Any recipies for solvent-free, natural finishes for hardwood floors?
How many applications are originally applied and what surface prep do folks use?
How many subsequent applications are applied during the life of the floor (once per year, twice, etc.)?
There are commercially available, natural finishes but they are very expensive. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Replies
You used some "buz words", "natural" and "solvent free".
How do you define those terms? What are you really trying to accomplish.
The only thing that I know that is a truely natural and solvent free finsih would be bee's wax. But there are a couple of problems with that. First the honey that comes with the natural bees wax attracks ants. Secondly it is not a very protective finish.
We like the look of a floor finished with Tung oil, but we don't want to feel like we need to move out of the house once or twice a year when we apply it. We've looked into some finishes that have Tung oil and Linseed that are thinned with a citrus based solvent. We were looking for other ideas along that line. I was wondering about beeswax, but you say it is not protective. Does anybody use it?
Thanks for the input.
Have you looked at Livos? http://oikos.com/products/company_detail.lasso?ID=2184
I haven't used them but Jim Blodgett among others has spoken highly of their products.
I have never used tung oil so I don't know if it has much of a smell or not. But if you are using tung oil then there should not be an solvent.
But if you are using a tung oil FINISH then might have anything in it. And it might not even have any tung oil in it.
As someone else suggested using shellac. Now that is natural material (bug s##h). But it has a very strong solvent, alcohol. But that is quickly gone so it should not disrup the household too much.
My guess is that you are looking for a lighter colored finish that looks "close to the wood". You might want to use the tung oil for a base coat and then follow it up with a clear water based varnish with the top coat a flat or satin finish. Now that will give you a hard finish that should last years.
Now I have never done that on a floor, by experience is with furniture.
George,
When I was kid we did a lot of Paste wax over shellac. 2 coats of Bullseye (there are better shellac products today) and multiple layers of Johnson paste wax buffed with a white polishing pad. You won't see a more beautiful finish. Unfortunately,OMU has made this finish obsolete.
These floors require a fair amount of maintenance and will water spot, (no biggie, just rewax and hand-buff the water spots)....but this is a fairly 'green' finish.
Water-borne finish products are nearly solvent free, but can be a little tricky to work with.
Ditch
I would like to give you advise, only that in 20+ years finishing floors only one person has asked for a waxable floor and they tried to make it out like I pushed them into it a few months later. They hated it. I don't think the prefinished floor makers produce any wax floors either. Maybe the planet is telling you something here. GW