Hardwax oil on wooden floors

[perplexedbydiy]

Have two conflicting opinions about the finish for our oak wooken floor. One recommends a hardwax oil as once down it requires little/no maintenance in terms of resanding etc, even in heavy traffic areas. Another supplier states that hard wax oil will require maintenance and advises staying with existing varnish.
Does anyone have experience of hard wax oil after a few years? Is it like new?
thanks for any advice.

 

[tall_tone]

There is also the appearance, some will prefer the look of lacquer v's HWO or the other way around.

I have Oak in my house, front done with lacquer, the back with Hardwax Oil. I chose HWO specifically for the back room because I have converted the room to an office / dining room and there is a roller chair in it. This will knacker any type of floor and the advantage with HWO is that every year I drag my buffer in and properly clean the floor, evict the cat and dog for a day and put a fresh coat of HWO on. It gets darker every time, but still looks fairly good.
The front of the house has Lacquer, and 6 years down the road I have done nothing more than use a lacquer cleaner.
Both floors have had heavy family use, they both have dents in the wood and both have marks.

In summary
HWO will need regular cleaning, the surface remains soft and will get ingrained with dirt, thus the need to clean away the top surface and replace. That said this is easy but a little time consuming.
Lacquers are inert and don't harbour the dirt, thus you can just use a soft cloth and mild detergent spray to clean them.

Personally in most scenarios I would recommend lacquer. HWO is fine in bedrooms or very specific locations but everywhere else I would go lacquer.

TT

 

[WoodYouLike]

All our floors in our showroom are finished with HWO, no dirt or dust ingrains in it - even wet shoe prints don't show as easy as on a lacquered floor.
Bot finishes do need regular maintenance (once every 4 - 5 months only), an oil floor will become more beautiful over time with every little simple TLC you bestow on it, plus small damages are much easier to repair (apply wax in the scratch, no need to sand down) than lacquered floors.