Choice of Finish for Tiger Maple Floor

[Doug Ball]

I took a big plunge today and ordered 700 sq ft of tiger maple strip flooring from a mill in SE Pennsylvania (Hearne and Hearne). They will belt sand it to 180, so it should not require sanding in situ, (so they promised). It's a relatively low traffic area, but there will be two med-sized dogs, and occasional chair-dragging stresses to the floor. The subfloor looks like it's in excellent shape. I'm a complete novice to floor installation, and am relying on Don Bollinger's book and advice I can scrounge.

My question for everyone concerns their favorite brands of oil-based poly. I'd like something that causes relatively little yellowing, but I'll accept some color change that's inevitable with oil-based poly. Durability over time is the second prime consideration. Are there any tricks to application, other than lots of ventilation? How important is sanding between coats, or is flattening of isolated bubbles sufficient?

Thanks in advance!

Doug Ball

[Michael Cody]

I wouldn't use Oil based poly or any poly --- a poly floor looks best the day you finish it and gets worse every day. You can't fix the Poly, I like repairable surfaces -- I would use a penetrating oil finish.

The thing here is the look you want.. nice soft satin sheen or the poly look (not bad either).

Oil based poly takes a while to cure too so that is a factor. But I were using poly it would be oil based.

The nice thing about oil is the fact that floors are going to get dinged up and oil is a lot easier to fix, just sand/feather the area and slop on more oil.

However with maple you have a nice hard floor so Poly would look good longer that say if it was a pine floor, but it will get scratched and the only way to fix is sand to wood and refinish.

A nice compromise is Waterlox -- an oil based tung oil varnish. Much deeper satin look in my opinion and would make your maple look great. Not to mention it's repairable w/o sanding/stripping! Check out www.waterlox.com

A good suggestion is to take some samples and get some small quantities of finish and make some test pieces to see how you like them.

[Joe Tonich]

Doug,

You might want to check out Barbara Gill's website. It's listed in the members list. I use Velvit Oil on a lot of things and I'm going to try it on my Dining room floor when I get a chance to do it.

Joe

[Doug Ball]

Just a small point. The tiger maple in question as actually classed as soft maple, so it has the approximate hardness of cherry. I'm counting on the polyurethane for some extra abrasion resistance.