Hi, I know this question has been asked many times before, but…
I’m looking for a clear top coat for interior oak floors that have been finished with an oil based stain.
The finish should be hard enough to resist scratching, easy to clean, and long lasting.
Your thoughts?
Replies
lPolyurethane. It will scratch if you scrape it. Don't know anything that wouldn't. I suggest a semi-gloss for ease of cleaning.
shellac..
It's insanely easy to do! drys really quickly! tougher than snot! If damaged is crazy easy to repair (no sanding required) It's safe, you've been eating shellac on candy and pills all of your life!
You can start in the morning and by the afternoon be putting furniture in place.. When your guests come by they won't smell anything..
Oh and it's renewable, biodegradable, and if you get some on your clothes just wash them and it comes right out..
please ask me for details..
Frenchy - Thanks, that's good info. My only concern is that if someone uses an alkaline (amonia-based) cleaner on the floor, it'll pull up the shellac and I'll have to start all over again.
In my current life, I sometimes have no control over who'll clean the floor and with what. Sometimes, I'm gone for weeks and months at a time.
I appreciate your contributions in other threads, I've learned a bunch today about installing the floor on a concrete slab.
Joe
Hi Joe,
If you haven't checked NOFMA I'd suggest you take a peek on their WEBsite. Lot's of good reliable info. on flooring, both solid wood and engineered.
I worked for a commercial wood flooring company several years ago and we used Bona Kemi Traffic exclusively for retail spaces across the country. These floor withstand heavy traffic every day.
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
If they do clean it with alkiline cleaners it should take them about the same time to repair it with new shellac..
The beauty of shellac is that new shellac melts old shellac and makes an invisable repair.
If the stain has had ample time to cure, then you can use about any floor finish on it, including waterborne. Do go with materials specifically made for floors. Shellac looks great, but will scratch if you have a meaningful coating. Oil based polyurethane is still good, but a great many professionals are now using the waterborne polyurethanes. Now these are specialized finishes, mostly two-part, and only available through floor finishing sources. The products sold in the big box stores aren't likely to work nearly as well. Bona Kemi is one well repected brand name.
Steve you do owe him the fact that most scratches can be repaired by simply rubbing a rag with denatured alcohol.
Absolutely, shellac repairs easily, it just needs it more often. Now it's not completely fragile. Water can damage it, but only if it stays wet for some time. Just normal speed to clean up a spilled glass, even if it is a martini. Probably a bigger hazard around the home are household cleaners that are alkaline. While this includes ammonia--a true solvent for shellac, it also includes quite a few others with high pH values. I like shellac a lot for furniture--almost all of the furniture in my house has shellac finish. None the less I had Bona Kemi Traffic applied to the white oak floors of my new how. Now about a year old, they show zero scratching or other wear defects.
I have had 3 coats of poly on my kitchen (this is pine), den, stairs, and breakfast room (also pine), and upstairs hall floors for a year and a half--the result of a repair from a massive leak and plaster ceiling fall .It is semi gloss, and has been excellent for not even getting dirty--very easy to sweep up. No longer having dogs has kept it from having scratches/gouges, as the former finish quickly got. Our chairs have the "rug" type of slides applied to the legs.
Any finish is going to scratch unless you take care not to.Gretchen
Frenchy & Steve, I've clearly got the Pros and Cons of both finishes now. I'm beginning to relearn my finishing lessons that I got from Terri Masatchi. The last time I used shellac was on a walnut armoire that i made for my daughter about 5 years ago. Terri's formulas came out right on recipe.
And, Thanks to everyone for helping me relearn the topcoating processes.
Steve:I've had very good luck for pushing three years now with shellac on about about 600 sq ft of white oak floors. There were some deep scratches where someone sat in a s slid around in a chair with some sand under a leg, but that'd happen with poly or anything else. I got two white spots from some leaky planters. They wiped out in a minute or two with DNA.Bottom line, good experience, would do it again.One caution -- IF you build up a significant coat as I have done, it WILL NOT dry in a day or possibly two.Joe
The person I used for my house and all of the clients I refer him to uses Minwax poly that he buys from the supplier that he buys his hardwood from. He does four coats and the finish seems very durable. I would like to try shellac like the previous poster suggested. Although the devil you know:)
Troy
Try Fabulon Heavy Duty Polyurethane. Oil based. Great stuff. Used for gym floors. A home builder recommended it for kitchen cabinets I'm building.
If you can't find it locally (try a Benjamin Moore dealer), order it from pondcovepaint.com.
kreuzie
Edited 2/7/2009 9:46 pm ET by kreuzie
The floors in my current house as well as my prior house are finished with Glitsa. Collectively, they have stood up to five big dogs and are no worse for the wear.
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