Friends have just purchased and are going to re-do the pine wood floors and asked what they should use as a finish. The house is post WWII? and I'm surprised the floors are pine but they are original with the house. Are these floors supposed to be varnished, shellacked, or oiled? Boiled in oil?
My guess is that the modern varnishes would be tougher than the pine? But that an oil finish would need very frequent tender loving care.
Thanks in advance, Josie
My neighbors had pine floors when I was a kid.. they called them their "softwood floors".. I remember helping them sand them down once, and (as a sign painter's son) asked what kind of finish they were putting on the floors... they said "the same as we did 20 years ago, wax"... Personally, I'd at least stain and seal them, but to each his/her own, I guess..
Thank you,
Josie
There's only one finish I'd use - an acid-cure formaldehyde resin. Easy to work with, cured and hard in only a few hours, but it stinks like a goat farm while you're working with it (full-face mask). Use
3 coats.I did use wax once. Even in a bedroom it just wasn't hard-wearing enough, even if you power-buff it.
I've never heard of acid-cure formaldehyde resin so I sure can't comment on it - other than to say I can only imagine what that smells like. Formaldehyde is such a lovely smell... My floors are wide board (18") pine floors and they were simply stained and finished with poly. They've held up well for 22 years now. There are some spot that need touch up in the very high traffic areas, but that's to be expected after 22 years. The only thing we've ever done to these floors is to wax them every couple of years. It's always a gas to watch everyone walk in socks on the floors right after they've been waxed.
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