FLOORED

Does this looke like satin to you? This is after it dried. You can clearly see the line between the previous application and the new application.


Well, I'm floored. I can't believe it. I want to scream and cry and throw things. I have been working on the foyer floor for a year and a half. I have been waiting for everyone to be gone from the house at one time (which almost never happens) so that I could put the final coat of poly on. (Last time I tried to poly with people at home, Tee tried to jump over the wet area and tripped on the stairs and almost broke his leg. I decided then that it wasn't worth killing a family member to fix the house, I would wait to do floors until the house was empty.)
Today was the day. Tee was on a business trip, the kids at school. I planned the whole day around finishing the floor. I swept it, I cleaned it with wood cleaner, I got the tack cloth out and got up every smidgen of dust. Then I got out my brand new can of Minwax Fast Drying Satin Polyurethane. I opened the can and stirred it up and then began the application with my brand new brush. It looked great. I only did a small strip, about three feet wide by about five feet across, because I wanted to be able to get up my stairs, and because since that is the area in the house that gets the most foot traffic that part needed another coat.
I put up the supplies and straightened up the house and went upstairs to pay bills and watch TV.
After a couple of hours I realized it wasn't drying. I went to the garage and got a little fan and closed all the windows and turned on the AC full blast, thinking that lowering the humidity would help. A little while later, while looking at it, I reached down and touched it. OMG. It WAS dry. I broke out in a cold sweat. Those of you who have read my previous blogs about all the trouble I have had with the foyer floor will know why I suddenly felt sick in the pit of my stomach. Why why WHY???! I went and looked at the can. Yes, the can said SATIN, plain as day. But the floor was now as glossy as it could be. Now I had a floor that was three fourths satin and one fourth glossy.
Now I could just do the whole floor glossy, but that is not what I wanted. This hundred year old floor is imperfect. I wanted to give it a satin shine so that every little divot, speck of dust and minute dip in the wood (especially with all the trouble with the belt sander, before) would not show.
So I called Minwax, and they tried to tell me that I didn't stir it. I told Minwax that yes I did stir it. They checked the batch number and said they hadn't had any trouble with that batch. They offered to refund me the money for the can, and told me I could use some fine sandpaper (I will use steel wool) and scuff it up and then apply the finish I intended. All I know is This means a whole lot more work on that foyer floor, when I would have been totally finished tomorrow.