Tung Oil

[Brad Reiter]

How well does Tung Oil hold up to light foot traffic? I would like to use this on my stair treads but was wondering about its durability.

Thanks,
Brad

[Joe Von Kaenel]

Brad,

I'm no expert, but tung oil does not hold up as well as poly urethane for furniture. It was recommeded that I use a Floor grade Poly urethane for the stairs. I don't thing Tung oil would last very long. Hope this helps.

Joe

[Maurice Ungaro]

Tung oil does fairly well, but be advised that you SHOULD wax a tung oil finish. I spec'd that on a Victorian cottage that we lived in outside of Atlanta. When I asked my floor guy how durable the poly was that he was going to use was, he stated that "nothing would get through it". I told him I did not want that. Basically, you are encasing the wood in plastic. Plus, when you have to (and you will) repair a portion of the floor's finish because somebody scuffed it with grit on their heels, or Fido's claws really didn't care how hard the poly was, you will curse having to sand all of it off. You can't spot finish with poly. Tung oil is a different story.

The downside? I buffed the floors about every 3 months (Oreck makes a kickin' buffer - love that thing). The result? The place looked like a house museum, and the rich shine off of the wood floors made it worthwhile.

You can also use Waterlox, which is tung oil with some blended phenolic resins. That way, you don't need to wax.

[Howard Acheson]

What do you mean by "Tung Oil". Are you referring to real, true tung oil or are you referring to one of the faux "tung oil finishes"?

However, neither would be considered a good finish for a floor. Neither has any abrasion resistance and both water and water vapor will pass right through it. To maintain its appearance, treatment will be required quite frequently.

Finally, be careful about waxing a floor or stains. Wax can be very slippery particularly if folks walk on it in stocking feet.

[Rob Fisher]

I agree with Maurice, Tung oil is a great wood floor finish, as long as you understand that it will need regular maintainance. It certainly is not as durable as poly, but it can be refinished much much easier.

Here is a decent explanation on finishing a wood floor with tung oil. http://www.realmilkpaint.com/floortung.html

Hope this helps,

Rob

[Brad Reiter]

Thanks for all the posts, I guess i should have explained better. I will be using this on log treads for a log staircase which will see minimal wear.

The reason i would choose tung oil (Formby's) over poly is i really like the sheen it gives when a wax coat is applied, however being that this will be applied to treads on a staircase it may be too slippery to safely walk on.

Has anyone ever used a type of "anti-skid" to apply to the final coat of finish? Do you lose the sheen if this is applied.

Thanks,
Brad

[Thomas S Stockton]

I did our house floors with Waterlox and it has held up pretty well and is dead simple to apply. My floors are kinda soft old growth 1/4 sawn redwood so I think it would work well on log treads.
Tom

[Bill White]

When I become king of the world, I'll outlaw polyurethane for anything except bartops. :eek: Hey bartender.....slide another one down my way.
Bill

[Howard Acheson]

>>> The reason i would choose tung oil (Formby's) over poly is i really like the sheen it gives when a wax coat is applied, however being that this will be applied to treads on a staircase it may be too slippery to safely walk on.

Formby's is not tung oil despite its name. Look closely at its label and it will say that it is varnish. In fact, it's a thinned alkyd resin, soya oil varnish. It contains no real tung oil at all. For floors, it would not be my choice. It's not very abrasion resistant and will be quite slippery. A much better varnish choice would be Waterlox Original Satin. Waterlox is an excellent floor finish. Also, any number of poly varnish floor finishes would work well too.

As I said before, I would be careful about applying a wax on a floor or stair tread.