What Made This Wood Floor Finish Turn Gray?

I received a call from an extremely frustrated contractor in the Pacific Northwest who was panicked because some areas of a floor he had coated with waterborne finish had taken on a grayish cast, and the finish was soft. He thought he had done everything by the book. He was already backed up on his jobs, and now he had to figure out what had gone wrong with this floor and how to fix it.

The contractor installed 2,000 square feet of red oak strip flooring over a plywood subfloor in various rooms of an upscale home. He carefully checked the moisture content of the flooring upon delivery and made sure that the moisture content of the subfloor and strip flooring were within 4 percentage points of each other before installation. After sanding, he came back the next day to apply the first sealer coat. He returned three hours later to apply another sealer coat. The next day, he abraded the floor with a pad and strip system, then applied the topcoat. During the application of each finish coat, he turned off the HVAC system, turning it back on a half hour after he was done with a coat, as recommended by the finish manufacturer. When hecame back the following day to pull tape from the transition areas and check the floor, he noticed that in some areas, the finish appeared gray and wasn't as hard as it should have been.

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