Hardwood Floor Hardening Time?

15 years ago

As part of our kitchen/family room remodel, we replaced the vinyl flooring in the kitchen with red oak laced in to match the existing hardwood floors in the family room, and had the entire floor refinished the same color.

We were out of the house for four days while the floor dried. Since we've been back, we carefully walk across the floor with our shoes off. We continue to air out the house with the windows open and have spent most of our time upstairs in our bedroom with the door closed, although now, one week later, the smell isn't too bad anymore.

My question is about hardening time. The flooring guy told us to keep everything off the floors "for as long as possible" while the floors hardened. Our hot water heater needs to be hooked up in the utility room, but to do that, we'll need to roll it across the hardwood floors to get there. But of course I don't want to risk rolling a heavy dolly across soft wood floors and leave any dents. Any idea how long we should wait before it's safe to move the water heater across the floors? What about how long we should wait before letting our contractor (with his buddy and their heavy workboots) come in to install the cabinets?

Thanks for any input!

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Comments (4)

kleekai
15 years ago
I'm not sure if there is a difference whether you had a water based or oil based polyurethane. We had a water based type and our guy said it would be 90% cured after 3 days and 100% after one week. To be safe, we didn't walk on it for 3 days and kept shoes off for one week. All dried well.
sombreuil_mongrel
15 years ago
You should plan on protecting the newly-finished floors with some thing irrespective of whether the varnish has reached its full cure. Cardboard (sometimes free with the cabinets and appliances) building paper, Ram Board, homasote, and masonite have all been used for a sacrificial layer. The key with any of them is not to allow any debris under the protection where it will be ground into the finish. That means all seams have to be taped, and the covering has to remain intact.
A dolly rolling a heavy object across the floor can leave dents in the hardest wood flooring, extra protection is required for that operation; At least 1/4" masonite.
Casey
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pugrolls
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks very much for the feedback!
petepie1
15 years ago
Had our floors finished with bona-kemi traffic water-based poly finish. We could walk on them lightly (in socks) after about 6 hours, walk on them in shoes in a couple of days, but furniture on legs in 1 week, and area rugs in 2 weeks.