In the event you’re a daily reader round right here, you realize that I’ll very quickly be putting in, staining, and sealing new purple oak hardwood flooring in two rooms and a lobby in our home. Your complete bed room suite is at present with out flooring. Proper now, it simply has plywood subfloor all through. So after I get that flooring put in, I plan to complete it the identical means I completed the remainder of the hardwood flooring in our home with polyurethane.
I had somebody touch upon an outdated submit lately asking about how effectively polyurethane holds as much as animals, and that jogged my memory that I’ve been desirous to share my very own experiences with all 4 hardwood flooring finishes I’ve utilized in our home during the last 12 years, and the way effectively every one in all them held up over time. That features the Waterlox flooring that I did initially in our home, the polyurethane that’s at present on the flooring, in addition to the 2 painted flooring — one painted flooring topcoated with Varathane water-based polyurethane and one painted flooring with no topcoat in any respect. that we’ve had in two rooms of the home. Let’s begin with the Waterlox.
Waterlox for hardwood flooring
After we purchased our home again in August 2013, the very very first thing I did earlier than we moved into the home was take away the entire carpet, sand the entire unique hardwood flooring, and seal them with Waterlox. They appeared nice after they had been completed.
One of many causes I selected Waterlox initially is as a result of it’s not a protracted, drawn out course of to complete the flooring, and Waterlox makes it very straightforward to spot-finish areas on the flooring in case you get a scratch or gouge. Because it’s simply oil with hardeners in it, spot ending gained’t end in an uneven end.
I had to do this when our couch gouged the ground and left this deep mark.
I simply sanded that particular space, utilized extra Waterlox, and the gouge disappeared.
It’s additionally very straightforward to refinish a complete room with Waterlox. Again once I was making an attempt to show the lounge right into a eating room, I made a decision that I needed to recoat the entire flooring within the room. So I did a really fast sanding on the entire flooring utilizing my small orbital sander (no have to lease the large drum sander to get the entire earlier end off!) and recoated. It was a reasonably straightforward course of, and it appeared model new afterwards.
My one challenge with Waterlox is that if you need the flooring to be this straightforward to restore, you actually can’t use stain with the product, so that you’re caught with no matter colour the oils make the ground. In the event you resolve to stain earlier than utilizing Waterlox, or in case you resolve so as to add stain to the Waterlox (each strategies are authorised by the corporate), the flooring are now not going to be really easy to restore as a result of any new stain that you just add to the ground that you just need to restore goes to depart a darker spot.
So to be able to preserve that simply repairable end, the Waterlox needs to be utilized by itself with no stain. And meaning you’re on the mercy of no matter colour it makes your explicit species of wooden. That could be nice when you have a wonderful wooden like walnut and even white oak. However my flooring are purple oak, so Waterlox with no stain had a really orange look to it.
Oil-based Polyurethane For Flooring
In 2017, I made a decision to redo our flooring to eliminate the orange, so I had the entire flooring sanded (I employed it out the second time), after which I completed them once more. I used Minwax conditioner first, adopted by a mixture of two Minwax stains, and the topcoated with Minwax oil-based polyurethane tinted with a little bit of stain. The flooring turned out beautiful and I used to be capable of get the precise colour I needed.
These flooring have been very sturdy. I used to be nervous to make use of a product that couldn’t be simply spot-repaired, however they’ve held up superbly over time. I do assume the end has dulled a bit since they had been newly completed, however I don’t thoughts that since I’m not a giant fan of shiny finishes anyway.
Since I polyurethaned the ground, we’ve had 4 animals in our home — three cats and one canine. Two of the cats are now not with us 🙁 however we nonetheless have one cat and a canine. Our canine Cooper is a 100-pound lab/German shepherd combine. We acquired him from the shelter, and he’s a hyper and really anxious canine who nonetheless gained’t let me contact his toes even after he’s been with us for seven years. He gained’t let anybody contact his toes to chop his claws. Not me. Not the vet. Not anybody. I’ve tried each trick and tip that anybody has ever given me, and none of them work.
The one time he has “allowed” his claws to be lower was when he needed to be sedated for an X-ray, and the vet requested me if I needed her to chop them when he was underneath anesthesia. That’s actually the one time they’ve been trimmed by a human since we’ve had him. I see him biting on them after they get so lengthy that they begin annoying him, however they get fairly lengthy earlier than he does that.
And once more, he’s hyper. He usually doesn’t simply stroll from place to position. He jumps, runs, twirls. He’s like a hyper pet, although he’s 100 kilos and allegedly 12 years outdated, in the event that they shelter is to be believed that he was 5 years outdated after we adopted him (which I discover arduous to consider simply from his puppy-like habits to today).
With all of that stated, I’ve been amazed at how our oil-based polyurethaned flooring have held as much as him. I don’t see scratches, gouges, or something like that on our flooring. I don’t know the way straightforward it could be to restore a scratch or gouge on the oil-based polyurethaned flooring as a result of I’ve actually by no means needed to do it.
Painted Ground Topcoated With Water-Based mostly Polyurethane
In August of 2020, I painted the ground in our visitor bed room with common Behr latex paint after which topcoated the flooring utilizing Varathane water-based polyurethane. Once more, they appeared beautiful after they had been new.
However these flooring didn’t put on effectively over the following two years. I couldn’t discover any footage of simply the worn areas on the ground, however you may see it plainly within the images I took after my mother and I took a weekend to do the tear out of this room to organize it for the contractor to return in and begin the conversion from visitor bed room to closet and laundry space. The ground is soiled and dust-covered within the photograph under due to our work that weekend, so that you’ll should look past that. You possibly can clearly see these worn areas.
Pay particular consideration to the areas circled under. You possibly can see that the end is carrying off within the excessive visitors areas.
Right here’s one other look from the opposite path…
And you’ll see it from this image that I took for the submit the place I shared about making a present closet for storing all of my sneakers. Look past the sneakers and you may see the worn end.
I wasn’t positive if that was due to the paint I used (common Behr latex paint), or due to the water-based end. However this subsequent one type of offers me a clue…
Whitewashed Hardwood Ground With Water-based Polyurethane
The primary end I did on my studio flooring was a beautiful whitewashed end topcoated with water-based Varathane polyurethane. Once more, it was a wonderful end when new.
I couldn’t discover footage of this flooring proper earlier than I refinished it, however it was terrible. Not solely had the colour darkened, however there have been some critical stains on the ground. This leads me to consider that water-based finishes will simply by no means examine to oil-based polyurethanes. My oil-based polyurethaned flooring are older than this flooring was once I redid them, and I don’t have any stains on the oil-based polyurethaned flooring.
Painted Ground With No Topcoat
And at last, there’s my new-ish painted flooring within the studio. After I did these, I made a decision to forgo any topcoat in order that they’d be straightforward to restore. I used Behr Porch and Patio Ground paint. I had my doubts how effectively this is able to maintain up with no topcoat, however I made a decision to take that gamble.
This flooring has been AMAZING. I don’t know if it’s due to the primer I used (Zinsser B-I-N shellac-based primer) or the paint, however I’ve been so stunned at how sturdy this flooring is. Our canine Cooper LOVES to play in my studio, and he performs tough. And but, there’s not a single scratch or gouge anyplace to be discovered on this paint. That is the most recent end of any flooring in our home. I simply completed these in Might 2023, however that will be loads of time for him to scratch them, particularly contemplating how a lot he performs in right here. And but, they’re holding up nice.
So simply going by my very own private experiences with these varied finishes during the last 13 years, I’ve come to the next conclusions for myself:
- So long as I’m coping with purple oak hardwood flooring, Waterlox gained’t be an possibility for me as a result of it brings out the orange in purple oak. As a lot as I favored the end and the simple spot-refinishing of the product, I simply didn’t like the colour. I can think about selecting Waterlox if I had a naturally fairly species of wooden like walnut and even white oak.
- I’ll by no means use a water-based polyurethane on flooring in our home ever once more. They only don’t appear to carry up over time. The end appears to put on off shortly and stain simply.
- On flooring that might be stained, I’ll solely ever topcoat with oil-based polyurethane. My expertise is that oil-based polyurethane is essentially the most sturdy, hard-wearing end obtainable. And particularly, I’ve been very happy with the Minwax oil-based polyurethane that I used on our flooring. With regards to water-based finishes vs. oil-based finishes, there’s no comparability, for my part. Oil-based wins out so far as sturdiness and resistance to stains, and it’s not even a detailed name.
- If I ever paint one other hardwood flooring, I’ll solely ever use the Zinsser B-I-N shellac-based primer and Behr Porch and Patio Ground paint combo that I used this final time in my studio. I’ve been amazed on the sturdiness of that end.
Addicted 2 Adorning is the place I share my DIY and adorning journey as I transform and enhance the 1948 fixer higher that my husband, Matt, and I purchased in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do bodily work, so I do nearly all of the work on the home on my own. You possibly can be taught extra about me right here.
