Advice on timber floor finish

I have an old "workers cottage" style house built in the very early 1900's that I am renovating throughout prior to sale.

I intend to sand and polish the floors. They are some sort of pale pine with a slightly oily surface, are T&G about 400ml wide. They have not been cared for over the years. In the back room (which joins the lounge room by way of a large arch) the boards, while not discoloured, are showing signs of wear and the surface is quite uneven but not badly bowed. While I have not sanded and polished floors before, I think it will be very difficult to achieve a totally smooth surface suitable for a gloss finish. In addition, the house is on black clay soil and is subject to a good deal of movement. The builder also took it easy on the size and number of joists he used but it can't be too bad because the old place has been standing for about a century.

So what type of finish would you recommend? Something low gloss and almost fool proof to apply (I can't afford to have to do it twice)? I was thinking tung oil. Is pure tung oil suitable or should I use the Tung Oil compilation stuff put out by Cabots? A paint shop recommend tung oil and then a type of polish. I should also mention that there are a number of widish gaps in between the boards in the back room-- too many to fill without it looking ridiculous. I am looking for a "rustic" finish. Will never achieve a "posh" finish.


Any advice relating to this and the sanding and polishing of floors generally will be greatly appreciated.

Hi.

It sounds like you have Baltic pine, but 400mm wide is pretty much unheard of. They are probably worth a fortune.

The things you need to be aware of, pine is very soft so sands away very fast and takes some care while sanding to avoid sanding grooves into the floor. Use finer paper than for a hardwood floor. Run diagonally across the boards as few times as possible to flatten them out, as soon as they are flat enough, go finer on the paper and run along the boards to smooth them off. Pay the extra and hire the better floor sanders with a cylindrical paper rather than the flat paper that you have to wrap around the drum and clamp into place. They usually have a hand operated lever to raise and lower the drum as well where the others require you to tilt the sander. Never stop moving while sanding, always lift the sander early rather than late as stopping will eat a groove into your floor in a fraction of a second. You will also need an edge sander as the standard sander wont even get close to walls.

Due to pine's softness, you need to use a sealer that adds strength to it. I have found Cabots CFP single pack polyurethane with the extra hardness additive does a pretty good job, thin down the first coat 15-20% with turps to allow better penetration into the timber. It has a satin finish which doesnt show up imprefections too much. You just mop it on with a lambswool applicator (NOTE:Wash lambswool thoroughly with turps beforehand to remove loose fibres or they will come off in the sealer), 3 coats about 12 hours apart and you are done. You may need to lightly sand the second coat before the final goes on, but as the laquer has not fully cured beware of spontaneous combustion in the dust collector of the orbital floor sander (third sander), empty it as soon as you have finished and watch it (I destroyed a wheelie bin when it caught fire approx 1 hour after I threw out the dust). The satin finish doesnt need to be as smooth either so less sanding which is always good.

With timber floors, especially pine, dont ever bother to try to fill between the boards as the filler will simply crack and look terrible later as they move a lot with heat and humidity. Fill nail holes and if really needed, board end joins only.

Finally, put a sign on the front door asking guests to remove stiletto heeled shoes as the floor will still dent very easily. You will also need to remove any furniture castors on items of weight, even an office chair with someone on it rolling around will dent pine.

Depending on the area, the worst part of the job is punching the nails, make sure you knock them in about 5-6mm so you have at least 3-4 left after sanding so you dont rip out the filler. The best idea is to punch first then sand diagonally then fill the nail holes once flat (re-punch any that need it) then sand fine over the filler. You will use less filler and wont have the sander pulling out filler either.

Cheers
Ben

Thanks for your advice Ben.

If I can just ask a few more questions. :confused:

As the house is subject to a fair deal of movement because of the black soil and the flexing of the floors (the house moves every time the soil dries out or if it rains a lot) I have been advised by a paint shop that tung oil would be the go as a finish. However, I am not completly confidenent in that advice and am looking for some independent advice. Although some of the posts I have read here seem to support the tung oil idea, there is much conflicting opinion.

I am looking for some expert advice to suit my circumstances.

• Have you used tung oil?
• is it easy for a novice to apply?
• will it not emphasise imperfections in the floor or will it give it that lived in look that suits a 100 year old cottage?
• will it give me a warm glowing finish as opposed to a glossy finish?
• isn't there a fair probability that CFP will cause edge binding?

Oh, while the timber is very pale which makes me think it is pine, it does not appear to be overly soft, at least it dosen't dint very easily at all. It also dosen't seem to stain very easily judging by coffee spills etc.

And by the way I made a dumb mistake-- the boards are 200 wide NOT 400:o

Thanks Jack

I have used tung oil for plenty of other things, but never on a floor. I would say that it would have to be re-oiled regularly (every 6 months or so in high traffic areas). It also requires more work to apply as you put it on, leave it for a while (keep putting it on as it soaks in) then have to buff it off to get any form of lustre. It would look good and if you are selling then re-application shouldn't worry you but I would not use it for my own place if I planned to stay. I have also found oils dont have great water resistance and spills need to be removed quickly or the timber still seems to stain. It needs to have a coat of wax over the top for proper water resistance. An oil finish will possibly be better than a poly with very high movement by allowing the boards to move more, but if there are already cracks between the boards, poly cracking in the joins wont be seen. I have poly on baltic pine and the boards thenselves are holding up fine even as the cracks open and close with the weather.

Cheers
Ben

G'day.
Tung Oil for flooring is not 100% Tung Oil.
It is a mixture of Tung Oil and Polyurethanes.
In your situation, This would be the best finish to use.
Flooring Tung Oil only needs recoating every 5 years or so depending on the traffic over the floor.

Hooroo.
Regards, Trevor
Grafton

Jack, this topic has been extensively discussed on this BB. A search will turn up more information than you can jump over in a month. I'm with Glock on the proprietry "Tung Oil" floor finishes. Feast Watson have a good one but you must follow the manufacturer's instructions to the letter.

Somewhere in the threads on this topic is a link to a US manufacturer supplying tung oil for "flooding" you floor.

Any oil finish will require some maintenance but oil finishes are easy to repair and keep looking great. Not so with many other finishes (DAMHIK:o )
Cheers

Found it

http://www.realmilkpaint.com/oil.html

Cheers

Thanks Squizzy

I did a forum search before I posted my first ever message -- got a lot of hits and a lot of opinions, some at opposite ends of the universe. Also none of the threads exactly answered my situation.

I am leaning towards the straight tung oil. It will probably suit the charater of the house better and it will probably enable me to recover from any mistakes easier. But what I don't want is a yellow floor.

You see I haven't worked for the last 4 years while taking care of ill wife. Originally I had planned to pay someone else to do the more difficult things I hadn't done before but I now have no choice and have to do them myself. So this will be the first of many stupid questions. I won't be tackelling the floors for at least a month or two. Just sorting things out in my head.

Jack, the Tung Oil is more forgiving (tolerant of moisture) but needs to be given plenty of time during and after application. It is SSSoooo easy to repair if damaged its not funny. My thoughts are you should search the web a little more for some of the local manufacturers "Oil" finishes for timber flooring. Also be aware of the SWMBO factor (if you have one,:confused: or are one:D ). Its seems many women like a more glossy finish which is not possible with a Pure Tung Oil finish. Many of the mixes, which are sold as "Tung Oil" will give a reasonable sheen if you work hard on the finish but more gloss = more poly = harder to repair/touch up.

There's no miracle finish but oil finishes strike me as very natural and warm. Our kids bedrooms are Tassie Oak (No really) and we have large mats which take most of the beating anyway.

Cheers

Squizzy
The Chairwoman of the Board (SWMBO) is on the road to recovery and loves the home we are now in (we bought it out of my retrenchment package) - she really dosen't care all that much about the old place other than we get it sold as soon as so we can eat something other than snags.

I think the tung oil finish will suit the charater of the house and from what I understand if I want to give it a bit of a gloss there is a polish that I can use. I also think it will simplify a couple of things for me -- like to paint first or polish first --- did I forget to mention that the place also needs a complete paint job - freshen up inside and complete redo outside - new verandah boards and joists-- roof paint (someone else will be paid for that tooooooo steep and tooo high :eek:for this little black duck) new kitchen ...........................oh what the hell..........I might even have a go at that myself but nothing too complicated or flashy ....etc etc. So being an absolute novice I am sure that there will be plenty of more posts to come from me. This place has a nice atmosphere:).

Thanks again for your advice:D

Cheers

Jack