Water-Based Polyurethane for Floors

[RenoGirl]

Hi there

We are planning to have our wooden floors sanded and polished. We are looking at water-based polyurethane due to the low odour, lack of toxicity and quick drying time compared to other polyurethanes.

If anyone has any experience with water-based finishes (professionally done) I would love to hear about it.

Many thanks
P.S. we have a large dog and young children

[glock40sw]

Go for it.
No worries.

[julianx]

Hi

There are some really good water based poyurethanes for floors on the market now and some not so good ones. My advice would be to ring a couple of decent paint suppliers and quizz them.

[trover]

I will stick to the facts, due to the forum rules.
my experience is with one water based polyurathane product and I did do it myself. We were keen to do it before we moved in, and chose this because

• we could re-coat later as required without sanding off the previous first.
• quick drying, so we could move in

The whole floor of the empty house was

• sanded with a drum sander, and
• two coats applied, with a light sand between coats.

Now 6 years later most of the house is still OK,but only in one room for some reason it is de laminating and peeling off like glad wrap, . I have re-applied, but with the same result.
Another high use area main entry, also in the sun, is work through.

The paint shop that sold it to me tried to talk me into Tung oil.

I sanded off what appeared to me to be 2 pack product. I proably should not admit it, but when I removed an internal wall, later, I could see that the floor had been sanded before, and the sanding I did took the board thickness too close to the tongue in a couple of spots, now we have some small cracks along the tongue, which I should support from underneath, I guess this is why floor sanding is now a trade in itself.

best of luck with the whole process

[Larry McCully]

I would not go to a paint shop to sourse your polyurathane, Lookm up the yellow pages and find a floor sanders supply company, theair are a couple of good ones in sydney, one of them is Alex lind Floor sanding supplies, They have arange of proffesional coatings that will suit you. And they know theis stuff and wont lead you astray. www.alexlind.com.au

[Bodgy]

I've used both the poly and epoxy.

Despite the apparent advantages of the poly, and all the negatives of 2 pot epoxy, I'd still go with the 2 pot.

My experience is that it lasts far longer and is impervious to anything.

[China]

I used the water based poly (Cabots) 7 years ago on my brother's floors entire house, pine floor boards, still as good as new

[RenoGirl]

Thanks for all your replies...we feel happy enough now to go ahead with the water-based.