Replies

1. 
   JerBear | May 10, 2005 04:13am | #1

   You can use a penetrating oil finish but it is not as tough as poly. Oil goes into the wood as opposed to polyurathane or varnish which sits on top of the wood. Oil can be gone over, rebuffed and re oiled and repaired as required as opposed to polyurathane which is difficult to repair without redoing the whole floor. Make sure the floor is sealed with several coats of the oil before you apply any wax because once wax gets into the cracks and the wood itself, it's a nightmare and you will have trouble when and if you ever want to resand the floors and put on a new finish. Wax looks nice but is a real bear to keep up, you have to keep re buffing it. Oil and wax don't give you the water protection of poly either.
   I would do poly with maybe a paste wax over it, it's really pretty tough. Those dogs are going to be sliding all over the place because wax is very slippery. There are so many new types of finishes now. Perhaps a catalyzed finish would work better or a "gym seal" type that they use on commercial floors, they're pretty tough. Good luck.

1. 
   jrmac | May 10, 2005 04:33am | #3

   Great infromation, when you say oil, what is that. I also heard of a guy that sanded,stained, and then used tung oil. Thats all I know, because I did not see finished prodouct.

1. 
   JerBear | May 10, 2005 01:55pm | #5

   Watco Danish oil is a type of penetrating oil. Tung oil does too. Minwax antique oil is very beautiful and gives a soft glow to the wood.

2. 
   Lilshaver | May 10, 2005 04:26am | #2

   I used Syntko brand oil finish on my oak floor. This has only been down for a few months, so the jury is still out as to it's long term performance. However, it is beautiful and, at least up to this point, is protecting the wood. A couple of weeks ago I spilled the better part of two quarts of latex paint onto the floor. It took about 45 minutes to get it all cleaned up, but clean up it did. I was impressed that none of the paint "soaked through" into the oak. The only paint residue left is deep in some of the open grain where I couldn't scrub it out. Had I had a stiff bristle brush to scrub with, I believe that even that paint would have come out.

   We chose this finish because of our concern of dog nails and for it's repairability in general. My wife and I don't like the look of film finishes. We'd like a bit of gloss which is difficult to maintain with oil, but are willing to compromise. The poly finishes are popular now, but I think that is due to a general disdain and dislike for maintenance not because the finishes are so much better. Oil and wax have been used for a very long time and they will treat your wood well.

   Jeff

3. 
   timkline | May 10, 2005 07:33am | #4

   bit of advice #1:

   if they don't like scratches, they need to get rid of the dogs !

   of course that will never happen.

   a local finisher used to use this recipe:

   first coat of stain

   second coat of stain blended with some of the following Waterlox products

   one or two coats of this:

   http://www.waterlox.com/product.cfm?productid=5

   followed by one or two coats of this:

   http://www.waterlox.com/product.cfm?productid=6

   followed by one coat of this:

   http://www.valspar.com/val/resident/gymseal.jsp

   and then the wax.      no, I don't know the type

   he is a purist and even he stopped doing wax years ago.  nobody wants their floor man back yearly to reapply wax.

   this process is not nearly as forgiving as the plain urethane you are used to.

   the look of the finish is far superior

   but it takes a lot more work

   and it won't hold up to dogs any better

    

    

   carpenter in transition