Hello, I have a relatively new heartpine plank floor my husband and I installed in January. I stained and tung-oiled the floor myself…I love it, but my dog has put several long scratches (besides the many little scratches that I don’t care about…these are BIG ones) and my cabinet installers and drywallers (I know, we had to put the floor in first…long story!) have as well. These scratches are not in the floor itself, but in the oiled finish. The flooring company has advised me to just lightly sand and brush some more tung oil on it, which I know will work, but recently I read something on-line that said you should mop the oil on, let it dry for 30mins or so, then wipe the rest off and you will avoid these kinds of scratches. When I applied the 4 coats, I put it on heavy (as advised by the company) and let it soak in and dry overnight. This seals the wood and builds up a surface finish, hence the sratches. Has anyone had experience with tung-oiling before? Any advice would be appreciated. I love these floors….oh, also, I have just damp-mopped with a little white vinegar and water, but I’m noticing alot of footprints….is this while the finish is still curing, or will I be damp mopping frequently always? (I try to make the kids take their shoes off, but it is hard to make adults and of course the dog take his feet off!:))
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smaartin
For exactly that reason I've chosen not to do that to my wide plank floors. (dogs, 150 pound Newfoundland and my oldest daughter wants to get an even bigger sized St Bernard)
Instead I will shellac them.. yep!I know,soft tender old shellac..
But scratches disappear when you wipe them with alcohol.
We've got an old (1930's) piano that we wiped down with a rag soaked in alcohol and the wonderful finish underneath reappeared like magic..
as nasty scratched up as that thing was, (it's been a honkey tonk piano in a bar for a few decades) and as easy as it was to refinish I have a new favorite finish..
I'm a fan of tung-oil finishes. The one down side they do have is that it is very slow drying. I try to always allow at least a week. It can be a real pain at times if you have kids and pets but I now have teenages (partialy trainable) and the dogs get locked out when touching up the floors.
Still beats the dickens out of having to resand like with polys
Pete...do you get the footprint effect? Everything you read says you only have to damp mop once in awhile, but I can't stand these footprints, so I do it every Sat or so...is my floor too new for that? And how do you touch up your floors...do you do the whole thing or just spot treat areas?
Edited 3/26/2006 5:15 pm ET by smaartin
Tung oil is a penetrating finish and you are not supposed to build up a film with it like poly. So wipe it on and leave it on for 10 minutes and wipe off the excess.
The beauty of a penetrating finish is you can always lightly sand the scratches and touch up with more tung oil.
What's more important? The dog and kids or a few scratches on the finish? Just let it age and develope its character while you enjoy life.
Hi Tom...thanks for your input...I agree with you, the co I got the floor from has been making floors exclusively for over 40 yrs...Carlisle Wide Plank Flooring. (wideplankflooring.com). The scratches are not in the wood itself, but in the finish. I wish I had just wiped it off like you suggested, but I followed their instructions since I assumed they knew what they were doing; they are highly recommended (even by Taunton Press mags and books!) and I thoroughly enjoyed working with them, I just wish I could've gotten the Tung oil bit done a little differently. But they floors do look great, just not some of the white scratches.
we gave up on tung oil- water spots it, footprints, and it attracks dirt. we put waterlox over the tung oil. a harder finish that actually dries
Great timing, just finished damp mopping my wide plank tung-oiled floors about 10 minutes ago. I installed them last spring and used 5 coats of Waterlox. With kids (no dogs, but just as tough on the floors) I've had few scratches, where they have appeared I just applied a little more oil. The floors look great, but a slight patina is part of the allure.
Waterlox...know of it, did you use a tung oil finish or straight tung oil...I think this is what Edwardh1 is talking about as well...can you give me the name of the product? I was just admiring the warm sheen of the floors right now, but as Edh1 says, it does seem to footprint...haven't had any trouble with water spots, infact, one of my cats drinks exclusively with his paw, so if you happen to leave a nice cold glass (or heck, even an old warm one) of water around, he will drink out of it and invariably knock it over. Came home after 5 hours the other day to a big puddle, looked as if it had dried some (as the table was mostly dried) and the floor held up GREAT. No problem...I will try the search on tung oil, but would appreciate the product info from you and Edwardh1. Thanks!
see waterlox.com I used original finish.tung oil NEVER dries, and will footprint and sneaker print until it gets a lot of dirt ground into it then it stops.
Waterlox is polymerised (boiled) tung oil. boiling organic oils changes the molecular structure so it will harden. my last waterlox order was 36 gal... Jim Devier
The tung-oil I used is high resin with mineral spirits and a couple solvents in it...I think it might be polymerized? I haven't had any trouble with water spotting, just a few footprints, but you can only see those in the light, not actually if you're standing over them. The oil is from Carlisle...you'd think they'd know what they're doing...but I need to touch the floor up after the rest of the kitchen is done, so I'm considering Waterlox...any one have thoughts on how long I should wait? My floor is only about 7-8 weeks old..should I let it cure a little longer and do the waterlox this summer, and see if maybe I don't even want to use the waterlox? The general consensus here seems to be waterlox is best, but I know there are a few of you here that have used Carlisle product...is that what you used Edwardh1?
I've always used Waterlox for my tung-oil applications.
we were "talked into" tung oil by an professional installer that had had his homes shown in architectural digest magazine. his demo floor in his office was a small area that I guess he polished every day. it also got little traffic and little dirt and no water (like our kitchen does) .
the tung oil suc#ed-- he used Behr brand. . we did our entire 1st floor oak floors. dirt attraction, "never" drying, footprints from bare feet, footprints from sneakers, dull unless you applied more then it got sticky again.
After a year or two we topcoated it with waterlox original finish that went on real well except for the second coat in the kitchen which tried to "bead" why we still do not know, maybe first coat not dry or grease in it.
If I had it to do all over I would put on basic old style poly.
I had to repair a wood floof/waterlox finish 5 weeks after install. light winch decided i't didnt like the 650 lb. waterford chandelear sp?. any way,beat the floor under it up pretty good, I steamed the dent's for about a week, knocked off the top w/steel wool and wiped on 3 or four new coats- wiped out to a dry edge each time. went well-after a few days you couldn't tell where I'd done it. not sure I really needed to use the steel wool as it didn't seem to make a diff. (wiped the dry edges out past the repair area each time). Jim Devier
As the other replies have directed you to Waterlox's website, I will add that the finish on our floors is extremely hard. I have spilled water and have not had any visible problems. OTOH we generally do not walk in our house with shoes on and vacuum frequently. As I said before we put 5 coats and the build up was quite evident, I might add another coat this spring. I used the medium sheen and the floors are quite stunning. I have used many kinds of poly in the past, but I much prefer Waterlox and would use it again.
Greetings smaartin, Welcome to Breaktime.
Tung oil for flooring has been addressed here on Breaktime a number of different times in the past with varying opinions.
If you scroll down in the lower left corner of your screen there is a search function that will take you to previous threads dealing with whatever you type in the search bar.
If you type in 'tung oil' or other keywords of the subject matter you'll get a supply of information from those old threads such as 23706.19 & 26052.1
Cheers
'Nemo me impune lacesset'
No one will provoke me with impunity
Another vote for Waterlox. I did four coats on wide plank white pine and it is pretty tough- for white pine, that is. Lets face it, white pine is pretty soft and I had to accept that it will get scratched and dented eventually. Heart Pine is much harder, so maybe your expectations can be a bit higher. It is so much easier to apply than poly, and doesn't give the floor that plastic look which would be all wrong for this type of floor.
I actually looked at Carlisle, since I live not too far away. Very nice product, but way more expensive than some of the more local mills. It could be different for the heart pine- our white pine is mostly locally grown, so there are quite a few local places where you can get good flooring. I guess it has to be expensive to pay for all those fancy brochures, sales people, and showroom.
I tend to agree with you, but after visiting several flooring companies here and talking to them only to find out things like they thought there was actually a red birch vs a yellow birch (uh, heartwood anyone?) and not knowing that heart pine is harder to some degree, that you can use wood over radiant heat and such,(plus, one "3rd generation" company did not know what quartersawn wood was...can you believe it?), I decided that when a horticulturist (me)knows more than the flooring "specialists", maybe I should look elsewhere. The people at Carlisle were great, I have to say, rushed the floor for me, sent me free stain even, and the flooring material was so perfectly milled we did not even have to trim the ends or anything. Also, the lengths were awesome to work with, especially when you have 50+ feet of hallway! Just wishing I had asked/known about Waterlox before I spent the bucks and time on the tung oil...right now, though, with the evening light, the floors just freakin' glow....they look good, just the footprints in the day. I know Edh1 had issues w/application, anyone else? Any hints? Do you have to mop it in one continuous motion like tung?
Coming to this thread a little late...
We used a Penofin (they have a Web site) floor oil on old and new oak floors seven years ago. Even after that length of time they still look great (and that's going through two teenagers and two dogs).We never have had any problem with footprints. Went on easily and dried w/in a day. photo at:
http://www.collegetownlife.com/frfld/dine.jpg
Edited 4/13/2006 2:12 pm ET by Fairfield