Which finish should I use on my wood floors

Water-base-on-Brazilian-cherry

Water base on Brazilian cherry

When you get estimates to refinish your hardwood floors you get different opinions from contractors. I often hear from customers things like “the other contractor told me oil base is better than water base”. Each contractor will tell you a different story about which finish you should put on your floors. Which finish or contractor should you choose? It is crucial that you understand a major principal: It is never just the finish you put down that counts.

A good finish is a result of not only a good product but a few more factors:

  • How the wood surface was prepared; what sanding sequence and which machines were used.
  • The person applying the finish – was he/she following the instructions like spread rate and drying conditions.
  • The finish itself – you can never get a good finished floor with a cheap inferior product.
  • The right finish for the right floor.
  • The right finish for the right customer (future use). I will recommend one finish for a young family with kids and a different one for an older couple without kids or pets.

When you debate whether or not you should put oil base, water base, wax or oil on the floor make sure you get the facts, not just opinions. The contractor you are about to hire should have the experience, education, credentials and most importantly the same standards as you.

How to maintain my hand scraped floors

Buffed-tung-oil-floor-300x224Hand scraped floors are beautiful and full of interesting elements; peaks and valleys, pronounced color variation, knots, mineral streaks and more. Much like any other wood floor it requires regular cleaning and maintenance. Here are a few things you should do to preserve the beauty of your hand scraped floors:

  • Vacuum or sweep as needed.
  • Wipe off spills or stains using a rag soaked with the recommended cleaner.
  • Use a colorant like Sharpie or matching stain to hide any scratches or dents.
  • Most importantly when your floor starts losing its luster call a professional to apply a coat of clear urethane.

Hand scraped floors are admired for their textured look. This look creates a challenging reality: these floors cannot be refinished with the use of sanding machines. The only way to refinish a hand scraped floor is to re scrape it. That is a task very few professionals are capable of and honestly, not many people can afford.

Even though these floors are unique and different maintaining them is a very simple task. If you follow maintenance guidelines your hand scraped floors could last a lifetime.

How to work with “hard to work with” woods?

Tigerwood-install-225x300They have weird names that are hard to pronounce. They come from countries you didn’t know existed (let’s face it – you didn’t). Everyone hates working with them: you, your nailers, your saw blades, even your finish! Yes, I’m talking about exotic woods. In our trade we are familiar with names like Brazilian Cherry, I’pe, and Padauk which are more readily available. Some woods are so rare and expensive they are sold by weight like Cocobolo (see it in my last video about wood anatomy) and Lignum Vitae. You can find those at your local hardwood lumber store.

My first experience with Ipe was not good. My fasteners kept bending or breaking, my carbide blade on my miter saw was dull after a day and one of my employees had an allergic reaction to the dust. Exotic woods have become a part of every installer’s life. When I say exotics I refer to woods that are extremely dense, hard and rich in oils, silica or resins.

So, how working with exotics is different from working with let’s say Oak? Well, first thing is first right? I mean after safety. Acclimation and preparation: Your average oak will gain or lose a moisture point in a week. Not your average exotic. One of the former technical directors with the Nwfa told me a story about a museum installation of Ipe he had to do. He had acclimated the wood on site for two months before he was “forced” to install it. And still the wood was not where he wanted it to be. My point is that exotics (or any other hard and dense wood or strand woven grass) will need to be on site under estimated future living conditions for weeks at a minimum.

Next – installing: Cutting and nailing that exotic wood. You should use a cleat nailer to fasten exotic floors because your average ½” (1.3 cm) crown staple will split the tongue. This will create movement related issues with the floor. Some manufacturers make an 18 gauge cleat nailers (instead of 16) which are specifically designed for fastening hard and dense woods. If you are not used to spending $60 to $80 on a miter saw blade now is the time. The resins and silica in those woods will dull your blade quickly anyway, you might as well start with a quality blade (if you are a craftsman in my book you already have at least $600 worth of blades anyway, at least).

All of your power tools should be professional grade (and I don’t mean it looks professional, I mean professional). Trying to rip an Ipe’ board on a $100 table saw will be unsafe, slow and maybe impossible.

If you need to face or hand nail in some places pre drill your floor boards. You will find that pushing the drill through the wood is going to heat up your drill bit and break it. I learnt the hard way to let the bit do its’ job slowly, much like drilling into metal. If you attempt to face nail without pre drilling your nail will bend. Either way, trying to get a bent fastener out of a Cumaru board for example is an impossible task.

assembling-hardware-on-the-crib-300x225Sanding and finishing: here is a dilemma = I should start with a 36 grit because this is a really hard wood but, because it is such a hard wood how in the world am going to take those scratches out? Well, you are right. Better to start with 50 or 60 and change your abrasive frequently instead of starting with 36 or 40. Trying to get scratches out of Ipe’ is like trying to…well…let’s not even go there.

Finishing – First rule – no oil modified finishes. Second rule – seal it the day you are done sanding.

There’s much more to be said about exotics. I will probably dedicate some blog posts in the future about specific woods. Thank you for reading and as usual,  I hope I helped someone, somewhere somehow.

Dark Wood Floors

Dark-Floors1I get more calls every week to refinish wood floors in order to make them darker. We no longer talk medium colors but dark, rich browns and blacks. A lot of home owners don’t realize that the labor involved in achieving those dark looking floors is pretty intense. The amount of work to produce a dark floor is greater than producing a natural floor. That is why the price tag is higher.

When we add color to the wood we apply pigments to the top surface of the wood cells. That highlights every imperfection in the sanding process if there is any. That is why it is so important that the sanding is done right. Not every contractor can tackle a black floor. I hear stories from frustrated home owners who had hired someone they thought was capable of making their floors pretty. Then, when the stain was applied the color was uneven and blotchy, and they had scratches showing in multiple areas on the floor. It gets even worse when some of those contractors sand the floors again and come up with the same poor results. This why it is so important to hire someone who has the experience, the education, the right equipment and the skill level to produce a great floor.

Through maintaining a dust free job site, using the right sanding sequence with the right machines we produce a scratch free and flat floors. Then, we literally crawl the floor to check for imperfections and then, and only then is the floor ready to be stained.

So, next time you hire someone to refinish your floors to a dark color make sure they are skilled in doing so before the stain hits the floor.