We have several years worth of wax and urethane buildup on our hardwood floors from a cleaner using Rejuvenate. There has been this dull dirty film that I've never been able to get out of our floors, so we had a floor guy come out to give us an estimate on having the wax/rejuvenate stripped and the floors recoated with polish. We have about 1300 SF of hardwood, and the estimate was $800. I had some reservations, and at the last minute I called to cancel, but the guy talked us back into having the floors done.

He came out yesterday and started on the floors - I hear him freaking out that he's never seen so much build up and that this job is costing him a ton of $ because of all of the stripper he's using (5 gallons, and he had 2 guys brushing the floors using brooms with metal bristles).

I tell him I'm concerned with how the floors will turn out based on what I'm already seeing, and he assures me it will look great once he's done. At this point there are dark spots in the floor where it is down to the bare wood. He tells me that my floor was always like that and that the Rejuvnate had been hiding it.

Long story short, my floors now need to be sanded, stained, and coated. There are parts of my floor where it is own to bare wood. Other parts you can see where the original polyurethane has bubbled up (and this is in low traffic areas where there wouldn't be wax buildup).

I started sobbing on the spot. At that point, all of my furniture was still outside, it was 6pm (job was supposed to be done at 3), my floor looks awful, and I had 2 screaming kids I needed to feed.

He offered to waive the cleaning fee and sand/stain the floors for $4k and my husband agreed to it because at that point it seemed like the path of least resistance, given the chaos in our house. My husband gave him a deposit of 50%.

The floor guy said the price he gave us was a discount (because he waived the cleaning), but when I called around today, the quotes I received are $1k less. He has since offered to knock down the price by $500. He said he is subbing out the job and they are using a water-based stain and the process will take 2 days (which seems quick).

He says he didn't anticipate this happening and that it's because we had so much wax on the floor and that's the risk we take when getting it cleaned, and I understand that to an extent. I know you can't predict every mishap, but my opinion is that he's the floor expert and he should have some idea of the risks of damage to the floor. I feel he should bear some responsibility for the cost of having to repair the floor.

Had I known this were going to be a possible outcome, I never would have done this. Is there anything else that could have caused the polyurethane to bubble up and come off of the floor? Strangely, this did not happen in the high traffic areas where there was the most build up - only in low traffic areas. There are also bristle marks everywhere.

Lastly, I'm really concerned about the quality of the sanding and staining his sub is going to do, given what I've seen.

Thanks so much for your help

You feel the pressure of having all your furniture outside, and no living space, so you want to get this over with. I can understand that. But if you can hold off on the quick fix, it would be better.



I'd be concerned, too. If you can buy time to get some other bids where you meet the contractors, I would do that. You may have to pay this company for some portion of the $800, but that may end up being better than him waiving the fee, and giving you a sub-standard sanding job.

If you're concerned about the furniture being outside, you can have a company come out and pack it all into a container that sits in your driveway. Or they take it to their storage yard, if you want. That's more expense, yes, but it takes some of the pressure off having to solve this problem overnight. They can't do a quality job on your floor in two days, no matter how many bodies they throw at it.

If you have someone who is going to sand/stain and finish your floor for 2.25 a sf over the phone I would question that alone. Guys in my cheap/ depressed area of the country get 2.50 to 3 for that scope of work especially using waterborne finish. Id be leery of a finish problem with all that stripper and wax on the floor even after a full re-sand. I would be sure to use something (parks universal sealer will work) that will lock that wax out thats buried in the heavy grain and in the seams between the boards or you could have some bonding/contaminate issues.

It would probably not be easy to prove this in small claims court. You would need to pay an outside consultant for their time, to inspect your job, and then appear in court. You have to bear all the expense to prove your case, and supposedly all these expenses are paid if you win. But even if you do win, it can be hard to collect.

KevinD wrote:


And that's part of why I'm saying that you should take a deep breath and be prepared to take the time to find the right company. There's really no substitute for meeting with the contractor, and calling their references. And it's not every company that can just pack and show up ready to sand the same week you call. You might get that, and I hope you do. It's going to take some searching, though. You want a finished floor that you can enjoy for years to come, and it's worth it to put up with some temporary disruption to get it done correctly.