What Separates Pelican Hardwood Floors?
I’ve been in this business my entire life, and my passion for producing top-tier work has never stopped growing.
Justin Russell
COMMUNICATION
INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE
RELIABILITY
QUALITY WORKMANSHIP
“TESTIMONIALS”
My wife and I hired Pelican Hardwood Floors to install our bamboo flooring and they were nothing short of fantastic. Justin was very easy to communicate with, quick, professional, and on schedule - no long dragged out ordeal. I'd use them again in a heartbeat.
-Laird Valory
Justin is a strong communicator and has exceptional attention to detail. We entrusted him with the refinishing of damaged wood floors in a family member’s home and he did a great job!
-Matthew Voelkel
Project FAQs
The key to maintaining your floor is keeping the surface free of any grit and debris that could cause scratches or abrasions. For cleaning, damp mop the floor with a solution of: one cup of Windex or all purpose cleaner to one gallon of warm water. There are specific wood floor cleaners available, and if you decide to go that route – Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner is a good option.
The main thing to avoid is any oil-based soap or cleaner, such as Murphy’s Oil Soap. If these products are applied, it prevents us from being able to apply maintenance coats of finish in the future.
Maintenance coats of finish should be applied when the finish starts to dull in high-traffic areas. This indicates that the top surface is wearing away. In that case, we can come in and lightly sand the surface of the finish, then apply a new top coat.
One of the first things our clients ask us when we put on the last coat of finish is “When can we walk on the floors?” The next question that usually follows is, “When can we put the rugs and furniture back?”
Good questions and ones that need a good answer.
In a nutshell, cure time is the time it takes for all of the solvents or liquid carriers to evaporate from the finish and for the fumes to stop being emitted while it fully hardens. This all depends on the type of finish system you choose as well as things like the temperature, airflow and humidity levels.
On average, water-based finishes take 7-14 days to cure, while oil-based polyurethane takes 30 days.
Once a floor has fully cured, it can be subjected to long-term wear and tear without you having to worry excessively about damaging it.
But, cure time shouldn’t be used as a guide for when to move everything back into your home.
You don’t need to wait for a floor to cure 100% before you move back in and replace all your furniture and rugs. Your floors will be durable enough to move in way before the full cure time.
Dry time is complete when a finish has dried and cured enough so that it won’t sustain any damage from carefully walking over it. (You can put your hand to the floor and it won’t stick or leave a mark.)
Dry time for water-based finishes is 4-8 hours, while oil-based polyurethane takes 12-24 hours.
Dry time allows us to have access to the floors in between coats. That’s how we can apply multiple coats in a few days. With water-based finishes, we can do two coats on the same day in some circumstances.
However, we suggest you ask your refinisher for ‘permission’ before walking on floors between coats.
During this time floors are very susceptible to contaminants like outside dirt, oils, liquids and anything else that can be brought in on the bottom of your shoes or feet.
If you don’t have to go on them until the finish application is completely done, then it’s definitely better not to.
After the final coat is completed, we strongly suggest that there is no traffic on the floors for a full 24 hours. This will allow the completed finish to dry sufficiently and allow you to walk on it without damaging it.
In an ideal world, we would love our clients to wait a week before replacing their furniture, but we know that’s not always convenient or possible.
The single component water-based finish we use is cured in seven days. But it is also sufficiently cured and dry enough after 24 hours to have light traffic on it and to be able to carefully replace the furniture throughout the house.
The oil-based polyurethane finish we use takes 30 days to fully cure, and ideally no rugs should be put down during that time. Furniture can be moved carefully back into place after 24 hours.
We strongly recommend you put brand new felt pads (EZ Glide is the brand we recommend) on all furniture pieces before they are set in place so you protect your new investment. The old felt pads that may have been on there before could have picked up dust and small debris during the move and could scratch and damage the new finish.Be extra careful with rolling and sliding chairs during the cure time too.
As far as area rugs go, we really would like to see a full week pass before they’re put down over newly refinished floors (Unless you go with the commercial grade Pall-X Gold system which is 3 days or Magic Oil which is 24 hours). This will give ample time for the solvents in the finish to evaporate unencumbered and for the floor to cure.