“we have the hickory sunset hand scraped finish wood flooring, the installer used lacquer thinner to wipe up a certain area. the finish now looks and feels different in that area. is there a way to correct this problem? help please!!!!!”

Hickory Sunset from our Handscraped Series in the Urban Lifestyle Collection

We’re leaving out the name to protect the innocent but thought this was an important tidbit of info to share with ya’ll.

Lacquer thinner should NEVER be used on finished flooring, because it will strip the top coat and there really isn’t a way to get the poly urethane top coat back to match the other wood planks once it’s gone.  The only way to fix this is to replace the damaged planks with new ones.

When you are a contracted installer it’s tough to admit error especially when there is money at stake but this is where a code of solid business ethics comes into play and you “man-up” to responsibility and learn so it never happens again.  If an installer makes a mistake they should guarentee their work.  If they make a mistake they should fix it.  As consumers we don’t always know best which is why we hire professionals to do certain jobs in the first place right?  We depend on their advice and expertise.

This is a particular case where an installer was at fault not the end user.  Just remember when it comes to your hardwood flooring the Urbanfloor website has a great FAQ page with a plethora of info and right here on our blog site we have a tab called ‘Ask Ron‘ where you can ask any question you have to Ron Call “Your Urbanfloor Guy.”  Ron has over 30 years of experience specializing as a flooring contractor.  If you’re ever in doubt, have installation questions, what you should prepare for when gettng new floors or best practices for taking care of your hardwood flooring… Just Ask Ron.