Water Based vs Oil Based

[winki]

I'm about to begin laying 130mm blackbutt flooring and I'm secret nailing and gluing them.
Do I have to top-nail them too? They're tongue & groove so can the corners still cup?
Also, could somebody please explain the difference between water based and oil based sealers. Is one better? Is one more expensive? By how much? Which is better for spillages or high traffic areas? Is one better at protecting the floor?

[OBBob]

Hi There

I have just done a fair bit of reaing on this (on this forum) and the general opinion is that you need to top nail over 85mm ... further I think it is a Standards requirement.

My father used a water based product on his floors a little while ago and was very happy with how it applied and the lack of smell (in comparison to oil based), however it doesn't appear to be as tough or to have covered and finished quite as well as the regular smelly stuff.

High traffic, spillages etc. I think you are better with the mineral based version.

[barbz]

Ive just had my kitchen resanded which was water based but it only lasted 2 years before looking horrible - last coat of oil based went on today.

Paul

[Dusty]

Solvent based two pack is the way to go.

[johnnyroberts]

two pack is great untill you want too touch it up, you can't, with two pack, you need to strip it back totaly to re-finish, it is however the longer lasting, ever heard of tung oil, very good in most applications

[Evan Pavlidis]

I'm about to begin laying 130mm blackbutt flooring and I'm secret nailing and gluing them.
Do I have to top-nail them too? They're tongue & groove so can the corners still cup?
Also, could somebody please explain the difference between water based and oil based sealers. Is one better? Is one more expensive? By how much? Which is better for spillages or high traffic areas? Is one better at protecting the floor?

Gooday Winki,

I've just completed installing 85 mm. strip flooring at my parents home and I hand secret nailed instead of using a nailer and compressor to reduce costs. Lot of work but I'm very pleased with the result. You can secret nail wide boards as in your case but you must also top nail because of the width; you can only secret nail boards upto 85mm face width otherwise they (130mm) will definitely cup.
This week I'm going to sand and finish; still have a few skirtings to fix. I'm using Cabots CFP which is oil based but will also dilute it with raw tung oil to prevent edge bonding because the boards are new.
I can use Wattyl's tung oil finish for floors but it is only a soft finish (who's ratio of poly to tung oil is unknown) which will require further coatings in about 2-3 years time so I'm staying clear of that product.

My ratio of CFP to tung oil for the first coat is 1 part CFP to 1 part oil; this will be a primer then sand with 320 grit paper.
Second and third coats 1.5 parts CFP to 1 part oil sanding between coats. If a fourth coat is required the ratio will be 2 parts CFP to 1 part oil with the CFP hardener added. Only in the last coat will I add the hardener as this speeds up the curing process and hardness of the finish. I've tried this method on test pieces of timber and the results are very satisfactory. A lot of work will be involved but I'm more than happy to do it for my parents.

Water based finishes sit on top of the timber and brighten it and the finish is nowhere near as hard. The finish is quite bland instead of lustruous.

If your flooring is brand new DO NOT under any circumstances use oil based 2 pack or single pack polyurethanes because you'll end up with edge bonding. For oil based finishes on new floors use the above recipe or water based finishes. For an existing floor which has been sanded back to bare timber it is suitable to use polyurethanes because they (the boards) are well seasoned and movement is very minimal.

Hope this helps. There are definitely other posters who are much more knowledgeable than me about flooring who may be able to provide more assistance as this is my first attempt at installing and finishing timber flooring. I'm treating it like a piece of furniture. Will post pics when I'm finished.

Cheers, Evan

[BrissyBrew]

Hi Evan

Sounds like you have a secret (ok not so secret) recipe going there for floors, any pics? especially of the testing.