Finishing installation of southern yellow pine plank floor. Shopping for a tough polyurethane to help protect the soft pine. Local dealer carries fast drying MinWax poly. Is that a good product for flooring? Is there a better choice?
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story
Few people understand it. Nobody agrees what it is, how to learn about it, or who's responsible for it. It has never been more important
Featured Video
SawStop's Portable Tablesaw is Bigger and Better Than BeforeHighlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Replies
prout35
Any poly is a soft material.. (comparitively) what you need is an ancient finish.
It's shellac!
Now before you get all scared and start saying but, but, but,,,,,,
Shellac is wonderful for floors!
First it's hard, harder than poly's, harder than most finishes!
Second it's safe.. you've actually been eating shellac all of your life.. virtually every pill you take and a lot of the candy you eat is coated with shellac..let's see any other finish make that claim!
Third it's extremely easy to repair if it should ever be damaged.. Grab a rag dampened with denatured alcohol and wipe it back and forth for a few seconds. The scratch is gone! If you wear out the finish and want to add more lets say a decade or 6 from now, all you do is wipe on a little denatured alcohol to clean and soften the old finish and put on some new shellac! The new will melt right into the old.
Want to remove the old finish completely? Wipe it off with denatured alcohol! No sanding, no dust, no real mess. Oh sure it will smell like the doctors office for a little while but that smell quickly goes away..
How fast? Well start doing a floor in the morning and by dinner time if the windows are open the smell is gone! By the way it's very easy do-it-yourself project! put the first coat on in the morning, 15 minutes later it's dry! Yep 15 minutes later your are sanding off any nubs or fuzz that the first coat raised..
now put the second coat on and 30 minutes later you can check it for nubs again.. (usually you don't have any but it's good to check) put the third coat on and that will take an hour to dry.. if you do a fourth coat it will take 2 hours to dry.. next coat takes 4 hours to dry etc.. (I usually do 3 coats)
How expensive is it? Well a typical room will cost you about $50.00 That's all! 50 bucks!
If you are interested I'll give you exact details. The average housewife could do a typical floor in a half a day, put the furniture back in place and have guests over for dinner.
(It's really an easy project),. but if you want to make it like a fine piece of furniture you can do that easily enough too,, (just more work, about 4 more hours for the average room)... The trouble is that feet don't often walk on fine antique furniture so you'll have to consider that while debating.
OH did I mention that all fine antiques use shellac as their finish?
By the way in the archieves you'll see pictures of my floor six months after I did it. my 150 pound dog (who refuses to clip his toenails) actaully dented the wood with his claws but the finish is still perfect!
Excellent advice Frenchy!!! thanks for the reminder too! (about shellac)
Geoff
1-Thanks
2-how do I find the photos in the archieve
3-how does shellac hold up to the sun--we have large windows
4-I'd take you up on the offer of detailed directions
Prout35
IF you look over to the left side of this page you'll see advanced search. go there and enter 85891.1 and you should see my pictures..
As for Sun Shellac has some UV protection.. the only real weaknesses it has (all easily fixed) is water, prolonged exposure to water.. spill a little water and wipe it up and no problem.. leave water sit on it and the shellac will turn white..
To fix, grab that same denatured alcohol and wipe up all the old shellac in the area affected.. (It comes up easily) then apply some new shellac remember new shellac will melt itself into old shellac and make an invisable repair!
Oops! the same applies if you spill that single malt scotch. Wipe it up quickly and no bad results other than crying over spilt malt. Let drunken Uncle Charlie hide it and you'll wind up fixing the spot..
I'll E- Mail you instructions
I have used that on SYP with good results.
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
Well, is that a fact.
snort*
be vented or unvented,Screws or nails.
If it is asserted that civilization is a real advance in the condition of man — and I think that it is, though only the wise improve their advantages — it must be shown that it has produced better dwellings without making them more costly; and the cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run. Parolee # 53804
no I made it up
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
I would agree. Poly on softwood floors (maybe all floors) is lousy. It tracks, and you can't spot refinish it. I always use Watco or Behr Tung oil finish.
Forrest
I've used the Waterlox line of Tung Oils and have been incredibly pleased with the finish and durability. The only drawback is the heavy odor during installation that some folks don't care for. However; keeps folks out of the house during finishing which is nice for dust control!