Finishing a Wood Floor with Natural Oils

We have had countless conversations with people finishing floors with our oils, and this article exists because the same questions come up every time. Some of what follows is about technique. The most important part is about expectations.

One thing up front, honestly. Our finishes are not designed specifically for wood floors. Yet many customers have used them on floors and we all do here at home, with excellent results, and we will tell you exactly how to do that below. But we would rather you know that than find out later.

Before you start: is an oil floor what you actually want?

This is the question that determines whether you love your floor or regret it, and it has nothing to do with technique.

A natural oil floor and a polyurethane floor are different products that behave differently, look different, and are maintained differently. Neither is better. They are answers to different priorities.

Polyurethane is a film. It cures into a hard, continuous layer sitting on top of the wood. It is harder than oil, more resistant to spills, and it asks almost nothing of you for years. Then, when it finally wears through, it usually has to be stripped and redone as a whole floor.

Oil is not a film. It cures inside the wood. When you walk on an oiled floor you are in contact with the wood itself, and the surface looks and feels like wood rather than like a coating. The sheen is matte. Genuinely matte, not satin.

The practical difference shows up the first time something gets dragged across the room. On a poly floor, the finish scratches. A fracture in a clear plastic layer catches the light and reads as a bright white line, and it is difficult to repair without redoing a whole area. On an oil floor, the wood scratches. It looks like scratched wood, because that is what it is, and you fix it by sanding a small area lightly and rubbing in more oil. The new oil blends with the old, because there is no film edge to feather, and the repair disappears.

Here is the honest version of the trade. An oil floor asks for a little attention on an ongoing basis and gives you easy, invisible, local repairs forever. A poly floor asks nothing for years and then asks for everything at once.

Test before you commit. We say this about every product and we mean it most here. Do a sample board or a closet floor. Live with it for a few days. Check that you like the look, the surface feel underfoot, and the wait. Some people choose natural oil because the idea appeals to them and then find they wanted polyurethane's look and performance all along. That is far better to discover on a test board than on 800 square feet.

Which product to use

For less dense species, including pine, spruce, and similar softwoods, use our Concentrated Finishing Oil. Soft, open wood drinks a great deal, and the Concentrated carries more solids per coat, so more finish stays in the floor instead of evaporating out of it.

For denser species, Concentrated also works well. Expect slower absorption, since there is less room in the wood for it to go.

An optional refinement: use Original Finish for the second coat. It carries more solvent, so it penetrates faster and moves into a floor that is already partly saturated more easily than the Concentrated will.

And one product to leave out entirely. See the next section.

The finishing sequence

The floor should be sanded, clean, dust free, and bare.

First coat. Apply with a cotton rag, brush, or lambswool applicator pad. Floor specific lambswool pads are available at most hardware stores and are worth the few dollars. Do not go on heavy. Let the wood absorb what it will, then wipe off every bit of excess.

Second coat, the same day or the next. Let it sit for up to a day. Then wipe down anywhere finish has pooled on the surface. This step is not optional and it is the one people skip.

Buff, between one and seven days after the second coat, using a floor buffing machine.

Optional wax top coat. One to two days after the first two coats of oil, apply a very thin coat of Liquid Wax End Sealer. If you are waxing, you can skip buffing the second coat of oil.

Buff the wax after it has sat anywhere from one day to a week. By hand, with a small car buffer, or with a floor machine and a buffing pad. Multiple passes with a floor buffer make a real difference here.

Curing, and when you can use the room

Oil cures by slow oxidation rather than by evaporation, and because our finishes contain no drying agents, that process takes its time. This is the same property that gives you a long working window and deep penetration, and on a floor it is the part that requires patience.

• Dry to the touch: within two days
• Fully cured and hard: four to six weeks
• Furniture back in the room: when it's dry to the touch

During the cure period the surface can smudge. That is normal. Rub it out with a cotton rag or buff it, and carry on.

Troubleshooting

Nearly every problem we hear about traces to one of two causes.

Too much oil. Surplus finish left standing on the surface has nowhere to soak in, so it polymerizes on top and goes tacky. The fix is counterintuitive but reliable: apply more oil finish to the sticky area to break down the hardened surplus, then rub it out thoroughly. Prevention is simpler. Wipe off every bit of excess, every coat, every time.

Not enough patience. A floor that feels dry is not a floor that is cured. Rushing back into the room during the cure window is how a good job turns into a repair job.

Maintenance and cleaning

Routine cleaning. Any oil soap works well. Murphy's, Ecover floor cleaner, and similar products are all fine.

Scuffs and abrasions. A green Scotch-Brite pad with oil soap, or with a little Concentrated Finishing Oil, then buff dry.

Worn and dry areas, over the years. Buff in more Concentrated Finishing Oil wherever the floor needs it. There is no need to sand off the old finish, and no need to do the whole floor. It blends.

That last point is the whole argument for an oil floor. You maintain the parts that get used, in an afternoon, forever.

Cleanup

Pure Citrus Solvent removes oil from equipment, glass, and tile. Or use any type of solvent.

• Questions. We are glad to talk a floor through before you start rather than after. Call 888-526-3275, or write info@heritagenaturalfinishes.com. 

 

• Further reading. Charles Peterson's Wood Flooring: A Complete Guide to Layout, Installation & Finishing (Taunton Press) is the standard reference on everything that happens before the finish comes out of the can. Subfloor, layout, installation, and sanding are more than half of what determines how an oiled floor turns out, and Peterson covers all of it from thirty years in the trade.