New shellac slippery, old shellac isn't

[rnranimal]

Hello. My home was built in the 50s and has hardwood floors with original shellac upstairs. The wood was fine but there were some areas where the shellac had been worn through from an elderly person's walker being pushed along it. I did my best to patch the sections in the two rooms affected but for the hallway, I stripped it all, sanded lightly and put down two thin coats of Zinsser amber shellac. The color matched pretty much perfectly, which is why I stopped a 2 thin coats. That's when it looked right. Problem is, the hallway is now super slick when in socks. Like ice-skating slick. The old has a grab to it when walking in socks and this isn't an issue at all.

Any idea why this is and what I might be able to do to the hallway to make it not so slick? Could it just be the effects of time on the old shellac causing it to not be slick? Do I need to do more coats on the hallway? The old shellac looks to be thicker. I did a test section with another coat and while it seems a little less slippery, it doesn't have grab like the old stuff. Also, I'm concerned with it not looking right after putting another coat so I'm hoping to avoid it. But I really don't want a safety hazard either. I have a runner down now but there are a couple places where the slippery floor is still exposed.

Thanks for any help. I'm pretty new to this.

[Gothichome]

Hello, and welcome to the District. Fresh shellac, it’s slippery at least for a while. Give it time it will become less slippery. I don’t know if there is a way to remove the slickness of fresh laid shellac. Some one else here might have a sullution.

[KenN]

Can’t offer any advice on the slipperiness, but if you want to add more coats to thicken it up you can try adding a coat of the lightest color you can find, sometimes this is called Platina, which should be lighter than super blonde. I would wait to see if it gets less slippery over time with wear.

[phil]

you can get anti slip sprays, they put somethign on the floors in places like care homes. Its funny but sometimes they use too much and it can cause tripping. I guess as we walk and set our feet down we sort of slide out feet just a bit without noticing it. when they put too much anti slip stuff you feel like you are going to fall forwards or you are clumsy or something. It can definitely trip you up.

When I did my poly floors I laid a carpet with one of those rubber backer things under it. later it sort of stuck and left a pattern, so if it isn't quite cured watch out for that. I know this is shellac not poly.
heres an example but I imagine there are others. Does it affect recoating ? not sure.

https://www.rustoleum.ca/product-catalo ... /anti-slip

If I spray lacquer and dont want a super shiny finish I like to use the wool lube from Mohawk on steel wool. it sort of makes the steel wool last longer even though you use fine stuff and it leaves micro scratches but you dont see scratching it just sort of mellows the finish so it doesn't look like plastic. some use a bit of pumice powder on a potato sack. does the same thing. not sure where you get potato sacks.. I must be old burlap I mean..
I'd be tempted to let it harden up a bit then maybe use the pumice then you aren't adding a product , just working the finish a bit.
I poly'd my floors but I did oil on the stairs not wanting to create an issue there.

[1918ColonialRevival]

Blending new shellac with old is a bit difficult. First of all, the commercial shellac preparations are way too concentrated, meaning there is too much shellac dissolved in alcohol. When I'm working with old shellac and trying to blend repairs, I mix my own and never go over a one-pound cut, meaning a ratio of one pound of shellac flakes per gallon of denatured alcohol. Even then, you will still be able to see the area of new shellac. I'll then rub some denatured alcohol with just a little bit of shellac dissolved in it over some of the old shellac surrounding the touchup. This dissolves the layer of shellac that's already there and lets you "blend" the repair some. Sometimes it takes a few tries to get it right.

The good thing about shellac is if you don't like the result, you can wipe it off with a rag dampened in denatured alcohol and start over.

I will say, though that I and many other people who restore antique woodwork are not fans of the Zinsser pre-mixed products. Pre-mixed shellac has a finite shelf life and unless there's a date on the can, you don't know when it was mixed. If it sits too long, it starts to thicken up.

[rnranimal]

Thank you for the welcome and replies. One thing I forgot to mention was that I redid the hallway 4 years ago. I hadn't noticed it was so slippery because the runner was put back down. Then recently, the runner latex backing had been deteriorating and no longer grabbing. So I scraped and vacuumed all the loose backing and smeared silicone caulking over it and now it's fine. It was during this period of having no runner in the hall that I discovered just how slippery it is when my feet were trying to go out of from under me when walking on it.

I like the idea of adding more coats with lighter shellac. I tried cutting the Zinsser with more DA but that didn't help. I'm going to consider doing thicker layers of lighter color if it comes to that.

I'm going to research that anti slip spray. Affecting re-coat is definitely something that would concern me but I'm intrigued by it.

Also, I just discovered that my current socks are enhancing this slippery effect. That would be why I hadn't noticed it being so bad in the past the few times the runner was up. When I had my old socks on yesterday, they still slid but my feet weren't going out from under me. The new shellac is definitely too slippery but these socks are part of the problem. Not sure how to choose more shellac friendly socks next time, but that's another discussion. : )

My lack of experience in shellac made me shy away from the idea of getting into mixing my own. That combined with the fact that he pre-mixed looked pretty much identical on my initial tests for the repair 4 years ago, so I moved forward with it. The project was approached from the standpoint of making it good enough to avoid having to redo the whole upstairs floors. I accomplished that but it wouldn't pass a very high standard. It works to not stand out and there are various other imperfections over the floors like from where carpet was down and such, so it's more of an overall aged look anyway. It all looks fine unless you start to scrutinize it. Which was basically the standard I was going for. I was hoping I was done with it for quite some time but then this issue with the hallway was noticed and is a safety concern. If I decide to put down more layers, I will look into mixing my own of a lighter color. The thing is that when I did the hallway, I had to blend it into two rooms with the old shellac already down. I'm ok with the job I did but not confident in being able to put down more layers and not mess that up.

Yes, blending is very difficult. My initial research online made it sound like it was pretty easy. That was not my experience when I went to do it. Best I can do is make it not stand out. Seamless blending is not something I've figured out.

As far as pre-mixed being too old. I saw a test online where you wipe a thin layer on clear plastic. When it dries, if you can't scrape it off with your finer nail but can only make scrape marks, it's good. It passed that test so I used it with quarter round I was putting down in the last room that still had carpet, which I pulled up recently. The pre-mixed shellac being darker helped because the new oak was much lighter in color than the old. I need multiple layers to get it to look like the old wood. I'm quite satisfied with how it turned out as I feel it disappears into the old wood. I used steel wool to match the sheen of the old.

[Casey]

Your premixed canned amber shellac is 50% wax. Use dewaxed shellac for floors.Clear dewaxed applied over what you've got shouldn't change the color, just the slipperiness.

[phil]

I guess you said you used the silicone to re vitalize the rubber mat.
not sure if that type of silicone is an issue, but be aware that silicone can cause horrors for refinishing attempts. it is found in a lot of furniture polishes, the "pam" stuff you spray on pans, armor all, a lot of products with "secret trade ingredients" may contain it. It may be in various car polishes and waxes etc.
the stuff is invisible and when you go to recoat, if there is a contamination of it , it causes "fish eyes" this is where you get a spot that repels the finish, leaving a void. sanding and subsequent coats may not get rid of it.

I spoke to someone who took doors to a place that used to dunk them in stripper and refinish them. they shut down because they said they would get one door with a silicone contamination and subsequent customers ad refinishing issues so they stopped the operation.
I'd probably trend to the safe side and not use silicone unless its just around a sink hole or something where you need it. not sure if I'm over reacting about the mat but myself I avoid anything with silicone inside my house. I have no need for it and I dont want that sort of an issue around antiques etc.