What type of floor oil / varnish is this?

[E.T.]

Hello,

I'm hoping you can help me with this!

I need to sand down a few patches of an old wooden floor, due to extreme grubbiness / ingrained dirt, and then re-oil or varnish to pretty much the same colour.

I have sanded down a patch and tried applying four coats of danish oil. The finish appears much lighter than whatever the original finish on the flooring was. Please see attached pictures.

Any ideas what the original, darker finish might be so I can match it? I'm keen to avoid having to sand down the entire floor as it's the same right throughout a top floor flat. I think I'd need to hire a belt sander and haul it up there, which I'd rather not do if possible!

Thanks

 

[Deleted member 174758]

The floor has been stained and if there is ingrai ed dirt it may not have been sealed. If you sand out the area you need refinishing it should be possible to build to the depth of colour you require by using a diluted water stain and building several coats until you achieve the depth of colour you require. Unfortunately there isn't a one shot solution to this, and on this case attempting to use a spirit or oil stain could leave you with a patch which is potentially a lot darker patch in the middle of the floor.

Your stain is only the first part of the job, though, you still need to protect the floor with something like a clear acrylic lacquer in a similar sheen level afterwards.

 

[opps]

I agree that it looks like the floor has been stained.

I can't see any way around it other than stripping the whole lot and starting again. It is possible to sand individual boards using a belt sander and random orbital plus a delta sander but per metre it is much more time consuming.

I am not a fan of waterbased stains for floors, I prefer spirit based stains because they don't raise the grain. Additionally I prefer to oil floors with something like Osmo oil. When it wears down you can touch in anther coat- you can't do that with oil based varnish or waterbased varnish.

If the colour change required isn't too dramatic, you can use a tinted Osmo oil.

 

[E.T.]

Thanks for your advice on this. Very helpful. In the end we bit the bullet and hired the floor sanders! 3-4 days of fairly hard graft but hopefully worth it.

I also have a question around oiling the newly sanded floors. We've put down 3 coats of Barrettine Danish Oil, working this into the boards with lint free cloths. The finish still looks quite patchy - i.e. some parts of the boards look glossy but other areas still look dull in the light. Is this simply a question of applying further coats?

Where it feels a bit sticky underfoot is this where oil hasn't been worked in properly? Should we buff these areas out?

Thanks!

 

[opps]

I have never used Danish oil on softwood floors. I have only used varnish or Osmo oil on softwood floors. When I have use it on hardwood worktops, I apply about 8 coats but they are very thin coats.

Heat and airflow may help with the tacky areas (I suspect that the oil was applied too thickly).

 

[E.T.]

Right ok thanks.

Would you recommend applying osmo oil over the 3 coats of danish oil that have been applied already?

 

[E.T.]

Would I be right in thinking that, if the boards still have capacity to take a few more coats of Danish oil (which appears to be the case), they should instead be able to absorb a coat of Osmo oil ?

Thanks

 

[opps]

Would I be right in thinking that, if the boards still have capacity to take a few more coats of Danish oil (which appears to be the case), they should instead be able to absorb a coat of Osmo oil ?

Thanks

I don't honestly know. It might be advisable to phone Osmo and ask them.

 

[E.T.]

Thanks, hadn’t realised it would be so easy to speak with them. I did just now and the technical support person wasn’t sure either! Not something they specifically test for I suppose.

His instinct seemed to be that it might be possible, if the wood still has some capacity to absorb it and suggested testing it on a small area somewhere so I’ll try that.

Thanks

 

[opps]

Please let us know how you get on. It will help others.

 

[E.T.]

Will do!

 

[E.T.]

Just coming back on this!

So we applied the Osmo oil to the boards. The main thing we noticed is that the oil went a lot further than the instructions indicated it would. I suppose that makes sense as the wood had already absorbed a fair bit of danish oil.

We did find however that the boards still needed a second coat of Osmo. It seemed perhaps that the boards were already pretty saturated in terms of oil but I think it was the wax element of the Osmo oil we were looking for and still needed a decent amount of.

The floors have come up nicely but I think next time we’ll skip the danish and go straight to the Osmo!

Thanks again for everyone’s help.