I am planning on installing red oak flooring in my kitchen/family room, and possibly cherry in the dining room. This will all be new flooring over 5/8″ subfloor (1950’s vintage). I am looking at finishes. Has anyone had any experience with Waterlox tung oil finish? Also, what kind of stain would you use under the finish? Minwax (not my first choice) or an oil-based finish like Old Masters or Zar?
Another question, along the edges where you can’t swing the hammer on the flooring nailer, do you just face nail and fill the holes? Will 16 ga. nails work? What should the spacing be on the nails with the nailer?
Thanks for your help!
-Randy
Replies
Randy,
I have used Waterlox quite a bit on floors and I like it. I would recommend that you try a little finish on a sample of the wood and see if you really want to use a stain. I find that I usually don't need the stain. I like the color of the wood without the stain. After all you are after a wood color, right? Cherry will darken to a nice reddish hue just by being exposed to light. Oak will do the same to a smaller degree. Also I prefer the satin over the high gloss sheen Waterlox.
Have fun and good luck,
Curly
Restoring the past for the future.
Do a search on this site. There's been a lot of discussion about Waterlox. I like it. It has issues about drying time before foot traffic and moving furniture. As a general rule, I prefer not to stain floors. It makes refinishing a problem sometimes. Just about any stain or dye works under Waterlox so long as you wait at least the recommended drying time. Applying stain evenly on a whole floor is not the easiest thing and takes some practice. You might not want to practice on your floor. Test the stain and finish on scrap first to see if you like it. Yes, you face nail the edges. Do some reading before you start this. Lots of "how to" articles around. Not real hard to do.
We did about 1700 sq ft of five inch wide cherry shorts in our place. Finished with 2 parts high quality tung, one part boiled linseed oil, one part mineral spirits. Face nailed where necessary, used 16ga nail gun and sometines used some of the t-nails from the port-a-nailer, made a nail set to match by grinding down an old bicycle axle. Filled with sanding dust/lacquer putty. Made a bad mistake by trying a "tip" one of the carps had seen on Bob Villa, to mix dust with carp glue. Did not take finish the same and stood out in color.
It is a matte finish after running a buffer with fine scotchbrite pad. Looks the same after the first five years. Will scratch and mark but Patina is cool. See absolutely no wear patterns. Can touch up easily with a slightly thinned mix.
Wife hand rubbed the whole floor. Would just use a lambs wool applicator if doing again.
Many good comments from visitors. At times wish it had a little more sheen. I damp mop it about every six months.
I have a little experience with Waterlox, but not with any other finish. The cans I used all said the stuff dries in a few hours (24?). Only after a mess that required reworking did I find on the website that it takes seven days to cure.
Stay off of it as long as possible and, if it must be walked on in the first week, only with clean socks.
I have no experience with staining floors, but I thought I read once that if you stain the sanding must be of a much higher quality than if you do not stain. The stain will show off scratches that otherwise would be invisible. But maybe my memory is faulty....
My limited experience in putting a floor down taught me that it is wise to have the board snug up to the previous before hitting the nailer. For me, hoping that the hammer blow would push the board in was futile.
Rich Beckman
Another day, another tool.
Any good (i.e. cheap) sources for the nails? They are about $16 a box locally.