I’m putting in a mesquite floor in a kitchen and had planned to simply coat it with polyurathane (sp?). My cousin (a home builder) said to put tung oil on it first. He said it really makes it look great. I’ve found one place on the web that said it was ok to put the poly on after the tung oil application. But, I need to make sure I don’t screw it up. Has anyone else done this? Is it worth it?
xpayroll
Replies
I thought it would look great, did a sample piece, and it looked just the same as my sample I made with an oil-based poly and no tung oil.
Saved myself a step by just useing the oil poly
try a sample for yourself.
If you wanted water based poly on top, but the look of oil, it might be a way to go.
But realize that the tung oil is going to smell in application just as bad as oil poly, if that is a reason why you wanted to use water poly
steve
I just used Waterlox (waterlox.com) which is a mixture of tung oil and poly I believe. It worked out beautifully on wide plank heart pine. I can post some pictures if you care to see.
Thanks TGNY and Mistersteve,
I think I'm gonna go with poly only. The process of putting tung oil down, that I read on the internet, involved several coats and a week of --no walking on the floor-- curing time. I don't think I can stay away from the fridge that long. Appreciate your help.xpayroll
I would like to see it please.
Thanks-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
WWPD
If you like the color of oil, you can mix the oil (tung or linseed) with oil-poly. It's time consuming but if you start with say 50-50 mix and then reduce the oil with each successive coat until the last one or two was just poly.
Laying water-base over oil is iffy. The waterbase will not bond chemically with the oil film, you have to scuff-sand to give it tooth. This then is a mechanical bond which can fail with moisture, settling or just wear & tear. If I start with oil I stay with it. I have sealed oil with dewaxed shellac then waterbase but you need to get the flakes that are dewaxed and mix the shellac yourself, the storebought premixed has wax which will peel any waterbase applied over it.
How many coats are you going with? With oil I went with 5-7, waterbase I'd go 9-12. I also sanded between coats with progressively finer paper. I've seen some of my floors five years later and they still look new and clean easily. The sanding keeps the finish from looking "plasticey". A fresh coat of wax makes them look like crystal glass, showing the woodgrain beautifully.
That's a good question. I was going to put on at least 4 coats of oil based poly then see how it looked and go from there. How long do you wait between coats when you mix the oil poly with tung oil? What grit sandpaper do you start with? Thanks for your help.xpayroll
Time between coats varies with the brands and percentages, basically when sandpaper makes dust instead of gumballs. I start with say 100 grit, unless the floor boards need leveling then less, but 100 is good for absorbing the first color/stain coat. Then I go up a grit with each coat, by 20 or 50 grit. I'll end at 320 or 400 by which time I'm basically knocking off any dust that got in the finish and polishing the sheen. I don't like the uber glossy glare but try for a crystal glass finish that reflects say a window's light crisply. I usually annoy my client with how many coats I put on but they're happy years later. I usually try to get them to do their floors over a vacation if I can so as not to disrupt their daily life. This is why I have worked with waterbase, I can get quite a few coats down in a weekend. That's when I break my "oil only rule", I may use an oil stain early Friday, then clear coat Saturday and Sunday with waterbase.