Bona Traffic finish on wood floors

Ask for the empty containers of Bona or just drop in on them. We just had the Bona Traffic used on our floors. The contractor made a big deal to show us he was using the good stuff and told us all about this product. He generally takes a great deal of pride in his work. We've worked with him on another apartment and trust him.

Hi jelj13, who did you use to refinish your floors? thanks.

I don't know the name of the firm. The contractor brought the firm in as they have worked on other large jobs together; they also did work on the contractor's house. I paid the contractor for the work as all the insurance, etc. supplied to the Board for the work came from the contractor. The contractor is the one that takes great pride in the finished project and subcontracts to very good people.

I can ask next week when the flooring firm replaces the bedroom floor or give you the name of the contractor. The bedroom floor was in such bad shape, it couldn't be refinished.

Has anyone seen herr field hamster?

We always use Bona Traffic. Great product. I dont think if you specify a product that the installer would use something else. If you don't trust the contractor you can ask to supply it and have them deduct off the price

I was able to get the name of the flooring firm. You can reach them at:
nikywoodfloors@gmail.com or 347-531-8812, owner Pepe

The flooring people came back repair some bad scratches caused by another contractor dragging heavy equipment and furniture around (thousands of times beyond the warranty of Bona). They sanded down the pieces of wood involved, stained them, and refinished as you would with the whole floor. You can't tell the scratches were ever there.

He said that there were many Bona products, Traffic being more durable and more expensive. He uses the "green" version to reduce the smell.

He also recommended the Bona kit for floor maintenance. I ordered the complete kit for $52 at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001IAEOF8/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The system includes: bona hardwood floor cleaner 32-ounce spray and 64-ounce refill, bona hardwood floor polish, high gloss 32-ounce squeeze, bona microfiber mop and pads. The whole kit is much cheaper than buying the products separately.

After I had the floors refinished, I had a serious electrical problem and had to immediately rewire the whole apartment. The walls were channeled and the baseboards had to be replaced. (They were already in bad shape and the removal of old wiring stapled to them and painted over many times made them a mess.) Despite the floors being covered with the heavy duty builder's paper and taped down, there was fine plaster dust all over the floors. I used a shop vac, the Swiffer Sweeper and then the Bona floor duster. Then I used the Bona spray cleaner with the mop. Everything looks great.

jelj13: Your update came up just as I was posting mine - amazing.

If you could do it again, would you still have done the floors before doing the other construction? I am thinking about the mess of doing 2000 sqft of flooring vs. a smaller section that may get damaged during other construction.

Thanks

Uesprospect,

I answered your other post but to reiterate, you are better off refinishing the floors now where there is no furniture in the apartment. If you have saddles throughout you will be able to do each room separately but it will end up costing you more money. If there are not transitions or saddles you need to do the whole floor at once.

When you are ready to do your other projects ask the contractor to install masonite to protect the floors.

Primer,

I appreciate your comments, as always. I did not notice whether there are saddles or transitions the couple of times I was there, but I will be going there in the next couple of days so will take notice. Depending on what I see I should reconsider.

We are going to be light in furniture (moving to a bigger space and tossing some of the old IKEA stuff), but even the bare minimum may be too much as you pointed out.

Thanks again

No, I would not have done the floors first. I would have put my furniture in storage, taken a short term rental, and done the floors LAST. In certain areas of the apartment, the contractor did put some Masonite down. However, regardless of what is put down to protect the floor, you have to pay extra for both the materials and installation labor. If you are doing plastering/sanding work, it gets into everything no matter how careful they are. A lot of the workers don't like to bother with clean up, so we had several discussions with our contractor about this.

Jelj13,

Is it possible you hired the wrong contractor? Maybe the contractor should have put masonite on all your wood floors, that is cheaper then putting furniture in storage and getting a hotel.

The plastering and sanding does get into everything but they did seal your floor and put down some coats of poly, no?

If you were doing everything at once I would not do the floors first but before you move in -100% you should do the floors first.

Jelj13,

I appreciate you had a bad experience but what you're talking about is not the norm.

My relatives around my grandparents etc. were trained in Sweden to do custom flooring/wood paneling/carving along the line of what you saw in the old luxury homes in Manhattan. They would not work on the floors until the rest of the construction was done. They followed the "top-down" approach, meaning floor work always came last.

The plaster dust comes off the floor easily, but it's a lot of work to deal with it on your newly finished floors. I don't think I hired the wrong contractor. He's doing work all over East End Ave, Park Avenue, Fifth Avenue, Central Park West, and Riverside Drive, apartments and town houses, and is in great demand.

Jel13,

I understand what you are saying, you should not do floors first if you are renovating other aspects of an apartment. Unless of course you need to move in prior to doing this work. You said your contractor was dragging heavy equipment on your finished floors. That sounds like they did not take great care in protecting your floors. Thats not good.

We work in apartments all the time without redoing floors, we protect them and are able to renovate bathrooms and kitchens without a problem.

The bottom line is this, if the floors are protected correctly they will be protected.