Oil, Bees wax or varnish?

[crossy67]

We are almost at the stage of sanding all the downstairs floors.  They are Douglas fir (not Dougles fur as a friend thought I said) and when wetted turn a lovely deep red.  So, what would you recommend as a finish for our newly sanded floors?  I wouldn't want shiny varnish but a satin or mat one might be nice.  How permanent is oil or wax?  Any brand names of particularly good products would be appreciated.

Ta

[connolls]

Hi,

I suppose much of it is down to personal choice as to whether you want a completely "natural look" with wax and polish ...........but in my experience does not wear as well as the last time we did our floors with parquet vitrificeur. (not sure if that's how you spell it)

We chose a satin finish (in-colore which looks very natural) for our hallways staircase and living room floors and 3 years on has not scratched worn or faded and we do have some very heavy traffic as we are a Chambres D'Hotes.

We used "BOSILOR PARQUET" for heavy traffic.

Hope you can find something suitable and that you're happy with.

Kind Regards Mel.

[Dog]

Do a test first but I would recommend using linseed oil (it's cheap) mix with white spirit. The mix is up to you and how much the wood wants to absorb and the time needed to dry.

I use 25% linseed and apply sparingly rubbing in well.

When you want to refresh the wood just sponge/mop sparingly with 5% linseed oil in hot water.

[Keni]

We used the mineral oil from I*ea (not sure if I can mention them),called Skydd (I kid you not), it's clear and in a bottle. Took 2 bottles for ur front bedroom but brought the chestnut planks up to a lovely dark colour, as they would have been.

[NormanH]

I have used a 'lasure'

but I am no expert

[halfblind]

Luberon floor sealer. French made but only seems to be available in 5 litre tins in the UK, but you may find otherwise. I wouldn't use vitrificateur as we used it on our gite floor and after 7 yrs had to resand and re-do with Luberon floor sealer as it cracked and faded badly.

[BIG MAC]

What about 'Teak oil' for garden furniture....would that work>?

[sid]

From what I've read on the tins of lasure it's not recommended for floors, more for vertical surfaces.

I've recently used V33 Vitrificateur (passage intense), this as it's name implies is a vitrifier so it forms a hard, non-slip surface. It's best on freshly stripped/sanded bare wood. I used the "intense traffic" version because I wanted to do the stairs at the same time with the same tint (you can get non-coloured too though).

Can't give any long term results as it's only been 3days!! EDIT just noticed the reply about 7 years... isn't that a reasonable time? I wouldn't expect it to last forever. The "intense traffic" stuff says 10 years, but it'll surely depend on using the right product for the traffic in the room?

[mint]

I haven't been overjoyed with the V33 vitrificateur, and I had the cheaper version for bathroom and bedrooms and the more expensive for the living room.

Mind you, we weren't living in the house then and I only had a few days on my own to get everydone.  I daresay I didn't prepare surfaces adequately.

[sid]

Oh Sweet! I hope I have more joy with it! I spent ages reading all the product tins trying to decide which was best. The local decorator said it must be vitrificateur! The 2.5L tin was horrendously expensive (70€) [:-))] so I thought I was buying success!

What happened to yours? did you strip the old finish first? Did you do 2 coats? So far ours is looking good and there's nothing to indicate that the staircase is suffering.

I've seen lasured stairs and the finish just wears thin very quickly. I think my only other choice would have been some sort of oiled or waxed finish, but that's a LOT of elbow grease!

Bon weekend

[mint]

Sid, I'm sure it should last.  As explained, it was a bit of a rush job with me and, yes, I did prep the surface, though maybe not quite with the thoroughness I should have.

I didn't strip everything down to the bare wood but I did remove all dust as far as possible and then cleaned with white spirit.  Also, everywhere had 2 coats.

Funnily enough, the cheaper stuff on the bathroom and bedroom floors seem to look better than the expensive stuff in the sitting-room.  That could be because that's the intensively used area.

Don't be put off  by my slapdash and amateurish way of doing things, Sid.  I bet yours will be just fine.

[crossy67]

Hi.  Thanks for all your opinions and recommendations, very helpful thanks.

Looks like it might be a vitrificateur then.  I was thinking I would like to oil them in some way but I will have enough to do to keep things ship shape without having to oil floors every couple of months to keep them tip top.  I am quite fussy when it comet to the house being in order, you wouldn't think it at the moment, we are 2" deep in dust.

Just one other quick question if I may.

I want to treat the boards with Xylophene wood worm killer.  Some of the boards we managed to keep have some bad woodworm marks that have only just become evident a we removed the top layer of wood and exposed their tunnels but they are still strong and fairly solid so we're keeping them.  Do you think I would be ok treating the newly sanded boards, letting it dry then varnishing or should I just soak from underneath?

Ta again for the advice.

[sid]

I'd give them a good liberal coat from on top (or two coats!). If the undersides are accessible you could spray the undersides too, that's what I'd do anyway.

 

[crossy67]

Nice one, thanks Sid.  I can easily get to both sides so I'll do the top and bottom then. 

[BIG MAC]

We used a mop to apply the xylophene from above...after a coule of applications we could see from the cave below the affected floor that the chemical had penetrated about 25% of the timber boards we then sprayed from underneath.

The only thing I would say is the stuff stinks