Painter stripped finish from wood floors

6 years ago

We recently had our doors and trim painted, and while they look great, we came home to find that the tape they used has stripped the finish off of our beautiful hardwoods. We now have splotches throughout the house, with a few long strips about 2 feet long. Apparently they used regular painter's tape, but it was left on the floors for about 3 days. The floors were refinished a few months before we bought the house, so we have no idea of the finish used.

Any tips on getting this fixed properly and blending in with the surrounding area? The contractor wants to try applying a similar finish to the affected spots, but since we don't know the exact finish, I'm not confident that this will blend with the surrounding wood.

Featured Answer

Godswood

6 years ago

last modified: 6 years ago

Also if Realtor were involved in your transaction you can connect with your agent who can connect with seller's agent who can ask who finished the floor or what finish was used. I would say this may be your best first step.

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Comments (7)

Godswood
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
I would let contractor try a few patch fixes billed to the painter, if it doesn't match to your satisfaction I would have entire floor refinished and billed to your painter. Painter should be kept in the loop for entire process so s/he isn't surprised but they did the damage and should be responsible for fixing it.
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SJ McCarthy
6 years ago
Sigh....regular painter's tape (aka "Blue" painter's tape) has a long and glorious history of doing this to polyurethane. Only the "delicate surfaces" tape (aka "Yellow" painter's tape) is allowed on hardwood/cork floors. And they still should never be left on for more than 1 day.

So...we know the painter needs to cover the costs. As Cami Peck points out, it is possible to reach the previous owners through your realtor. You simply need to find the company that did the refinish and then ask them back to do a touch up + recoat.

It is *possible to get patches on these floors, but they aren't a great idea when there are more than 3 or 4 places of damage. What will most likely happen is this:

1. The floor professional will add 1 - 2 "patch coats" to the damaged areas followed by;

2. A light abrasion of the floor + a single coat of finish applied over top to camouflage the patches.

The beauty of this system is you can take the time to ASSESS the patches. If you feel they are good or even "good enough" you can stop the process and get on with your life.

If you aren't happy with the patches (problems with gloss levels, etc), then the professional continues on with the process and does a light screening of the floor (very light sanding) and then applies a SINGLE COAT of finish over the entire floor. Voila. Everything looks nice and pretty once again.

It is vital that the finishes (oil based vs water based vs oil modified...you get the picture) match the original finish. That's why it would be SUPER HELPFUL if you found the original contractor. They will know what they used on your home and then they can take the right steps to ensure they use the same product once again.
Erin W thanked SJ McCarthy
PRO
GN Builders L.L.C
6 years ago
" We now have splotches throughout the house, with a few long strips about 2 feet long."

The splotches will be noticed after the touchup is made on Poly finished floor no matter how good anyone is, especially that big one (2' long) will stick out like a sore thumb.

If you want the floor finish look even, there is a process called "screening"... what they do is lightly sand entire floor surface without removing wood, just to even out the entire surface and they apply new Poly coat over your entire floor to make everything look the same.

Good luck
rwiegand
6 years ago
What GN said. Light sanding with disk or orbital sander then a new topcoat. Best to find out what the finish is and match it.
PRO
National Hardwood Flooring & Supplies
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Ouch damn painter, yup GN got it screen & recoat.
PRO
Vines Woodworks, Inc.
6 years ago
Yep it sounds like you’re going to have to refinish the floors dependent upon how picky you are, but I’ve never heard of painters tape pulling up flooring finish. If it was that sticky it would peel the paper off the Sheetrock. Whatever your floors are finyÿished with is junk & isn’t Flooring grade poly. Sounds like it’s the latex minwax or something like that. When we put balusters in they’ll leave the balusters covered in painters tape for days and weeks and the treads are always finished with the same finish as the Flooring & I’ve never seen it pull up the finish in the 20 years I’ve been doing this. I would suggest refinishing with something oil based or that fast dry stuff that dries hard as a rock. I can tell you that these folks saying to bill the painter for it. He didn’t put the improper finish on the floors. For Pete’s sake, he was obviously trying to avoid getting paint on the floor in the first place. Y’all need to stop blaming anyone but whoever refinished the floors didn’t know what he was doing or this thread wouldn’t exist. Best of luck to you! Hope it doesn’t turn out to be a nightmare but it sure appears to be headed that way!! Good luck & hope that helps!

Painter stripped finish from wood floors

Godswood

Comments (7)

Godswood

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SJ McCarthy

GN Builders L.L.C

rwiegand

National Hardwood Flooring & Supplies

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