Oiled wood floor owners! Do you love or regret your floor finish?

It’s not pockmarks and dents–it’s patina! Don’t hesitate to apply Rejuvenate. The stuff works and is SO easy to apply.

RobertGMarvin

in General Discussion 6 years and 8 months ago

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Guest User | 6 years and 9 months ago

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Hi oiled wood floor owners!

I’m agonising over that perennial question : to go with oil or a poly finish on a new white oak floor.

I’ve read the many threads here on Brownstoner and I just can’t make up my mind.

I’m interested to know if you’ve actually lived with an oiled floor – perhaps for a few years:

– Do you still love your choice or do you regret it and wish you’d gone with poly?
– Has the maintenance been manageable or a burden?
– Has the stain resistance been acceptable?
– Have you made spot repairs (such as oil promises) and have they blended in?

Many thanks. Gosh choosing floors is tough !!!!!

Jason

empathie00 | 6 years and 9 months ago

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Hi Jason – we stained and then oiled our heart pine floors on bottom two levels of house and used only oil (no stain) on top floor reclaimed pine planks. Woca oil. I love them. Two coats 6 years ago and still going strong; I think we may do a “refresh coat” next year with a product woca makes especially for this. We use woca cleaner – it has some of the oil in it so every time we wash them, they get a mini refresh. We’ve done spot touch ups in multiple places and I’d never be able to tell you where. SO much better to me than filling my house with chemicals and having to do a full sand and repoly any time I want to fix a scratch… this is esp important on our main floor since they’re still the original boards and have already been sanded to within an inch of their lives – the less I ever have to sand, the better! Good luck with your decision!

Guest User | 6 years and 9 months ago

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Hello empathie. Thanks for taking the time to respond. That’s reassuring and helpful. 🙂

Guest User | 6 years and 9 months ago

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Just wanted to give a 2nd vote for Woca oil. It’s beautiful and it’s definitely able to take some touchups which you can’t do on a poly floor. Plus it’s non toxic and derived from vegetable oil!

yudashasom | 6 years and 9 months ago

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I don’t understand why anyone would do oil instead of poly. You can achieve almost the same look with a flat or satin poly, but of course it’s more durable. If I’m missing something, let me know. Touching up, refreshing, using special products is a lot of work.

jrkeat | 6 years and 9 months ago

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I just wanted to say, since two people have said the opposite, that I’ve successfully repaired oil based poly (common in Brooklyn) a number of times. I use the same poly that originally went on the floor an thin it at least 1:1 with odorless mineral spirits–it’s easy to fix, say, a furniture scratch. With older floors, you can match the worn texture by wiping it with a rag before it’s fully dry.

Guest User | 6 years and 9 months ago

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Thank you everyone for responding. My first interest in oil is that I like the flat matte look. It’s true that I can get close to this with poly. My second interest in oil is the ability to do these spot repairs. I am very interested in what jrkeat has said about repairing poly. I am going to investigate this.

Jrkeat – was the poly floor that you spot repaired pre-finished or was it finished on site?

Thank you.

jrkeat | 6 years and 9 months ago

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Finished on site. Prefinished engineered wood floors typically have a very hard finish that I don’t know how to replicate. My current floors are Bona Woodline. Minor scratches that don’t go completely through are easy to get a good repair. You can use a rag super aggressively to clear out paint embedded in scratches. You might or maybe Liberion 0000 steel wool. The

jrkeat | 6 years and 9 months ago

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Sorry, I accidentally hit REPLY. Anyway, you’ll have to experiment a bit. With a lot of work (trying multiple stains, etc.) I’ve been able to replace individual parquet boards. The finish is indistinguishabe, but I was never able to find a perfect grain match for the old boards.

Guest User | 6 years and 9 months ago

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Thanks for responding jrkeat. I’m pretty handy so can experiment as you suggested. Appreciate it.

coconut | 6 years and 9 months ago

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I own a brownstone and have made many mistakes so my suggestion if you are torn is to get two pieces of wood that are the same as your floor and do one in oil and one in poly. Next put it down and the heaviest traffic area and go to town on it. Then make your decision. I was curious if hardi backers were better than sheet rock or cement boards to I asked for a piece of scrap and left it in my backyard for one year before I checked it. Looks like the very first day. So far it has been in the rain and snow for over 10 years and still looking good just some green algae. I wish I would have done this in the past but that is how we learn. Before I put tiles on my wall I take four of them and xerox them and tape it to my wall or my floor. 9 times out of 10 it was just too much. I would rather spend $20 in paper than hundreds on a project that just does not work.

Guest User | 6 years and 9 months ago

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Hi Coconut this is great advice thank you. I’m gonna do what you suggest to break the impasse in my decision making. Thanks 😉

coconut | 6 years and 9 months ago

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I only have wood floor in my bedroom prefinished. It did not pass my test in the living room or hallway because of my dog and dirt tracked in left my sample yucky. Also not to add confusion but look into varathane. It starts off milky white and self levels so the finish is magnificent and clear. Also dries quicker. If you have any other question I would be happy to offer my advise. I purchased a brownstone 13 years ago and it is a work in progress. Slow but a major impact.

Guest User | 6 years and 9 months ago

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Thank you coconut. We’ve owned our Brownstone for over a year but I have a strong sense that these are life-long projects!!! Never quite finished ;-(

allans | 6 years and 9 months ago

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I also agree on coconut with the test. I found a brownstone wood floor expert who were gracious enough to conduct the test patch for me. Upon decision (which was Poly) they did the job. No one else that I called would do this so I definitely recommend Carlos Wood Floors (www.carloswoodfloors.com) if you do not want to try this on your own.

Guest User | 6 years and 9 months ago

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Hey allans – thanks for that. That’s reassuring since Carlos is the guy I have just approached. He seemed very helpful.

Can I ask did you do the TWO coats of water poly that Carlos recommended? How is your floor holding up?

Thank you for responding.

allans | 6 years and 9 months ago

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I did two coats and it’s held up fine – mind you I have twin boys who just turned 10. If you think you need three coats Carlos will most certainly abide. Also rest assured Carlos will disclose the product name he uses which other wood floor companies do not b/c they tend to use a cheap polyurethane. He’s the real deal when it comes to Brownstone wood floors. Good luck.

Guest User | 6 years and 9 months ago

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Excellent thank you. All my best trades have been recommended through this forum. Glad to add another to the list.

atirah | 6 years and 9 months ago

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Oil and Poly will produce a different look and have different maintenance cycles / wear characteristics.

For our house my wife and I went with a hard-wax oil on the ~150 year-old wide plank heart pine in our parlor / kitchen. The hardwax oil (specifically rubio monocoat) saturates the wood and produces a beautifully warm effect, while keeping the wood natural feeling and emphasizes the character of the wood. The downside is wear in higher traffic areas, but spot repairs are fairly simple. Cleaning is with a broom, windex for spot spills.

On our other floors, we have white oak which we finished with poly. It looks fine, not as pretty as the oil, but it’s tough as nails. Scratches are rarer, but they are much more visible due to the smoothness of the finish / wood. Cleaning is with a broom and a wet swiffer.