Oak Floorboards - Satin Finish Looks Uneven

eckorock on 21/12/2021 - 12:50

Hi,

I had Oak Floorboards (4mm / 15mm Raw Engineered) installed recently

They were sanded and finished over the weekend (17th and 18th Dec) … on the 18th they were polished / varnished.
It was very hot that day. (34C+)
I'm thinking that maybe the heat negatively affected the quality of the finish.

The finish my wife chose was a clear water-based SATIN finish.

To my eyes, there is an 'orange peel' effect, and the finish looks uneven.
It's not super obvious, but some parts of the floor look different to others, or at least it doesn't look smooth to me.

My wife thinks it looks fine, and she says she didn't notice it until I pointed it out. She even said "that's how it's meant to look."
However it was one of the first things I noticed when I went to the house yesterday.
We are going to contact the flooring guy and get him to come out and inspect it, however I wanted to get opinions first on whether this is a big deal, or 'normal' for satin finishes.

Please check out the image, tell me if I'm imagining things or if the quality of the final product looks a bit strange.

If so, is there anything that can be done to fix it?

image:
https://imgur.com/a/D4qhHA4

Thanks.

Home & Garden

Comments

  • rambao9 on 21/12/2021 - 12:59
    +3

    Need more photos from different angles.

    I can see the orange peel though, according to google, it is because it "dried out too quickly"

    "If the surface of the finish has a texture that resembles an orange peel, the problem may have been caused by rolling a finish, which then dries too quickly. When that happens, the texture is "frozen" into place before the finish has a chance to flow out and level. The solution is to screen and recoat.31 Mar 2003"

    Sounds like you might need to flooring guy to get it redone on a not so hot day

    I did my sanding, polish myself and did not have the above issue occur, granted it was not 34C+.

    • eckorock on 21/12/2021 - 15:55

      We are moving all our furniture across on Friday so I don't think we'll be able to get it re-done unfortunately.
      But yeah I think the weather might have been the reason, or the maybe the guys rushed the job.
      But I don't think satin finish should look like that up close, it should be smooth.

  • Drakesy on 21/12/2021 - 13:31
    +3

    Looks fine in fact pretty good, honestly, no one's going to look at the floor that closely.
    Given that it's satin as well it's not obvious
    After a year of use/scuffing/mopping, the scratches will hide any orange peel effect.

    Have Jarrah floorboards with a gloss stain and that's far more obvious, not worth the effort to sand back and re seal.

  • JimB on 21/12/2021 - 14:02
    +2

    Again, need more photos with some downlights.

    TBH, it's not that bad.

    I suppose another question was how much did you pay for the sanding and coating? how many sqm?

    If you paid top dollar for a premium finish, get them to buff the floor and then put one more coat.

    If you medium, then it's 50/50.

    If you paid a low price, then, you paid a low price for a reason.

    The good news is, after a couple of years, you won't notice it and in 15-20 years, sand it back and it will be like new again.

    • eckorock on 21/12/2021 - 15:50

      I believe 120m2, we paid around 15k all up for materials and installation
      (living room, kitchen, stairs, 3 bedrooms)
      Price seemed reasonable without being too cheap or feeling expensive.

      • JimB on 21/12/2021 - 16:03

        That's a reasonable middle of the range price.

        I'd get the installers back and let them know that you're not too happy with it and see what they say.

  • apsilon on 21/12/2021 - 14:02

    It's not right IMO but it also doesn't look bad. Keeping in mind you only have 4mm of material to work with and it's already been sanded once, doing it again is going to shorten the life of the floor as you likely won't be able to get them done a third time in the future.

    • JimB on 21/12/2021 - 14:28

      You can just do a very light sand/buff and give it one more coat. That won't take off any timber.

      They very light sand/buff in between coats anyway.

      • apsilon on 21/12/2021 - 14:36

        To remove orange peel you need to knock the peaks down level with the lowest points. It's more than a light buff. They're obviously not good at it so they're going to either end up taking it back further than necessary or they're not going to take it back enough. It's a risk for little gain IMO.

  • godofpizza on 21/12/2021 - 14:40

    is the actual surface smooth or bumpy? how many clear coats ( and time between them ) were applied?

    • eckorock on 21/12/2021 - 15:52

      It's fairly smooth, more just a visual thing.
      From a distance it's not particularly noticeable.

  • larrydavid on 21/12/2021 - 17:05
    +2

    Take it from me, you won't notice it after a few weeks. You've only got 4mm (probably less after the initial sanding) to work with, so sanding it down again could take away from any change you look to do in the future.

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