A condition where a fine dust occurs on the finished floor surface, often obvious when tracked onto adjacent carpeting. Often, powdering is due to dust settling out where construction or other sources of dust are present. Other times, powdering is indicative of a lack of floor finish (or sealer) adhesion, loss of plasticizing agents to the substrate or to cleaning solutions, or application while temperature or relative humidity is too low to allow proper film formation. The causes of lack of adhesion are numerous soap residues, insufficient stripping of old finish, applying finish too thinly.