Expert: Greg Scholl - 12/10/2011

Question
Hey Greg!

I got a new kitchen table about a year ago...it is black, seats 8 with leaf.  Some of it is wood, but I think the table top is some kind of pressed wood.  The manufacture recommends that you use a table cloth and not put drinks directly on the table because it could mess up the finish or leave watermarks.  With my husband and three kids, having to be that careful with our kitchen table simple doesn't work.  
So about 2 months ago, I went to my local home improvement store and they recommended that I put polyurethane on it to protect it from our daily use.  I was told to put a coat of the poly, let it dry, then lightly sand it, and put another coat.  I did these steps and when I was done, you could clearly see all of the sanding lines in it.
We sanded all of that off and tried a black stain with polyurethane already in it.  When it dried it looked horrible.
We sanded all of that off and tried a semi gloss black paint.  I rolled it on, let it dry and it also looked horrible...you could see every rolled line.  So I did another coat...same outcome.
As I'm sure you've already guessed...we sanded all of that off.  We borrowed a paint sprayer and sprayed black oiled based paint.  That dried and looked horrible.
I've called some places to see if I could get it professionally redone and 2 of them refuse to even try to fix it and 1 on them wanted to charge me as much as I paid for the table.  
All of these things have only been done to the table top...sides and pedestals still have original paint.
Besides throwing it on a burn pile...can you please give me some advise to get me out of this table nightmare I created.
My family would love to have a kitchen table back for dinner!

Thanks you so much for your time!
Bree

Answer
Hi Bree, everyone thinks it's easy to refinish furniture well...now you see that it isn't...sorry you had to learn that lesson the hard way, though. Sanding is NOT the way to remove a finish...it needs to be stripped chemically to completely remove it at the pore level.Most Pro refinishers will charge upwards of $45 an hour for a job like that...and the finish really needs to be sprayed on....but not paint....urethane or lacquer, and it's a skill that not everyone is capable of. The factory finish was sprayed on and is not paint. At this point, it might be cheaper to replace the table......it's very possible, as some of this furniture is very cheap....that doesn't really reflect on the Pro's, as good work costs money, and as I said..( and you found out),this is skilled labor.What kind of prices did you get from the people you contacted??- regards- Greg