Aliphatic Urethane for Hardwood Floor Refinishing

This was a project undertook by a member of Advance Coatings, co. starting in 2019. The overall project was for renovation of an office, which encompassed the following projects

• Renovate walls by returning to original Brick
• Remove carpeting, and restore original Hardwood Floor
• Open Ceiling, by removing drop ceiling tiles
• Rewire Electrical with accessible conduit
• Misc painting, drywall, trim, and wiring of low voltage.

Of interest to us here is the floor refinishing. This refinishing was done with the help of a Urethane we resell. This document will go into detail the full hardwood floor refinishing process in as much detail as possible (after the fact). This info will be useful to those interested in Refinishing, as well as those interested in general Urethane advice with hardwood. Note that this page is meant as an adjunct to the Aliphatic Urethane page. It is recommended to be familiar with that page as well.

Original Floor

Room Before Renovation: The rugs are difficult to clean. The drop ceiling hides the all wood joists / subfloor above, and the walls are dark / dusty. This project started, as a desire to remove the rugs, but led into renovating the remaining aspects of the room.

The office was originally a hardwood floor, from a building built in the 1930-40's. At one point afterwards, a black tar glue was put on the floor, followed by plastic (vinyl, perhaps) tiles. In the 1960-70's, there was carpeting installed, over the original hardwood and tiles. The first step was removal of the carpeting, and tiles.

Removing Tar Glue from Hardwood with Hot Water

Removal of the carpeting was uneventful, outside of some dust. Removal of the tiles was also effortless, however the black tar below was seemingly glued to the hardwood. An associate in the construction business was consulted, and he recommended hot water and scraping to remove the black tar.

The floor with rug and tiles removed. Here we have most of the black tar removed, but not all. There remains a glue film over the wood, with patches of tar to scrape. The tools used in this job are shown in the picture. The broom helped to push water around and soak it better into the tar paper. A scraper on the end of a large pole was essential.

The trick to the black tar that we dealt with, was to use lots of water, and have the water be as hot as possible. It was also helpful to let the water sit on the tar for some time, in order to soak in. In the end, no concern was paid to overwatering the hardwood, and ample amounts of water, along with some hours of scraping, led to a floor 95\% clear of black tar. The black tar left a detergent or glue film to the wood, but this was not a problem. The sanding would soon remove this.

Sanding the Old Floor

With nearly all the tar removed, it was determined to sand the floor. Two sanders were used on this floor, both rentals from the local Home Depot hardware store. We used the orbital sander, and the drum sander. The orbital was not effective. The drum sander was required. One step we missed here was that we didn't finish with a high enough grit on the drum sander. This was made up for later in the urethane stage, but if you are to sand a floor with a drum sander, we recommend starting low, and ending with the highest grit for drum sanders available (which is 100 for the rental we used). A result of the sanding ended up looking something like this:

The orbital sander did not fully sand the floor.

The drum sander was able to do the work.

Patching of the Hardwood Floor

Before you apply the finish, the floor should be relatively free of imperfections. Apply wood filler where needed. Wood powder or premixed wood putty can be purchased at retail stores. We recommend traveling to a retailer that specializes in hardwood flooring, as they tend to have a better selection than the big box retail stores. In our situation, we used Woodwise Powdered wood filler, as in the picture here.

Patching the floor is required before finishing, whether it be hardwood, epoxy, or a tile floor.

Testing of the Urethane

If you want to test the urethane before committing to the floor, find a small patch in the corner or an inconspicuous spot to apply some finish to. Here we tested two brands. Keep the spots small, so they can be sanded out without difficulty later.

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  Testing of various Urethanes in 1 Qt. cans. These spots turned out to be bigger than necessary. Keep the test area small to make removal easy.

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  Wood glue did NOT work well as a substitute for wood filler or putty. The wood glue does not blend in correctly under finish.

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  Here you can see wood glue appear dark, under the finish.

Cleaning Floor for Urethane

Just before applying the finish, thoroughly clean dust off the floor to prepare. Vacuuming, followed by tack cloths or damp rags can be used to get the dust off of the floor. Once you can put a tack cloth over the wood without getting much on it, you are ready for urethane.

The floor should be cleaned well before applying finish. Any dust left on the floor will remain under the finish as well.

Required Equipment for Urethane on a Floor

You will require the following items:

• Proper Mask (should be rated for organic vapors. We use and recommend Moldex 7000 series reusable half mask. Details at Aliphatic_Urethane
• 3/16 Nap Roller Brush 9in. or larger
• Roller and Pole
• 3 or 5 gallon pail to mix resin and hardener
• Tool to mix the urethane with
• (optional) brush for edges OR 4 inch nap and roller

Safety Considerations

The aliphatic Urethane we sell is aromatic, and also offensive in large amounts. Apply after hours, and do not work in the area the urethane is in, after applying (Also, do not apply the urethane where others are working, especially if they don't have breathing protection). It is best to apply at the end of a day, or a Friday afternoon or evening, when the room can be left to cure overnight. The urethane is a strong coating, but it also has a strong smell, and will overpower you, if you try to work around it without proper protection. At the least, apply urethane at the end of the day, and wear the recommended mask. The urethane will not bother you with the mask, but as soon as you remove it, you will want to leave the area to let it cure.