hardwood floor finishes

[titand]

Hi,

We've removed the stinkin old carpets in our new 50 year old house and now we've got 50 year old hardwood floors to do something with. I think its tassie oak and it looks as though its been stained or oiled at some point. It has lots of character marks from when a log rolled out of the fire and a rocking chair rocked..

We also have a medium sized dog. What's the best finish for this floor? Will polyurethane protect it from dog claw skid marks? Also if we go for polyurethane or similar can we either stain the floor beforehand or add tint to darken the boards a bit to camoflage the worst of the character marks? Is it still practical to use oil if we plan to rent the house out in a few years?

Any advice would be welcomed!

[Tote]

We have pit sawn blackwood boards in our hallway and have just used Tung oil. It copes very well with traffic and pets, has been down now for 2 years and shows no sign of wear. If it needs touching up you can just touch up the scratch unlike polyurethane finishes.
Regards,
Tote

[Carpenter]

Beware the much misused term "tung oil". True tung oil is from the tung nut tree & was used in days gone by for flooring because of its hard setting quality. Nowdays its used to describe every known concoction of floor finish known to man, leading to a very confusing situation for consumers. I think its easier to categorise floor finishes into two categories - synthetic & natural. Synthetics place a "hard wearing" layer on the top of the timber, personally not my choice becuase when it gets scratched thats it. Natural finishes on the other hand (oil blends) rely on soaking into the timber & cure within. They require more maintainance, but at least you can rejuvinate them with a clean & re-oil/buff. I would recommend "Organoil Flooring Oil", but its use requires a proffesional skilled in using this type of finish because its not a case of placing the oil on & walking away. There's a knack to it called hard burnishing & you won't achieve a good finish DIY. Send me a PM if you want the name of a floor sander/finisher to do this in Melbourne.

[Ashore]

We had our floors polished some years back had a 2 pac first and a 1 pac on top , use to tut tut over every mark but came to realize its a floor and a mop over using a couple of caps of metho in a bucket of water always brings back the satin finish , so whatever finish it will get scratches marks and if it gets too bad recoat but its still a floor and you need to live with that fault.

Rgds

[Tote]

Beware the much misused term "tung oil". True tung oil is from the tung nut tree & was used in days gone by for flooring because of its hard setting quality. Nowdays its used to describe every known concoction of floor finish known to man, leading to a very confusing situation for consumers. I think its easier to categorise floor finishes into two categories - synthetic & natural. Synthetics place a "hard wearing" layer on the top of the timber, personally not my choice becuase when it gets scratched thats it. Natural finishes on the other hand (oil blends) rely on soaking into the timber & cure within. They require more maintainance, but at least you can rejuvinate them with a clean & re-oil/buff. I would recommend "Organoil Flooring Oil", but its use requires a proffesional skilled in using this type of finish because its not a case of placing the oil on & walking away. There's a knack to it called hard burnishing & you won't achieve a good finish DIY. Send me a PM if you want the name of a floor sander/finisher to do this in Melbourne.

I would dispute that you cannot get a good finish by doing it yourself. There are many people who go out of their way to scare others into thinking that they cannot achieve the results they desire by doing something themselves. Yes, you do have to be careful which tung oil you choose but it's not that difficult to find one that says "100% natural tung oil" or similar. We found that we needed 3 coats on our hallway with a light sand in between. The application was no more difficult than the synthetic coating that we put on the floor of our previous house and in my opinion more durable.
Regards,
Tote

[julianx]

I too would recomend organoil, many other brands claiming to have tung oil in them actually use the shells from the tung nuts rather than the nuts themselves and only a tiny amount at that . also many of the turps based varnishes are upto 90% turps which just evaporates when applied.

Organoil is also made locally by byron bay hippies

[Carpenter]

I would dispute that you cannot get a good finish by doing it yourself. There are many people who go out of their way to scare others into thinking that they cannot achieve the results they desire by doing something themselves. Yes, you do have to be careful which tung oil you choose but it's not that difficult to find one that says "100% natural tung oil" or similar. We found that we needed 3 coats on our hallway with a light sand in between. The application was no more difficult than the synthetic coating that we put on the floor of our previous house and in my opinion more durable.
Regards,
Tote

The everage bloke wont have a drum sander, a three head sander or a polyvac machine. He wont know about;- hard burnishing, how to sand it, using screens on the polyvac, how much oil to apply to the timber depending on species, how long to leave it, how to burnish it, when & how to use the polyvac with the nylon pad & how much oil to use etc, etc, etc. Oh, there's no shortage of people willing to give it a go, but there's also no shortage of dissapointed people with a story about oil floor finishes & how bad they are!

[Olive]

The average bloke wont have a drum sander, a three head sander or a polyvac machine. He wont know about;- hard burnishing, how to sand it, using screens on the polyvac, how much oil to apply to the timber depending on species, how long to leave it, how to burnish it, when & how to use the polyvac with the nylon pad & how much oil to use etc, etc, etc. Oh, there's no shortage of people willing to give it a go, but there's also no shortage of dissapointed people with a story about oil floor finishes & how bad they are!

What about using a blend of Tung Oil and Orange oil, I have read that the orange oil makes it dry more quickly.I have also been recommended a blend of Linseed, Orange oil and beeswax...
If using just straight Tung Oil, any idea of how much I would need for 50m2.

[Markw]

Learn to trim you dogs nails regularly - every 3 to 4 weeks. If your dog is still young and tolerant, use a dremel with the garnet paper sanding tubes to finish the nail off.

As an old show dog Vicki (my avatar) is used to all sorts or grooming which has saved us from scratches in the new floor - finished 8 weeks ago

[Carpenter]

Sorry Olive, I know nothing about custom blending oil formulations. It does sound like a slippery slope though, unless its a tried & tested formula, but I wouldn't be performing an experiment on my floor! There are commercially available natural oil floor finishes available, & you can bet these manufacturers have tried hundreds of formulations before arriving at a product good enough for the shelves of the hardware & paint shops. You'd be very lucky to get it right on the first go.