I recently received an oak coffee table top that has been finished with 4 coats of Minwax Polycrylic (not MAX). My 3- and 5-year-olds still managed to ding and scratch it with toys/play within about 3 hours.

I’m considering trying a coat or two of Ultimate Floor Finish to toughen up the surface a bit more, but I realize it might be a lost cause when going up against preschool-aged boys. I’m also not 100% sure that using a different poly top coat on top of what’s there is the right move.

Anyone care to speak to:

  • Is using a different water-based poly finish on top of an existing one OK?

  • Will using a “floor finish” product on furniture offer any noticeable improvement in durability/protection?

Y’all are great; thank you for your advice!

  • ellisk
    2·
    12 hours ago

    As long as they’re both water-based and you scuff it up a little with 120 beforehand, you should be fine, although I haven’t used that specific set of finishes. Can always do the tried and true and try it out on a test piece first if you’re really worried.

    But yeah, TBH, even if you went crazy and used epoxy or urushi, pretty sure it’d get scratched up with kids being kids. I use 10+ coats for specific applications, and it’s very scratch resistant (in fact it seems more more than the technically harder urushi… this is where I redact a few paragraphs of finish hardness discussion…), but standing up to kids, nah.