Shellac OVER Polyurethane (not under) - aka a flooring refinishing issue
 

I am restoring a 1920's Craftsman home and am having an issue with my
flooring refinishers. Here's the scoop...

The upstairs floors are pine, 75% of the flooring was in great shape
and 25% had to be replaced with new planks. After the planks were
replaced we had the entire area sanded. We asked the flooring
refinishers to try to match the natural ambering in the original wood -
theoretically with Shellac - as the original floors had no stain and
just Shellac on them. Instead, they have put 2 coats of polyurethane
on them and are coming back to do a third coat Friday.

What we have ended up with is a room that has a bit of ambering in the
old sanded wood, light blonde new pine and a plasticky gloss
polyurethane finish. In short, it looks awful.

The flooring company is saying that they told us they were putting on
poly and no stain so will only offer a 10 cent a foot discount for
re-sanding and re-finishing.

I've been searching online to see if anyone has used Shellac over
polyurethane and can't find any info. I am hoping we can just put on a
couple coats of Shellac without sanding, let it cure and then wax the
floors--any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Shellac OVER Polyurethane (not under) - aka a flooring refinishing issue
 

"spud" wrote in message
ups.com...
I am restoring a 1920's Craftsman home and am having an issue with my
flooring refinishers. Here's the scoop...

The upstairs floors are pine, 75% of the flooring was in great shape
and 25% had to be replaced with new planks. After the planks were
replaced we had the entire area sanded. We asked the flooring
refinishers to try to match the natural ambering in the original wood -
theoretically with Shellac - as the original floors had no stain and
just Shellac on them. Instead, they have put 2 coats of polyurethane
on them and are coming back to do a third coat Friday.

What we have ended up with is a room that has a bit of ambering in the
old sanded wood, light blonde new pine and a plasticky gloss
polyurethane finish. In short, it looks awful.

The flooring company is saying that they told us they were putting on
poly and no stain so will only offer a 10 cent a foot discount for
re-sanding and re-finishing.

I've been searching online to see if anyone has used Shellac over
polyurethane and can't find any info. I am hoping we can just put on a
couple coats of Shellac without sanding, let it cure and then wax the
floors--any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

What makes you think that the ambering is from shellac and not from age or a
different species of wood? Shellac doesn't penetrate deeply, if it's still
"ambered" after sanding then the cause is not shellac. Putting clear
shellac over polyurethane isn't going to change anything, putting orange
shellac over polyurethane isn't going to change anything except that the
whole floor will be darker. I'd be very surprised if it held up for any
length of time.

Basically at this point you need to either sand the entire floor down and
stain the mismatched boards something close to the right color or pull them
and replace them with the correct species and grade, possibly recycled, then
refinish with what you want to use--personally I'd go with polyurethane on a
floor.

Next time read the contract and be sure that what is says is supposed to
happen is what you want to happen.

Shellac OVER Polyurethane (not under) - aka a flooring refinishing issue
 

spud wrote:
I am restoring a 1920's Craftsman home and am having an issue with my
flooring refinishers. Here's the scoop...

The upstairs floors are pine, 75% of the flooring was in great shape
and 25% had to be replaced with new planks. After the planks were
replaced we had the entire area sanded. We asked the flooring
refinishers to try to match the natural ambering in the original wood -
theoretically with Shellac - as the original floors had no stain and
just Shellac on them. Instead, they have put 2 coats of polyurethane
on them and are coming back to do a third coat Friday.

What we have ended up with is a room that has a bit of ambering in the
old sanded wood, light blonde new pine and a plasticky gloss
polyurethane finish. In short, it looks awful.

The flooring company is saying that they told us they were putting on
poly and no stain so will only offer a 10 cent a foot discount for
re-sanding and re-finishing.

I've been searching online to see if anyone has used Shellac over
polyurethane and can't find any info. I am hoping we can just put on a
couple coats of Shellac without sanding, let it cure and then wax the
floors--any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

You might chalk it up to a learning experience. And ... shellac on top
of
poly? Unless the poly is properly sanded, you just might be able to
pull
a sheet of resin (shellac) off the flooring.

Me- I'd get used to it, and learn from it. With luck, new wood may
darken.
Especially if exposed to sunlight.

J

Shellac OVER Polyurethane (not under) - aka a flooring refinishing issue
 

spud wrote:

I've been searching online to see if anyone has used Shellac over
polyurethane and can't find any info. I am hoping we can just put on a
couple coats of Shellac without sanding, let it cure and then wax the
floors--any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

I don't know if there's any issues with shellac being on top of
polyurethane, someone else with more finishing experience might be
able to answer that. When I have used shellac as a finish, my
experience has shown it's softer than polyurethane. So my inclination
would be that even if there's no issues with it being on top, it
would damage too easily to be used for flooring.

Maybe it would be possible to put on a few coats of shellac, and then
more polyurethane on top of that to fully protect it. But someone else
with more finishing experience would have to answer that one.

--

If you want to reply via email, change the obvious words to numbers and
remove ".invalid".

Shellac OVER Polyurethane (not under) - aka a flooring refinishing issue
 

I suggest you post your question in the forums at
homesteadfinishing.com
The folks there really know what they're talking about.