Adding additional coats to recently installed oak floor

We recently had a solid red oak hardwood floor installed in our newly remodeled kitchen. Everything went fine with the install and I feel I got a great deal (floor looks good, blended well with existing floor, etc.) except it needs another coat or two. When I refinished our existing floors about 15 years ago, after doing the sanding, I used a sealer and I'm thinking at least two, maybe 3, coats of a water-based finish. It came out fine and I'm happy with it still. On this floor, the contractor did the same but only put on one coat for the finish. I'm pretty sure it was water based as there was no mixing (as in a 2-part) and it cured quickly (overnight). I just seems rather thin and the grain lifted a bit where some water sat on it. I've called the contractor and, to make an already long story shorter, am getting to the point where I just want to get it done and think I should do it myself. It's been about 30 days since the top coat was put on. So, here's some questions:

1. Aside from that the contract "should" put on another coat, are there any technical reasons I shouldn't put on another coat myself? I don't know the exact brand of top coat he used. It was in a white "rectangular" container and is a satin finish. Any idea what brand this is and/or are there any compatibility issues if I end up using a different brand of water-based sealer? Oh yeah, he said it was about $100/gallon. I did a Google search, maybe it's Bona Traffic?

2. Would you normally have two or three final top coats?

Thanks,
Biederboat

 

Standard practice is to apply 3 coats of poly to the floor! You sand between coats both for adhesion and to make the finish smoother. There shouldn't be any issue applying a different brand as long as they are both of the same base [waterbased or oil based] There are water based floor coatings that use a cataylist although majority of floor coatings.

 

Thanks! Just to be make sure, while I'm reasonably certain it was water-based, the top coat did have a "oil-based" (i.e. some solvents) kind of smell but it dried hard overnight. Does water-based have any kind of "solvent" smell or would that be a polyurethane finish?

BB

 

Waterbased poly shouldn't have any solvent smell. Was there a stain applied first? There are also some new hybrid polys that are waterborne. I've not used any of them although I have used a lot of waterborne enamel and it doesn't have any solvent odor that I've noticed. With decent drying conditions [dry/warm] most polys [any type of base] will be dry hard enough to sand and recoat overnight.

Unless you can confirm that a waterbased poly was used, I'd be inclined to sand lightly and apply 1-2 coats of oil base poly as that way you are almost guaranteed there will be no adhesion issues. Oil base polys dry to a harder film than their waterbased counterpart which results in better/longer wear. The only downsides to oil base are the odor and increased drying time. Oil base poly will deepen the colors naturally in the wood when applied to unsealed wood but that shouldn't be an issue as long as you don't sand down to raw wood. Oil base will also amber a little as it ages but I've never heard of anyone complain about it.