Hi,
Just installed a bamboo floor with a satin finish. I would think going over the entire floor with some sort of sealer would be benificial in filling the seams and adding some extra protection from scratches. No advice in manufactures instructions one way or the other. Looking for advice/expreiences... a liquid floor wax product ?, polyurathane - oil based? water based?
You need to find out whats on it now, any wax will affect bonding. I realy dought you need anything but to put on a Poly would require sanding the floor for anything to adhere. I know someone that put poly on a parquet floor and it peeled, probebly from a wax in the original finish.
Maybe a mistake. I would think any finish you put on it will not be as good as what is already on the bamboo and could possibly screw it up and void any warrantee.
It's already finished. The finish seals. No finish would fill the seams and it would crack.
It's already finished. Leave it alone. If you just *gotta* screw with it then a LIGHT coat of a good paste wax well buffed out will add some shine. Won't do squat for protection.
I would leave it as is. You might have used some sort of sealer in the joints at the time of installation, but it should have been approved by the manufacturer and it is a little late now.
I installed a bamboo floor from Ikea that had a poor finish, so I sanded it lightly and applied two coats of Minwax Polyurethane For Floors, semi-gloss.
It turned out fine, a big improvement. I did a sample board first to test compatibility.
Thanks! very useful. May I ask how long ago you did the floors?
You get four "don't do it!" answers and one "I did it because my finish sucked." and you're interested in the my finish sucked reply. Does your finish suck? Or is it more along the lines of, well I'd like to help the finish along some to keep it looking good? If it's the first, you shouldn't have put down the flooring in the first place. If it's the second, be aware that a lot of the factory finishes have aluminum oxide in them and they're baked on which makes it far more durable. You won't be able to replicate that. If you don't know what finish is on the bamboo, and your finish doesn't suck, you shouldn't be thinking that you're going to "improve" it.
There's a reason that there's no mention of a sealer in the manufacturer's literature. Same reason they didn't mention how to remove the flooring. It's unnecessary information. Contact the manufacturer and get tech support to weigh in on your plans. Don't consider it to be your plans were shot down, consider it to be that you now have some free time to spend on another project that actually needs it.
R
November of last year.
If your floor scratches easily you should probably do it right now. If it has a durable finish I would wait and see what happens.
If you do it, use oil base, not latex. Oil base has better adhesion and probably wears better.
Don't wax it if you think you might eventually apply a coat of urethane because you might have adhesion problems.
replying to Jeff, Oliver wrote: Untimely for one project though may be good for reference to others: I installed prefinished 3/4 oak wood floor in kitchen. The cabinet install required cutting baseboard heating line on the cabinets. When I saw such a small amount of water (about a full drinking glass) starting to cup the boards I had just installed, I was convinced to do something. I chose a paint roller, tray, and oil-based polyurethane. Three coats was what it took so that all tiny seems accepted and were filled to keep water from running through like a sieve and it was layed tight. The sacrifice is the clear as glass beautiful factory finish. The floor could begin to look comparatively plasticized. Also, pressure gouges will emphasize that there is too much polyurethane leaving snail trails. However, I still reason living on a prefinished kitchen wood floor with accidents could lead to unevenness and dirt not allowing the return to normal by allowing it to dry, and that is just with water. Soda, coffee, syrups, could all be horrible attractants for dirt and insects as well. If your wood floor is installed over an actual vapor barrier and not just rosin paper, the spilled liquid may run under the boards much further than the spill area with and against both grain and pitch if your floors are flat though uneven. I do not recommend purposely spilling water to check it out, it could add a couple weeks to get best dried results (and it win?t Be perfect). Paste wax, danish oil or linseed won?t do it and neither will other fillers. Test behind the refrigerator. My instance was for an apartment. Again, the floors could further be skillfully sanded in the future and the floor will be in great shape.
replying to Jeff, Nunya biness wrote: For prefinished hardwood floors check out what I did here
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