Built a spec last winter that has “Brazilian” Cherry floors. Finisher put a latex finish on it and after a while the floor started to bubble where ever it scratched and along some of the butt ( you know what I mean) joints. He agreed to refinish the floor. Its been done, but was unable to buff it without putting swirls everywhere. Tried to eliminate them by manually screening them out with the grain, which left long wide scratch marks on the floor. One more phone call and he returns with orbital sanders and sands the scratches out leaving behind minor swirls in the floor. Home owner notices the swirls and says, luckily, Im O.K. with it. Ive been around this guy for 6 years or so. Has a couple of jobs with sub-par results but is reliable and resonable. He still has no idea why he is getting swirls in the floor. The heat is on, the floor is drying for 24 hours or more and just cant keep the swirls out. Whats up? Bobby
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I'm certainly no floor finisher ...
that said ... I remember a coupla years back when Luvditchburns had talked about an unbalanced sanding drum on the sander being the main culpret in some screwed up floors that showed up on this site ...
I think the poster in that thread even came back to say he mentioned to his floor guy to have his machine in for a tune up and the sanding problems magically went away.
Not sure if it left swirls or other problems ....
Maybe a real floor guy will stop in and confirm or deny my guesses.
Jeff
Buck Construction
Artistry in Carpentry
Pgh, PA
I'm no "real floor guy" but I've laid my share of hardwood (mostly oak) and just got done putting down 750' of brazilian cherry in my own home. Compared to oak, you really have to be conscientious with your sanding routine with braz cherry because it's sooo hard. If you skip any grit levels, the subsequent finer grits can't remove the swirl scratches left by the coarser grits...the harder you sand with finer grits it just ends up burnishing the wood. Also, because it's so dark and dense i think it tends to be more reflective...sanding imperfections really stand out as compared to an open pored wood like oak.
Edited 11/24/2004 6:33 am ET by Coz