Refinishing Hardwood floors – PROBLEM?
Hello, I recently decided to refinish my hardwood floors, which I had done in previous homes. However this time I decided to use wood bleach to lighten some dark stains. I thought I had neutralized the wood bleach and rinsed thoroughly and the stain went on fine and looked great. However, when I applied the first cheap drugs no prescription coat of polyurethane it took on a cloudy white appearance everywhere that I used the bleach and flaked off.
So i am wondering, is this going to keep happening with subsequent coats or should I be ok now? Please help!
They are oak. I did sand the patches after bleaching because the bleach caused the grain to raise. When you say wait, how long would I wait if it is soaked into wood?
@Brian
Using wood bleach on raw floor stains is very common, it isn’t chlorine bleach it is an acid. you spot apply it to lighten specific spots, not the whole floor. This typpe does not bleach wood white, it chemicaly breaks down the stain until natural wood color is reached but does not lighten the wood. Thanks for being so harsh though.
why in the world would you use bleach on a raw wood floor unless you want the whole floor to look that way. of course you are going to have this problem it is bleach and i am sure you also used a water based urethane on it too. i doubt very much if it will look any different i don’t care how long you wait.
What kind of hardwood floors are they? (Wood)
Depends on the grain or type of wood. Try and sand the patches you bleached a little (thats what I would’ve done from the beginning).
If not just wait a while, sometimes bleach soaks into the wood, and it sticks around for a while…
Actually CaseyP you are right on the money. The type of wood bleach you are using is called Oxalic acid. It will not bleach the natural color of wood just as you said. More than likely some residual residue remained in the wood grain and had a chemical reaction to the polyurethane, no matter if it is water or oil based.
As the first poster said, sand it lightly as you would in between coats of polyurethane. Most of the bad poly will flake right off. It might take some elbow grease to get off the cloudy stuff that didn’t flake. use very light grit paper and cheese cloth. Once you have it where you can’t see the cloudy or white spots anymore do two or three more coats and you’ll never see the difference.
The second poster either didn’t understand the question or is simply acting, either way you were right about the harshness. Slinging paint does not a woodworker make