tassie oak finishing

[hatemondays]

Hi folks
Am laying a few metres of tassie oak strip flooring and was wanting some opinions of hard wearing finishes that won't darken the grain of the wood after it's applied. Any ideas??

[JackoH]

Bugger me. Now there's four of us!
I finished a floor with two pot polyurethane. came up great and looked a treat. Had to vacate the house and live in our caravan for a couple of days! Slightly darkened the timber, but I think that any applied liquid would do that.

[Shane Watson]

Wet any timber with water or metho and this will show you its true natural colour

[Mick C.]

Go see a flooring specialist place. I polished the floors in my house just after i bought it, and got a hand with it from a friend who is a carpet layer buy trade. They had some stuff that we used called a seeler. It looked like clear coat in the tin but also had a white powdery substance in it also, that took a bit of stiring in before use. Acording to the sales rep it was supposed to stop or reduce the amount colour change you get when you add your top coats. I still got a little darkening but not much. My floors have changed (darkened) more from the sun they see than from applying the top coat. Can't remember the name on the tin as is more than five years ago now, sorry.

Best of luck with it. Mick.

[Shane Watson]

sounds like the salesman had no idea. The white stuff is the flattening base which also aids in sanding. Does nothing to stop colouring. And a sealer is virutally the top coat with the white stuff added.......

[Mick C.]

There you go, as usual, can't trust most salesmen. They all seem to give you any old story that sounds about right instead of the actual story!

Trouble is finding someone in the know for the right info first up! Thanks for that Shane, will pass that on to my mate for future reference.

Mick.

[behindblueeyes]

Mondays,

Some of the water based floor finishes about the place are very good now in terms of durabilty. The best of these in my opinion are:

1) Haymes Aqualac
2) Intergrain Floortec
3) Cabot Kwikstep.

Cabots Kwikstep is a little harder to work, but goes hard very quickly. I have seen it yellow light timbers a little (nowhere near as much as an oil based). The other two wont as much. Integrain is probably the Rolls Royce.

Price wise, Haymes is the best value for money, as you can get it for around $60 a 4L. The other 2 are over $100 for a 4L.

Best thing with water based (apart from non-yellowing) is that you dont have to move out into a caravan, and it is much quicker drying. It is low odour, and it helps our fragile environment - which is good for our kids and theirs.

Hope this helps.

[hatemondays]

thanks for the advice folks. Am thinking I may just accept the darkening, but very much like the sound of the intergrain ( rolls royce) .....going to check that out a little more thoroughly