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Everyone talks about durable finishes. What's the most durable? That's kind
of an open-ended question because it's also in how you treat your floor and
your finish. But from the perspective of what you can pay a contractor to
do and what you can get for your money, I'm going to explain that right now
in a way that's very clear and transparent.
Solids content is a big deal for your finish. As your solids content goes
up, so does your level of protection. Cheap finishes are low in solids
content and therefore low in protection. Application rate is key. Just
imagine painting a wall. Someone who's a good painter using a good finish
can come in and in maybe two coats get a great-looking wall. But using
crappy paint and pushing it thin, you may take four or five coats to put on
and cover that wall adequately. So application rate is key. More coats does
not always equal better. In fact, if you stack too many coats, over time
you can actually trap solvents between the coats and the coat will never
actually dry properly.
And then catalyst type: A catalyst is a chemical hardener added to the
finish to make it dry and cure. Air is one method, traditional poly would
be that, or chemical. Yeah, chemical dries better. It's a more consistent
dry time and it's a harder, better finish. But by the same token, consider
that a catalyzed finish costs more to us, costs more to everyone involved.
One final hidden thing that I want to talk about, this really does impact
your durability, is sanding procedure. If you come in with a rough sanding
procedure and then you don't properly sand that to a smooth floor, you can
get a lot of open grain, crevices and the finishes will actually fall into
those crevices. If you sand a floor properly and really polish it well so
that you still have adhesion, your finish is actually going to stand way
above the floor, as you can kind of see in this little diagram.
So those are the big, big keys you want to ask about: your sanding
procedure, the finish, how they apply the finish, are rollers going to put
on the finish the thickest. So hopefully that explains things in a way that
may help you in deciphering your three or four or five estimates that
you're getting. If you have any questions, email or call.