[Mirage52]

Hello, first time poster here.

I recently had my hardwood floors sanded, stained and finished and I just had the guy come back to touch up some problem spots. Well, he seemed in a hurry to leave and when he removed a booger in the floor, he created a light spot in the stain. He didn't do anything about it, just put some poly over top of it and left. I discovered it as the poly was drying...maybe 10 mins after he touched it up, so I tried to wipe it up so I could re-stain, and made a mess of the poly. I know I shouldn't have tried to do it, I was just frustrated and angry.

I am finished with the floor guy, he's not giving me his time or his best effort, so I'd like to take care of this myself. How can I, 1) clean up/buff out the poly so it's smooth again, and 2) is there a way I can fill in the light spot even though there are now 2 coats of poly on it?

And finally, in other touch up spots, it looks like he just brushed on some poly over top of a finished floor. Does that need to be polished at all to avoid seeing a different finish when it dries?

Thanks in advance!

 

[cabinetman]

Can you post a picture? What exactly was the poly...oil base or waterbased?

.

 

[Mirage52]

I'm at work, so I cant post a picture. I will when I get home...not sure about poly. I know, a big help aren't I?

 

[Steve Neul]

Fixing a sand through spot isn't good especially if it happens to be in a conspicuous place. You can get it pretty close however I wouldn't expect it to be perfect. It will probably involve sanding the spot back to bare wood again on the spot and restain it. The problem is it will be either lighter or darker than the rest of the floor. If it is lighter you can supplement the color with dyes or toners to get it closer. If it is darker you will have to sand some of the color off.

 

[rrich]

I think that you'll have to sand the poly and stain off the one board. Then re-stain and re-coat with poly.

If you do less than the entire board it will show as a spot. Even if the board turns out to be a different color it will look as, "Oh that board was from a different tree."

 

[Mirage52]

Thanks guys. I am not worried about the stain being a bit lighter/darker since the floor is kind of a mishmash of both since the floor guys hurried their way through the job. Looks good enough, but I wish it would look better. My main goal is to stain the light spot, hope to keep sanded spot as similar to rest of floor as possible, and get the poly similar as well.

I ran out at lunch today and bought some 220 sandpaper, mineral spirits and some clear satin poly (our floors are satin). I might wait for the father-in-law to help me with it, but I might give it a try myself if I have the time.

 

[Mirage52]

Here's a picture of the mess...the hazy white is the smeared poly. The bright USA-shaped light spot in the middle is where the booger was removed, taking the stain with it.

 

[cabinetman]

Here's a picture of the mess...the hazy white is the smeared poly. The bright USA-shaped light spot in the middle is where the booger was removed, taking the stain with it.

If you start sanding, you'll make a bigger spot. I would first try to just color in the spot. Use a stain or the stain if you have it, and a small artist brush. Wipe the area clean with a lint free cloth. Wet the brush with the stain and dab it on a dry rag so it's not runny wet or totally dry. You want to try and drag the stain thinly over the light area. Try to fade it in with the grain. An almost dry brush won't spread out the stain. Once you fill it in, and let it dry, recoat it with the clear.

This is just one method, and likely the easiest to try first.

.

 

[Steve Neul]

If you don't sand and expose the raw wood again the stain won't be able to work as you can't stain over poly. As far as sanding with 220 grit you should sand the wood to the same grit it was originally done. If you sand it finer than the rest of it, it will definitely be lighter in color.