Hardwood Flooring Finish?

[Michael Drew]

Hi,

I installed Hickory; random width, rustic wide plank flooring in my home when I built it about ten years ago. The vendor / manufacture highly recommended (and sold) me Waterlox floor finish with tung oil. It is supposed to be transparent. It wasn't. It gave the white areas of the boards a yellow tint. I never did like it, but wasn't about to go through the agony of cleaning dust from the rest of the house twice and try something else. Everyone else thinks it looked good, but I didn't.

Some cupping and water damage a couple years ago persuaded me to re-finish the floor. The bulk of the sanding is complete and now I'm looking for suggestions for what to finish it with. This is the my fist and only hard wood floor, so I'm be no means an expert or even experienced at this. I'm not about to use the oil I used before unless I stain it first. I'd rather have a slight cherry color than that ugly yellow.

Suggestions from others who have either installed hard wood flooring, re-finished them or has some experience with staining / finishing Hickory would be great....

[Tom Godley]

Years ago the only truly clear floor finish that I know of was a water based polyurethane - white pickled floors were popular along the coast at "shore" houses" and that is what was used. I did it once -- the water bases finish dried quickly and was reasonable durable and for the most part.... clear.

For all the other floors I have ever done I have always used an oil based product and they all gave the wood some degree of color - I happen to like it. I own a house that has both Birch and Beech floors in some areas that are coated with Waterlox floor finish - The color of that product I would say is typical of oil bases finishes.

I think you should get some water based polyurethane and try it out to see if you like it -- thats the only way to know for sure.

[Steve Bracken]

Years ago the only truly clear floor finish that I know of was a water based polyurethane - white pickled floors were popular along the coast at "shore" houses" and that is what was used. I did it once -- the water bases finish dried quickly and was reasonable durable and for the most part.... clear.

For all the other floors I have ever done I have always used an oil based product and they all gave the wood some degree of color - I happen to like it. I own a house that has both Birch and Beech floors in some areas that are coated with Waterlox floor finish - The color of that product I would say is typical of oil bases finishes.

I think you should get some water based polyurethane and try it out to see if you like it -- thats the only way to know for sure.

There are also water based laquer floor finishes. The benefit is that they go on easily, dry fast and are very hard-wearing.

[Peter Quinn]

Maybe try Hydrocote Gymcote from Hood finishing. Its water white, its supposed to be tough as nails. We are using some two part water based coatings from europe on samples for european customers and they too are water white, but the particular brand is not distributed here. Any oil based product will give that oil based amber color, which some love, and looks better on some species than others. I love waterlox on cherry as a base coat just for that color it imparts.

I have also had good luck with general finishes water borns, and I think they make a flooring product as well, though inexpensive it isnt! In any even get som hickory and make a sample board for sure.

[Michael Drew]

Thanks for the replies. I have come to expect color added with oil based finishes, but I suppose I just haven't worked with wood as white as this much.

I suppose I should clarify that it isn't that I find yellow tint ugly or anything, it just doesn't go well with the rest of particular area of the house. It is the great room in a log house. The logs are all Red Cedar. The cabinets are natural cherry and the island wainscoting is also natural cherry. The yellow tint, also just limited to the Hickory sap wood areas does not match at all.

I'll look around for some water based finishes. I did not know they existed. Are they easy to apply? By easy, I hope they don't leave brush marks and bubbles on flat surfaces. The water based polys I use on furniture is a down right pain on the tops and I've since stopped using them for tops. (I can not spray)

[Kevin Begos]

I had a similar issue on a piece of interior trim,
and I added a small amount (5% or so) of Cedar stain to Linseed Oil.

It did change the tone of the finish from yellowish
to reddish, but it could be really tricky on a big job like
a floor. But you can add some stains to oil finishes.

[Scott T Smith]

When I had the floors installed in my house, I asked the contractor for his recommendation for the most durable, non-yellowing finish. He recommended a non-yellowing version of "Moisture Cure Polyurethane".

Supposedly this is the finish of choice for high traffic wood floors such as shopping centers, etc.

It's been in the house for several years and we're very pleased with it.

[Erik Christensen]

i have used water based poly on a set of hardwood stairs in a high traffic area about 8 years ago and they still look great. I also refinished 2 areas of oak flooring in my current home and while only 3 years old seems to be holding up OK

only caution about water poly on floors is I have read that it can cause movement issues - I used the recommended lambswool applicator for the 2 floors and it lays down a heavy coat especially in the grooves between boards. I have since seen folks report that the poly is SO hard that it basically bonds adjacent strips together so that when you have moisture changes you don't get each board move a little you have a bonded group open a noticeable gap when all the movement is concentrated on a single joint line - here in southern California we don't see big humidity changes so that has not been a issue (yet) on my floors.

[Jeff Gunter]

Most of the high end waterborne floor finishes are (or claim to be) self-leveling. I put about 1500 sf of white oak floor down last winter and used Basic Hydrocote + Basic Streetshoe (XL I think -- there are a couple of different types of Streetshoe -- one is low VOC). It leveled pretty well and was easy to apply. The Basic instructions say to keep the humidity up for about 1/2 hr (don't circulate air) to give the finish time to level, then after that to start the fans. Tack free time was about 90 minutes, soft cure in a day (recoat, light traffic), hard cure after a month or so.

I debated Basic (Streetshoe) vs Bona-Kemi (Bona Traffic) and tried to read as much as I could. I didn't find too much negative about either. The Streetshoe rated coverage was about 2x the Bona products and at similar cost per gal; we put down Basic. Streetshoe and Hydroline sealer coverages almost matched the documentation/spec. Theoretically should have needed 5-1/2 gal of top coat, bought 6; had a pint left.
So far so good (family of 6 + 2 large dogs) with only one scratch where someone who shall remain un-named dragged a heavy piece of furniture rather than lifting. The scratch isn't through the finish so I'm not going to fix it (yet).

The $64k question: does the floor have a yellow-ish cast? I think it does, but it's not nearly as yellow as Waterlox. I did Waterlox (don't remember the product name -but it's what used to be sold as "Gym Floor Finish") on a 1000sf of 100 year old maple floor. On that floor I wasn't bothered by the yellowing it since it really popped the birds-eye and tiger figure. On a new maple floor I've seen oil based poly and it definitely yellows (less than Waterlox, but still decidedly yellow). In my experience Streetshoe leveled better than either of these.

All that being said, I'm not a pro flooring guy. Caveat Emptor -- and you got this for free.

[Michael Drew]

Thanks again. The Streetshoe looks like a great product. Hopefully I can find some.

Why did you use both Hydrocote and Streeshoe?

[Steve Schoene]

Bona Kemi Traffic is also excellent. I've got in my three year old house and it looks new.

[Jeff Gunter]

Hydrocote is a sealer with a little bit of build; Streetshoe is a top coat with more build. Hydrocote was a lot thinner than Streetshoe and sucked right into the wood -- so I can see how it would work best as a sealer. Also I think it might only come in one sheen (pretty flat).

I was chatting with a local floor guy and he felt Bona-Kemi and Basic product lines were very similar. Bona has better name recognition.

There was a blog by a guy calling himself the "flooracle" that had a lot of information aimed at the pro floor market. Lot's of info there including some application demos. It looks like the parent company that supported that may be out of business?

[Dennis Miller]

+1 vote for Streetshoe. I used Streetshoe Satin 15 years ago and our floors still look great. The stuff wears like iron. The Satin shows no difference in sheen even in high traffic areas after 15 years.
Dennis

[Michael Drew]

I ordered the hydro coat and streetshoe. Satin finish. I'll let y'all know how it turns out....

Thanks again for all the help.