At Keri Wood Floors we offer is over 25 years of knowledge and experience regarding the installation and dustless sanding and refinishing of hard wood floors.
Preparation, quality of materials, equipment, and our craftsman skill level are key factors in the outcome of your flooring project.
A special note which I believe sets our company apart from many others: We never use Sealers, No lacquer or shellac based sealers under polyurethane.
Why not? For years, it became obvious to us that the floors we were re-finishing in relatively new homes (3 – 5 years old) had sealers used for the first coat. The general contractor would have one of the many flooring contractors who specialize in new construction work install and finish the floors in this manner. These floors would show significant wear in traffic areas and were very easy for us to sand off the old finishes that had a seal applied before the polyurethane top coat.
On the contrary, the old floors that a homeowner would refinish himself with rental equipment, with no access to fast drying lacer and shellac sealers, who would apply a low quality varnish or polyurethane bought at the local building supply store. As awful as these do it your self jobs where to look at, the cheap varnishes and urethanes applied directly to the wood were difficult to remove and would out last the so-called professional whose jobs we were refinishing on a regular basis..
Sealers weaken the final finish! They are basically used as an inexpensive way to make the finished polyurethane coats look thicker than they are. Sealers are fast drying, brittle, and shallow penetrating finishes by nature. These so-called sealers prevent the higher quality, much more durable polyurethanes from penetrating deep into the hardwood flooring – basically defeating the purpose of using polyurethane in the first place. If you walk into a home or apartment and the entryway looks gray and weathered, it is probably because the flooring contractor used a sealer toped with polyurethane combination. Causing the finish to wear off the floor surface after only a few years.
We do not find this an acceptable practice and we do not offer it to our customers. In fact, a national sales manager of a major coating manufacturer admitted to me that the use of these sealers as a base coat under polyurethane greatly degrades the performance of the polyurethane top coat. But most flooring companies use them because they save time and money.
We cannot guarantee your finish will not scratch, usually surface marks will happen specifically in high traffic areas – after all, we are walking all over them. However, our approach is intended to minimize or remove the need to re-sand the floor every 5 years or so, thereby extending the life of your hard wood floors. All that is needed is regular cleaning (with approved cleaners and a common sense approach). Periodically, if wear dictates it, the floor can be buffed and re-coated with polyurethane as needed, greatly extending the life and appearance of your hardwood floor.
If you are looking for high quality, long lasting hardwood floors, Contact us today!