I decided to re varnish the wood floor in the spare room. I sanded it down with 120 paper to get a key for the new varnish but then decided it would be a good idea to slap more stain on as the floor looked a bit tatty.

I then put 2 coats of new varnish on sanding in-between. It looks ace but I noticed today that if i dig my finger nail into it, it blisters. Not everywhere but in enough places that it’s going to look terrible with some use.

It looks like that the new varnish has not taken to the surface I put stain on. That could be because I did not wipe it down with white spirit after applying some stain but I am not sure. Is it possibly because I only put 2 coats of water based varnish down?

My question is, do I get the palm sander out and do it again or slap a few more coats of varnish on? Has anyone had this problem before? How did you solve it?

Sorry for the lengthy post but I hope someone with more experience can help out.

how long did you let the oil based stain dry for before applying weater based varnish?

if it was an oil based stain then what he said – the varnish is just resting on top of the stain.

I left it for 3-4 hours

I left it for 3-4 hours

That’s pretty tight for a quick drying stain and nowhere near long enough for a standard stain. I’d say its sander time if you want a proper job

Thanks guys. Looks like I didn’t leave enough time for the stain to dry. I just found a thread where they say 24hrs before applying varnish.

I wasn’t sure if it was a case of not enough varnish layers to build up strength but I reckon you are right, the varnish is sitting on top of the stain. I will sand it back and do it right!!

A quick post just incase anyone else has the same problem. I have taken a sander to the floor and sure enough the varnish I put down had not taken to the stained surface, I should have left it for at least 24 hours.

While sanding it tonight the newest layers of varnish just flew off.

My plan is to sand down to the stain. Wipe down with white spirit and allow to dry. Then I will do a test patch of varnish (2-3 layers) If it works (fingernail test) out I will do the whole floor.

Feel a bit of a tw*t for not taking my time over it but weekend DIY and all that!

If the stain was oil based then I wouldn’t use water based varnish