Waxing a woodblock floor

[D.M. Procida]

The decorater sanded the parquet floor, put down a couple of coats of polyurethane varnish, and then an oil-based gloss varnish.

We don't much care for the look of the gloss - a kind of heavily striated wet appearance - so they will sand it down again tomorrow (not sure how far) and try again.

Assuming that the underlying floor was sanded smooth to begin with, could wax be applied instead of a final coat of varnish? I'm not sure how well that would work without going right back to bare wood.

Daniele

[Stuart Noble]

You would need a softish wax to avoid it being too slippery, and then there would be more chance of it picking up grime and looking grubby after a few months. I wouldn't. Sanding the existing varnish with a very fine grit may be enough to cut back the gloss. After that, assuming they're using a belt sander, reversing the abrasive so that the fabric side is in contact with the wood can produce a more mellow finish. In the end it's all about light reflection

[mark]

Wax will look good for two or three months then it will look sh... er.. not so good.

mark

[Tim S]

D.M. Procida coughed up some electrons that declared:

Neighbour swears by Treatex - not yet tried it myself, but it's a wax/oil blend, so harder wearing than pure wax but can be touched up in the same way.

[The Medway Handyman]

Wax on top of varnish will be fine if they are filming the next series of Dancing on Ice in your house. Don't even think about it.

You would have to go down to bare wood to make it work. Apart from which, wax was only used in the past because they didn't have anything else.

Did the varnish have a stain in it? Recipie for disastor IME. Coloured varnish always looks like s**te.

You can buy matt varnish. Get them to try a small area first & see how you like it.

[Andy Dingley]

I'm sorry you didn't think to check the advice here first. Either of these varnishes are a poor idea on floors. Using them together is worse.

Wax would be far worse. Slippy, it picks up stains like crazy and there's no wear in it. You'll be having the maid re-wax it weekly forever.

Really though there's not much to be done other than either sand it down again and re-finish with an acid-cure formaldehyde (which would be best), or else to continue with whatever the existing last coat was.

If your final coat is well hardened (a few weeks) then you should be able to dull it with rottenstone (Axminster) and a twenty quid car polisher from Aldi / Screwfix. Experiment on a small patch first though. If it looks like it's burning or pulling the varnish up, then stop and let it harden for longer.

[Gib Bogle]

That seems back to front. We had 3 coats of poly (moisture-curing) applied to our floor. The second coat was gloss, the top coat satin. It looks good.

[Stuart Noble]

The basic resin in all varnishes is gloss, but some have a matting agent (usually a fine mineral of some kind) added to produce satin, eggshell, matt. Slightly less hard wearing than gloss in theory

[D.M. Procida]

You mean, first sand back the varnish, then use the belt as a kind of buffer on it?

Daniele

[D.M. Procida]

To be honest, I thought the decorator would know what he was doing.

Is there a trade name for such a thing? I suspect that the words "acid-cure formaldehyde" would provoke bafflement. Daniele

[D.M. Procida]

When I did it myself about tem years ago, I got very good results. I used two or three coats of satin varnish, which I rubbed down before the next.

Basically, I suspect I was more careful than the decorator.

Daniele

[Andy Dingley]

"Rustin's Clear Plastic Floor Coating", and there's another maker too whom I've forgotten.

It's the stuff that stinks of goats, not solvents, but the smell disappears totally after a couple of hours.

DO NOT use these over other finishes - they'll peel straight off.

[Stuart Noble]

Yes. Normally used to de-nib the final coat i.e. remove the inevitable specks of dust etc