Floor Polishing Advice needed

[petersemple]

I am looking to polish the floors in my house. From what I can tell it is probably Brush Box (Hard Wood, slightly reddish brown, Brisbane, built in early 70's). I have been recomended to use a Feast Watson Tung Oil based product, as it is easy to repair if needed (sand a bit and recoat the worn patch). Now, is this a good choice? Also, if it can be used in this manner to repair a worn patch, would it also work to polish just a patch at a time? I have a young family, and nowhere really to stay for the time needed for several coats and then curing. I was thinking maybe I could do say kitchen and dining area in one lot, hall way and maybe bedrooms together, and loungroom as a separate job. Doing it that way I could mask to the edge of a board each time, but some would be long joins - not just a doorway. It this workable??

Thanks

Peter

[Dusty]

What your proposing is very do-able, segregating sections into manageable areas is a good way to tackle the job, and finishing along the length of boards is the way to go. (Never try to finish two separate areas laterally across a doorway)

The only thing is, as your keen to do this sanding job yourself, with, I'm guessing, hire equipment, you will find that it will create quite a fair amount of dust. Much more than what a contractor should expect to make, due to the poor dust collection on the hire sanders. So, my advice is to try and do all, or as much as possible in one hit, to minimize the after sanding clean ups. Basically, do the job once and clean up once.

I can't get over enthused regarding the Feast Watson Tung Oil.
Quite simply, as much as Tung Oil is supposedly repairable, it also needs constant repairing, due to it's brittleness and the fact that it scratches so easily. For best results, when using Tung Oil, you should coat the Tung Oil with a protective coat of a sacrificial polish which can be re-coated every three to four months.

Good luck with the sanding.

[petersemple]

That sounds like too much maintenance to me. What is a good hard product then? SHould I aim for a Polyurethane?

Thanks

Peter

[Extracare]

Peter, by the time you've hired equipment 3 times you might have been better getting a bloke to do it for you.

Poly is the way to go if you want maintenance free and you have rowdy kids. Also get a satin topcoat to minimise visibility of scuffs and scrapes.

You will likely have to leave the house anyway because the smell these products make will make you ill overnight.

Water-based (Bona Traffic) wouldn't poison you, but it is very pricey.