Wood Floor Finishes & Application

There are many wood floor sealants on the market and after long years in the business, we know we offer the most hard-wearing, environmentally friendly, easy-to-use varnishes around town.

Floor Lacquers

Lacquers create a protective layer on the surface of the wood, which makes them the more durable finish and the one requiring the least maintenance.

We use mainly water-based lacquers with low VOC and no health-hazardous solvents. Other qualities they all have in common include:

• Quick-drying - just 1 hour between consecutive coats with up to 3 coats applied daily.
• Can take light traffic as soon as 2 hours after the last coat. Furniture can be put back in place after 12 hours.
• Hard-wearing, reliable and extensively tested professional products unavailable in shops.
• Rollers can be used, speeding up the application. Brush and paint pad friendly.
• Lacquers offer ExtraMatt, Matt, Satin and Gloss sheens. Our clients can have a choice of all sheens and various types of lacquers.

Oils & Hardwax Oils

Oils and hard wax oils work as a sealant by soaking into the timber. It has better exposure to the wood grain and many clients would prefer the oil-based finish exactly for this reason. Other benefits of the oils based finishes include:

• Slow drying, but only 2 coats are usually required on restoration making it possible to complete sealing in a day.
• Easy to repair scratches and scuffs
• Can be rolled on and brushed as well
• Comes in Matt, Satin and Gloss sheens. 

Our oil-based range of products includes Osmo, Blanchon, Woca, Fiddes and the single coat system from Rubio Monocoat.

How Many Coats?

Our standard finishing with lacquer includes 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of hardwearing lacquer. Occasionally we may run a special offer with 3 coats of lacquer and our commercial projects are quoted with 3 coats as well.

Oil-based finishes will be applied with 2 coats with our services. Due to the slower drying time and amount of solids in this type of sealant, it is recommended re-coating be applied every 16-24 months.

Drying Time Factors

Drying time with water-based depends on:

• Humidity - varnish clearly takes longer to dry on humid days.
• Temperature - a warm room means quicker drying. Putting the heating on an hour before varnishing on cold days can substantially shorten drying time.
• Ventilation. Good ventilation is essential if you want to speed up drying. Airing out the rooms by leaving windows and doors open as long as possible means drying takes much less time, just remember rain can be disastrous to your newly finished floor. We also use our own airflow equipment wherever possible to shorten drying time.

Application

We need natural light to make sure your flooring is done to perfection and we have attained the surface finishing we are after. Therefore, we would ask you to allow us to start as early as possible without disturbing your daily routine. Applying varnish to the planks leads to wood grains getting bristled. So, proper floor finishing requires final, fine sanding to procure a perfectly smooth surface.

Wood Floor Products Used by FlooringFirst! Services

The complete range of the products used for wood floor sealing by FlooringFirst is available here ».