going to age, only time will tell. There is some concern that the emulsifiers in all water based finishes stay in the film and make the finish opaque in just 3-5 years. I saw a job done with a store brand water based finish on maple, and this was happening after only 3 years. It was such a gradual change that the owner did not see it, but the fine grain of maple was just about obscured. I still use Oil Modified Polyurethane on 90 % of my floors, with great (20 years and counting) results. Just be sure use no lacquer or oil sealers. And be sure to Brush on the coats of OMP for a real bubble free finish. I just finished a detailed article on how to use the Oil Modified Polyurethane for the directory subscribers, and believe me it is not a quick and easy process, but worth it. You can buy an email copy of this with a small donation to the site, just ask. Oh, and just read the first part of the cleaning article in the Floored News section, to see just what needs to be done to keep these new finishes glowing. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: Hi Doc, We had about 1800 worth of sq. foot done in hardwood about 7 months ago. It was a sand-in-place (tongue-in-groove, nailed down to a sub floor) job. It turned out beautiful. My Dad’s been making the comments that he can feel that the floor warps & that it was not a good job. My wife & I beg to differ! Can a warped be “felt”? What I mean is: Is it visible to the eyes or is it so subtle that you have to feel it? I think what he’s feeling is where the planks are joined. Myself, I feel that if sit down & run my hands over them, I can feel that where the planks are joined actually feel “stiffer” (for lack of a better word or description). Should I worry? Thank you for your time, Vu Answer: Dear Vu You really cannot expect all 1800 sq. ft. to look perfectly flat like a table top. And most hardwood floor sanders don’t level the floor during the first sanding at a 45 degree angle. I do this on most of my floors unless the sub-floor and finished installation are almost perfect. But I charge premium prices for this custom service, along with really good finishing techniques. And unless you had spent a lot of time finding someone as thorough as myself, you would have received the industry standard job. And in most cases it’s good enough for floors. But that said the floor should have no or almost no over-wood showing. That’s when one board is slightly higher that the one next to it, and this MUST be sanded off. It just depends on what you can live with. If you payed a low price for this floor, then maybe these small defects should be accepted. While it may be true that you can only feel a slight waviness between the floor boards, given the right light in an empty room you might be able to see them. But who is looking that closely, or feeling that closely ? Oh, that’s right your Dad. But you think it looks fine, hmmm. There is one other factor that by now might be showing up, and that is a true warping of the wood itself, due to the fact that humidity in one side of the broad face is different that the other. This may show up in the middle of the winter, when you heat the house to dessert dryness, and the underside of the wood is somewhat exposed to a damp basement or crawl space. You do need to keep your indoor relative humidity to about 40-60% all year round if you want the floor boards never to warp, or shrink. Buy a wet-dry bulb hygrometer to measure this at http://www.e-sci.com. Order prod. # 848N635. The little cheap metal ones at the hardware stores are not accurate. If you do nothing else increase the humidity, it help the floor and your health. If you found this information helpful, please explore the Wood Floor Doctor.com by visiting the rest of our website.   As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: My kitchen has a beautiful red oak floor (toungue and groove I think) alternating 4″ and 6″ wide boards in varying lengths. Several boards near the appliances show some warping. It’s not severe, but you can feel it when you walk on it, and see it in the light reflected on the floor. I would like to repair it, if possible, avoiding replacement cost, and color matching problems. I looked at the area from the crawl space underneath, and saw some minor water stains in a couple of places, also not severe. I have electronic pictures if you would like to get a better idea of what I am talking about. Is a repair practical? Should I attempt it myself? Thanks Steve Answer: Dear Steve This warping of wide plank floor will always occur, mostly because they haven’t been installed properly, and also because of the excess moisture they will encounter in the kitchen. Let me explain. Kitchens are not good places for hardwood floors in general, and plank floor is quite unstable in this environment. You mentioned that the problem is near the appliances. This will happen near and under most frost free refrigerators. They all have a system that draws off excess ice from the freezer, and send it condensed as water down a tube inside the back of the fridge to an evaporator tray under the fridge. A fan blows warm air across the tray, and the water should evaporate at a rate to keep up with the frost removal. Except sometimes the tube in the fridge blocks and overflows out the base of the fridge on to the floor. Or during hot and humid weather the evaporator tray will not keep up and the tray itself will overflow. This will easily warp the wood under and near the fridge. The very best thing if this is the case is to remove the fridge, and check to see how bad the floor condition is. If the wood is very warped and even a little rotten, it may be best to replace just this small square with a waterproof floor like ceramic. It doesn’t even have to be visible when the fridge is moved back into place, but the end edges of the wood where you cut if off neatly has to be sealed with several coats of a oil poly finish. Wide plank floor will continue to warp when the indoor relative humidity ranges more than 20-30%. If it goes from 35% in winter to 75% in summer this is just too much of a RH range for the wood to remain flat. There is just no stopping this warping. And the floor should have been counterbored screwed and pegged as I describe in my plank floor article on the home page. You could do all this now, but I’m afraid it will be very difficult to get the floor flat again. And sanding it would remove a lot of wood, shorting the life of the wood quite significantly. So my best advice is to check the fridge and any other water source (oh, and sometimes a ice maker-cold drink copper pipe feed may have a leak, or simply summer time condensation) and fix this first. Make sure there is plenty of ventilation under and around the fridge, and consider replacing this little piece of floor under the fridge with ceramic (at the same level as the hardwood so you can roll the fridge back and forth. And then see it the wood settle down flatter on it’s own over a few months, once the moisture problems are solved. Then recoat the kitchen floor every 2-4 years with the same finish that is on the floor now. Unless this happens to be a factory finished floor. It will be a problem recoating this sort of finish. Let me know if this is the case, that it is a prefinished floor. It’s going to be expensive recoating this type of floor. Resanding should be considered as a last resort, and shouldn’t even be considered on a floor unless it is about 10-15 years old. If resanding is done, it might be a good idea, to have it screwed and pegged at that point. All in all this is an expensive job, and one that most amateurs best NOT tackle on their own. Although you could have it professionally sanded, and one of my finishing article would coach you through the finishing process. And like you said repairing in a tight spot like that is tough, and you have to get the exact same wood ro match. Prefinished wood floor repair badly anyway. Oh, and sure send me some pictures of how the floor looks now, it’s always a help.

Question: We installed a Robbins pre-finished (w/aluminum oxide) floor that has warped and cupped. We are currently going thru the process of invoking the warranty which supposedly guarantees against this damage. But I don’t elieve Robbins is going to stand by their product. Do you have any suggestions on how to live with this problem. It is very disheartening to have a mess after spending about $3,000 for a new floor!! Mary Answer: Dear Mary I’m sorry to hear of your troubles. I really need to know more about your situation, before I can make a comment on it . What type of hardwood was this, parquet, strip floor or engineered (laminated) plank floor ? When did you install it ? Who installed the floor ? What was the subfloor material (and thickness), and how was the floor fastened (nails or staples) ? Do you have a crawl space under the floor or a full heated basement ? And there are more questions please bear with me. Wood will always warp when there is more moisture content on one face of the board than the other. This most likely is not a manufacturing defect. It is something that occurred either because of an improper installation, or some adverse weather conditions. Is this a new house, and if so did anyone check the moisture content of the subfloor, before the wood was installed. Was the wood left for about a week to acclimatize to the indoor humidity levels of your house ? Did anyone check the moisture content of the wood when it was delivered ? At what stage was the wood delivered to the job, was all construction just about complete ? Is the warping occurring over the whole floor, or just certain sections ? Has the warping got worse over time ? And just how long after installation did the warping occur, what was the weather like during this period ? Can you send me a photo attachment by email of this problem ? I think robbins will stand by their product if you can prove it was not environmental conditions that contributed to this warping. But PROVE is the operative word here. But the installers may have something to do with this also. Please answer all those questions to the best of yur ability, and I will do my best to sort out the cause. I’m familiar with the Robbins warranty and it’s limitations, so I hope you have a strong case. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor

Question: what is the purpose of the vapor barrier under the wood floor?Is it always nessary to insall vapor barrier? Answer: Dear Tim Not much if you are going to install a nail down floor and punch a thousand holes through it. Some time ago we used flooring paper to speed up the installation, and it serves no other purpose. And as long as you have a heated ( in winter ) and dehumidified ( in summer ) basement under the floor you should have no moisture problems coming from under the floor. And it is always the moisture difference between one side of the board and the other that cause warping. But there are exceptions to this. When you live in a damp climate with a crawl space under the floor, a lot of things have to be done to prevent moisture from the ground from entering the hardwood floor. The first is a thick 1″ plywood subfloor ( several layers is OK). This will prevent the 2″ flooring nails ( never use floor staples ) from penetrating through the subfloor. They will only go in 7/8″ and leave a moisture barrier under the floor. Also lay a 15 pound roofing felt on this subfloor, before you lay the floor. Then there is the crawl space itself. It must be well ventilated in the summer, and at least 2 feet above grade, and the ground covered with plastic and dry sand. And possibly heat this space in the winter. Oh, and finish these floor on site, with Oil Modified Polyurethane, that will prevent inside moisture from passing into the wood in the first place. Prefinished floor have many open seams, that won’t stop the indoor moisture. These are all the real moisture barriers. If you found this information helpful, please explore the Wood Floor Doctor.com by visiting the rest of our website. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: I have just installed a Bruce Hardwood floor in my kitchen it is 3/4 x 2 1/4 plank tongue and groove prefinished flooring. How do I take care of it to keep it looking new? Do I wax it, and if so how often? Can I use the Swiffer wet? What type of area carpets can I put down, in front of the sink and stove? Are there special cleaners that can be purchased? I live in Winnipeg, Canada. Thanks for your help. Karen Answer: Dear Karen Bruce mostly makes the urethane prefinished floors these days. They may call it Dura Lustre or aluminum oxide or ceramic coating, just suffice to say this a factory conversion finish, and can be washed with water based cleaners. But for the whole story please use the search box at the top of the web page and type in floor maintenance to find the article on this topic. The first part deals with these floors. But it may be the older Dura Satin or waxed floor, be sure you find out. It should have come with instructions in the box. In this case read the second half of the same article, and I believe the last page deals with waxing floors. These floors cannot be washed with water-based cleaners.

Question: Do you know of any resources for learning how to hand scrape and/or hand flute, hardwood plank flooring? I have been looking for hours and can’t find any literature on the craft. Answer: Dear Heather I’m in the process of re-learning this art myself, when I get some spare time. And nobody I know has ever written about the hand scraping method. And considering it was used on all wood floors up until the turn of the last century, that’s too bad. But I’m sure you can also teach yourself. First is to get the right tools, and www.leevalley will get you started. The Veritas Ball Joint Scrapers prod. #05K21.01 is a copy of the original tool made about 100 years ago. So that said, once you buy this handled cabinet scraper you will first have to learn how to sharpen it, and buy all the tools to create the delicate curled edge that makes this type of scraper leave such a smooth floor on the first pass. You will need a jointer/edger and a burnisher. And you will have to buy the video or the sharpening book that explains how to create this working edge. All told it will cost about $150. And then spend some time creating that burnished edge and maintaining it. One hint, you should always round the corners of the scraper before you burnish it so that you don’t gouge the flat surface of the floor. This type of scraper is a whole lot different than the cheap paint scrapers we use to clean up the edger marks and the corners. Cabinet /floor scrapers will literally pull ribbons of wood off the surface, leave the wood smoother than if it was sanded. But the floors will in any case have to be sanded down to 80 grit paper, and edged well. You don’t want to use one of these old tools to take off over-wood like they had to do in the old days. Use it to create a scraped rather than sanded surface. And far a fluting the boards, I not sure I understand. There are Japanese hand planes that will chamfer and round the edges of boards, and beading hand tools, also in the Lee valley catalog. You could practically learn a new trade just by perusing their wonderful catalog, get one.

Question: We have fir floors and they have been sanded as many time as they can be. The floors are now worn and need something done to them soon, (it is in the middle of winter and we live in the Northeast.) Have you any recommendations for putting a strong finish, (we have animals) and we have to be able to walk on it in two or three hours. Have you any recomendations? And is this a possibilty? Thank You!! Happy New Year Les Answer: Dear Les You may not be able to sand the floor, but you can remove all the old finish with a chemical stripper, for more about this please read my article on this in the Floored News section. You may be able instead, to save the old finish, do various tests on the old finish as suggested in the second part of the floor maintenance article in the same section. And lastly be sure to read about my thoughts on the Orbital Floor sander in the case in point section. You see there are many alternatives to just sanding a floor. And by the way if you do intend to strip the floor to the bare wood, and want a fast dry finish read my article on the Dura Seal 1000 water based finish. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: I am buying a new house that has 50 yr old floors. The floors have been refinished in the past and the tounge and grove is almost visible. The contractor suggested new prefinished floors $4-$10 sq ft as opposed to refinish $5 pr sq ft and aleviate the potential problems of cutting too low into the current floors. Do you suggest any brands is the glued down install good? Also, can it be installed over ceramic tile which is quite solid with radiant heat? Thanks! Gordon Answer: Dear Gordon Let’s me first address the possibility of saving the old floor. There are at least 2 possibilities for saving the surface of the old floor without resanding it. The easiest and cheapest would be to have the floor screened and recoated. Please read my Orbital Floor Sanding article which can be found in the search box at the top of this web page (it’s free) and you will see how even a old worn and grey stained floor can be rejuvenated for about $2 per square foot. And if it’s the finish that’s just badly scratched you can simply touch up and recoat for about a buck a square foot. Or you can remove all the old finish with out sanding any wood off the floor, by reading and following the directions in my Chemical Stripping of Wood Floors article also found in the search box at the top of this web page. It’s a must read before you write off your old floor. It’s a medium skilled job, so anyone can do this work. I do it commercially for about 4 buck per square foot. But a good handy man would be able to accomplish stripping a floor with my method for less,I’m sure. And as to buying wood flooring installed for 4 bucks well it’s going to be pretty cheap stuff. The old floor has to be removed and the subfloor renailed it wood, or if concrete patched and leveled before a new floor is installed. So the contractor is not making a full comparison. Get the full price of replacing the floor you have with a similar floor. Make sure they include everything from removal and disposal of the old floor on to installing the base shoe and reducing strips. Get the full story. I’m also going to send you my “wood floors on concrete article” and as it’s suggests the BEST wood floor to glue to concrete (or plywood for that matter) is solid wood parquet. The next would be engineered wood floor, and so on. Yes you can still get unfinished solid wood square edged parquet from a company here in Canada called Groleau Inc at : http://www.groleauinc.com/en/products/t06t19.php I still use the T19 product, installed according to my article and sanded stained and finished on site. A silky smooth and very elegant floor. There is another company in Toronto here that makes more interesting patterns of a similar wood parquet called Satin Finish Hardwood Flooring at http://www.satinfinish.com/html/id3.htm Either of these products make the best glue down floor,when using my highly recommended DriTac 6200 adhesive. http://www.dritac.com I would really suggest removing all the ceramic tile to the bare concrete or wood subfloor, it seems nothing sticks well to the glazed ceramic surface. Not even lightweight cement leveling compounds. You should also read my article “HYDRONIC HEATING UNDER YOUR WOOD FLOOR?” Use the search box at the top of this page to find this article. Or click the link 1 below.