Envirotex help. Bubbles everywhere!

For my bar top I used oak floor planks. I poured envirotex and got a lot of bubbles. I guess the stain does seal the wood as good as it states.

I was using a propane torch to remove the bubbles but as soon as I moved the torch away more bubbles popped up. The instructions say to sand down the bubbles and apply another coat.

My question is how far should I sand the bubbles? Some of the bigger bubbles I can tell I sanded off the top part because they look like a craters. Some of the small ones I can tell. How do I know I've sanded the bubbles far enough.

Second question. While sanding I scratched up the envirotex. I'm assuming they will disappear once I apply the second coat. Am I correct?

Also while I was sand I noticed some spots got hazy. I think it might have been from the heat generated during the sanding. Will this also disappear with the new coat?

This was the last thing to do to the bar. I'm afraid I messed up the top so much I might have to rip it apart and re-do the top. At this point I can live with a some small bubbles. Should I excect to get a finish with no bubbles?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks HeyHow!

I mixed the etex by hand using a wooden paint stirrer. I might have stirred it a bit fast. The instructions got me worried about mixing it correctly, which I somehow translating it to "mix fast". I was also rushing the pour. I'll take it slow next time.

Good hear about the next coat will correct a lot of errors.

I tried the water trick. I still noticed some hazing. It's only in a couple of spots and there are not that big. I can live with it.

Before I do the next coat I'm going to mix a small batch and apply it on a couple of places to test.

If I can cut down on some of the bubbles I can live with the imperfections. I like to call it "character", and my bar as a lot of "character".

I tried to apply heat a couple of hours after it sat. No good. It did nothing to the bubbles and started give the finish the oil in water look.

I noticed I had a little bit of etex left over in the containers so I decided to do a test run. I applied the etex on places where there were a lot of scratches from the hard sanding as well as the hazing. The scratches and haze went away!

I applied some over old bubble areas. This didn't get rid of the old bubble spot completely but it wasn't that noticeable. I feel confident another coat will fix everything. It won't be perfect but it will have character.

BTW, since my bar top is flooring and I didn't seal any of the gaps you can see small bubbles between the gaps. There's no way I can easily removed them without sanding below the wood. I actually like them. Reminds me of underwater lava of something like that.

Yeah, it was one large pour. The only thing I did to my flooring was stain it. I think applying a coat of poly would have seal it up and prevented some of the bubbles. I noticed some of the smaller bubbles were forming in the shape of the grain.

Finally got around to pouring a second coat last weekend. It went much better. All the scratch and hazing went away. No where near as much bubbles. I did have a couple of problems which I can life with.

First I only got half as much etex for the second pour as the first. It turned out not to be enough, but just barely. There are a few places where the surface is a little uneven. But it's minor and most of it is on the end of the small part of the L shape bar top.

I didn't get anywhere as many bubbles as the first pour but I did get some. After getting rid of most of them with the propane torch I left it alone to try. I came back after a couple of hours and a couple of big bubbles had form. The etrex was still wet so I was able to pop them but left craters. They were only in a couple of places.

Another problem I ran into was white hazy patches. When I cleaned then with water they went away for a while but came back. They are only noticeable in certain angles so I'm not too worried about them. I think them might be a result of getting too close with the torch or maybe I didn't stir enough.

The top didn't come out perfect and there are plenty of small bubbles under the top but they add character, at least that's what I'm telling people. Even with the imperfections the bar top looks great.