Thomas Penrose
12-31-2005, 9:41 PM
I am applying Varathane oil-base floor finish to 1,000 sq ft of white oak flooring. Half of it is brand new, the other half is 40 years old. In one bedroom only, I am getting minor alligatoring of the finish over much of the floor surface. It corresponds to the grain pattern on the boards for the most part, and is not a really heavy alligatoring, but more of a wrinkling that looks like a pronounced raise of the grain. It is clear that the finish is not well adhered in these areas though. I am not having the problem in any of the other rooms, nor am I having the problem with any of the new wood I installed. I assume that something may have been spilled or applied to the wood in the past, and that it was not removed when the floor was sanded. The problem had not been too pronounced with my first coat of finish, but there were quite a few boards with a pronounced raised grain effect, which I sanded off. However, the problem only became more pronounced with the second and third coats (I sanded between these coats as well). Now that the third coat is drying, I see that it is all over the place in that room, and I am wondering if my only choice is to sand down the entire room again, and seal it with something (clear shellac maybe?), and start over from the beginning. Or, can I wait for the floor to dry, screen it off really well, and then seal it with something and then just apply another coat of polyurethane?