Hello,

I need some help. I rented the sander and removed all the old finish and got the floors down to a good clean surface. I then used Gel Stain to put the wood to the color i was looking for on these old 1960 floors. It looked fine and then i proceeded to put on water based poly for 3 coats.
ISSUE that i now have is that the poly is already showing signs of wear and popping spots in the traffic areas. It also appears that my stain under the poly is fading in some spots. I am not sure what is going on and i have 4 more rooms that need to be done. I am using Diamond finish and its suppose to be for high traffic areas?????

Would it matter if i used oil stain and water poly? Any help would be appreciated as doing it myself is my only option.

Thank you!

Not sure what you mean by popping spots. Is the finish peeling away from the floor? If so, you've got problems. It could be stain/finish incompatability or the stain was not dry enough or you did not remove the excess stain after applying it. That "diamond" finish by Flecto is a "just ok" product and they do make their own stains, which should be compatable. If you are using hardware store stuff, I take it you got advice from the store clerk. They're not flooring contractors. It may be that you will need to do that room over again and this time use professional products that will perform and last. If this is something that you are considering, we can point you in the right direction.

I definitily will have to do the floor over again as it really is not looking good in the walk path areas. What i meant by popping areas is that i have areas that the poly appears to have opened back up to the wood area. It is circles that are close knit together and you can see wood.

Please advise on good product to use and where i can purchase the product. I really want to move forward with this product and appreciate your guidance.

Thank you!!

First, you will need to resand the floors down to bare wood. You can hire a pro or DIY but it must be done to industry standards. Read this:
http://www.nofma.org/Portals/0/Publicat ... Floors.pdf
As far as professional products, you can't go wrong with BONA finishes and stains. I recommend using BONA Dri Fast stain (if you are staining the floors) , followed by either BONA Traffic (2 to 3 coats) OR 1 coat of Bona Seal and 2 to 3 coats of BONA Mega or Pacific Strong. These are professional use products and are more money than the hardware store variety. You can try a local wood floor distributor and they can be bought online. If you PM me, I will tell you where online they can be bought.