Replacing and Refinishing A Junkers Ballroom dance floor .

[John Urban]

Hello I am seeking information on the best product to use for refinishing a 1900 square foot hardwood beech dance flex floor like the one used in DWTS. We purchased a floor from Junkers in 2019 which had discrepancies in the groves for the clips . Although it was the same lot it caused the clips to unseat making our floating floor a very noisy one that also caused the edges to catch our suede bottom shoes. We expressed our disappointment and Junkers sent us new lot of wood . After taking out the old floor and putting in the new one we thought our problems would be over but this replacement floor had problems too. The ends on 135 boards were catching our shoes. It was a huge issue . We contacted Junkers again but they would not replace the floor and instead told us a sand and refinish is all they would pay for and that they would supply Junkers HD commercial and prelak for refinishing the floor and pay the contractor to apply it. We argued our point Vehemently but this was what Junkers told us we had to do . The application went horribly wrong. Their product coagulated and left clumps and stringy coagulate on the dance floor that required resanding twice! Our contractor had never experienced such problems . He had a lot of success with Bona Products in the past but never worked with Junkers refinishing products. Junkers is blaming us for the failures. We have done everything We can to make sure installation and refinishing was done properly. We have humidity control with AirConditioning, space was left on the sides for expansion and the directions for application of the finish were followed exactly. We need another product to apply but I am only seeing Bona Hd High Traffic and Bona HD Clear. What have you experienced and what do you recommend? BTW it seems that all the west coast floors from Junkers have not experienced the problems we have. They get their wood from a dry storage environment. We got our wood out of a NJ warehouse . That may be the issue or it may be a milling issue or just bad luck. Anyone with similar issues or experiences with Junkers and refinishing ballroom floors to match Junkers coefficient of friction please let me know. Thanks !

 

[dancepro]

I suggest contacting Junker and ask them what they suggest. Make sure to tell them that you are using the floor for dancing. You might be better off contacting the Danish office as they are more aware of the use of Junker dance floors.
In England my teacher always used a very light coat of linseed oil. He would have me mix linseed oil with sawdust and spread it on the floor. We would leave it over night and sweep it up the next day. It made the surface absolutely amazing to dance on. It does require that the floor is not covered with polyurethane. It needs to be a clean raw wood floor.

 

[John Urban]

Hello and Thanks for your reply. Linseed oil and sawdust?! Wow! I have never hear of this . We require anyone dancing on our floor to wear suede bottom shoes so I could not use this oil as I am worried about the residue that might accumulate. The company is Junckers Hardwood Inc. I said Junkers but it may as well be JUNK at this point.

 

[dancepro]

Hello and Thanks for your reply. Linseed oil and sawdust?! Wow! I have never hear of this . We require anyone dancing on our floor to wear suede bottom shoes so I could not use this oil as I am worried about the residue that might accumulate. The company is Junckers Hardwood Inc. I said Junkers but it may as well be JUNK at this point.

It is important to use a very light coat. All the dancefloors in England used that back when I competed. My teacher used to say “it is a dance floor not a showroom”. It might not work for you if you don’t want it to get a little darker and get a shine to it. I love the look and the smell (probably damaged by a crazy dancer) so I linseeded my wood floors in my house.
It is a process that take a little effort and experience. I am willing to go over how I was taught to do it. Email me if you are interested...