Sometimes you need an expert

The next morning I took the buffer back and the guys at the shop ribbed me a bit when I said I had chickened out, but that was ok because that turned out to be a very wise move as you'll see in this post.

Our expert, whose name was also Matthew, came by and took a look. He said it could be dirt or it could be the poly we used (he wasn't a fan of minwax products) but either way he thought it wouldn't be too bad to fix. Half an hour with a buffer and another coat of poly and we'd be ready to go. We scheduled for Saturday, after they got done at another job, but luckily for us, they ended up having a cancellation on Thrusday. 

I say luckily, because instead of the initial 3 hour estimate, the poor guys were here 8 hours. That minwax poly did not want to give up the ghost and Matthew told me later that he was seriously afraid at one point that he wasn't going to be able to get the bubbles out. They also used a buffer and you can see in the pictures below, and you can see how gummed up the screens got. Matthew said he'd never seen anything like it and he was really glad we didn't attempt it on our own because he had to get pretty aggressive. 

So, after a long and tortuous 4 hours, they were ready to clean up. And we learned something interesting here too, not only do they vacuum and then dry tack, but they also do a wet pass with a rag soaked in mineral spirits to do a final clean. This was a step we missed the first time around and is, apparently, crucial to keep dust off the floor. You can see the before here after they got done with the buffing, kind of a cool pattern right?

He also used a different poly that you can only get in Kentucky due to the VOC laws in ohio. You can see the rags and the poly in the photo below. 

They also used a larger roller than we did, but at least we were on track with a rolling application. Basically one of them cut the edge and the other poured poly on the floor and just rolled it out. We were way more careful in our application, which is another learning point. But then again, when you don't know what you are doing you have to be a little extra cautious. 

We ended up going with a satin finish, which Matthew recommended based on the floor. I think next time we'd go with a semi-gloss because it was very matte, but all in all they turned out great and I was just really relieved it was finally done and over.