When you are choosing a finish for your wood flooring you will want the best.
Your finish will protect your floor from everyday wear, dirt and moisture, and provide color and luster that will enhance the beauty and give your flooring its own personality.
There are two types of finishes for you to choose from, Surface Finishes and Penetrating Finishes.
Surface Finishes Normally these are the most popular choice, and you need to apply the stain to achieve the particular color you want.
Followed by a top coat of polyurethane or varnish to give a protective coat to your floor.
Surface Finishes are very durable, they are moisture resistant, and are amazingly easy to maintain.
You have four options for your top coat, and they all have their own benefits.
Oil Based Urethane is the most commonly used floor finish.
You can get this, in gloss, semi gloss and satin sheen's; this type of urethane is generally applied in two or three coats, with drying time up to eight hours between coats.
As its drying the fumes are rather strong so open windows are a must.
This oil based urethane Amber's with age.
Water Based Urethane produces a clear non-yellowing finish, and is not as smelly as other choices.
This product dries quickly and you can clean it up with soap and water.
Some manufacturers add additives called cross links that mix into water based finishes to make it more durable.
Moisture Cured Urethane is solvent-based polyurethane that is more durable and more moisture resistant than other surface finishes.
It is better to use this in commercial areas, where there is a lot of traffic, like hotels or office buildings.
It will take on an Amber hue with age.
When applying it has a very strong odor and it would probably be better to let professionals do it.
Conversion Varnish is a clear non-yellowing product that dries in eight hours.
This also produces an extremely powerful odor when applied and should only be used by wood flooring specialists.
Penetrating Stains and Finishes These finishes do exactly what they are called and penetrate the wood to perform a protective seal.
The stain soaks into the wood to provide the color, and a wax coating gives a low - gloss satin sheen, that can be maintained with additional thin applications.
These types of finishes need special care, you can never use water based products on this type of floor, only solvent based waxes, buffing paste or cleaning liquids specifically designed for wax-finished floors.
Sheen.
Hi gloss, low gloss or satin finish, you have to choose which you like best.
But do know that high gloss finish shows scuffs and scratches more easily than low gloss or satin finishes.
The latest trend in finishes include product designed to further extend the life or your hardwood floor and make them more durable that ever.
Some of the polyurethane finishes contain aluminum oxide to make the floor more abrasive resistant.
Some manufacturers report that this type of finish is ten times more resistant to abrasion than other wood finishes and is guaranteed up to twenty five years.