Which product should I apply on my wood floor to protect it well?

Wednesday, 08 March 2017

You just bought an unfinished wood floor and would like to add a protection on it to extend its lifetime? Your wood floor is worn out and you sanded it for a restoration but you now have to add a protection to it? Or, some scratches are visible on the floor’s surface and you would like to make a quick restoration to get it back to the original luster?

Many protection options for your floor are available on the market, but how to find the most appropriate one? We will detail here each type of protection to help you make the right choice according to your needs and your project.

Waterborne finishes

It is a urethane or acrylic resin in a waterborne formulation. So, when the base of the finish is evaporating, in this case, the water, there are only few or even chemical ingredients suspended in the air. Consequently, there is no danger for you and your family during the drying time; you can easily reintegrate your house by the end of the day. That’s also for this reason that this type of finish is recognized for being odorless, low in VOC and its speed of drying. Some waterborne finishes, such as the Finitec ones, are conceived to be applied and adhere to any other type of finish.

Hybrid waterborne finishes

This product is an emulsion of resin made of a combination of oil and water. We’re talking of non-toxic water-soluble oil. With a slightly amber tint, this type of finish gives a lot of richness to the wood. As its name mentions, it’s an hybrid solution between the eco-friendly aspect of the waterborne finishes and the overall looking offered by the oil based finishes, but without the inconvenience and the odor. With properties similar to the waterborne finishes, the choice of this finish is mainly a question of style regarding the amber tint of the hybrid waterborne finish. A weakness of this type of finish is that its drying time is a bit longer than the waterborne finishes (4-5 hours versus 2-3 hours for the waterborne finishes).

Oil-based finishes

As the name of the product says, the oil-based finishes are mainly made of this ingredient. We are choosing it for its ease of application and affordability. However, it has a high VOC rate, a strong odor during the application and drying time, a tendency to yellow throughout the years and has a low abrasion resistance.

Hygroreactive finishes

Also known under the name of crystal finishes, this type of finish is increasingly rare on the market but still available. This finish, with high toxic components rate, offers you an economic and durable solution. It’s a solvent-based polyurethane finish. It tends to yellow throughout the time and emit a strong odor, up to the point that you need to spend few days out of your house when applying it.

Alcohol –based finishes

This type of finish offers a neat finish and a quick drying time. The downside is that, as of the hygroreactive finish, the alcohol-based finish yellows a lot and emits a strong odor that forces you to spend a few days out of the house.

Impregnating oil

Even if available in many varieties, the one that we find the most on the market are the ones made of linseed or tung oil. Very popular in Europe, people who are choosing the impregnant oil are usually choosing it to keep the natural look of the wood and the ease to repair it locally in case of scratch. Some things to keep in mind regarding this type of protection is that the matte finish is the only luster available, that the cleaning process may be a little difficult and that the product application must be done on a yearly basis.

We hope that this information will now allow you to choose the best protection for your wood floors.

However, if you still have some question before starting your application or your project, contact our team of specialists who will be able to advise you.