Best Finish for Hardwood Floors – On the House
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Best Finish for Hardwood Floors

By on April 15, 2014
hardwood floor refinishing

Question

We soon will have our hardwood floors sanded and refinished and we’d like to know what you might recommend for the longest lasting finish. The professionals have offered us three choices and differing opinions as to what product to use. The choices are: 1) Oil floors only, for easy touch-up; 2) polyurethane for easy application (but it has to be sanded to be redone about every three to five years), and 3) Glitza, a European product known for it’s hard finish (it also has to be redone periodically). We don’t want to go through this again in two to five years. Can you help?

Answer

First of all we hate to be the bearers of bad news, but any natural wood floor left exposed will require periodic maintenance. This may include everything from an occasional coat of wax to sanding/refinishing. The information we have from the folks we use to install hardwood floors is that all of them must be refinished every three to five years.As far as the finish is concerned, we are inclined to recommend that you use a polyurethane finish–and not just for its ease of application, even though this is a favorable aspect. Polyurethane is a clear, plastic-like finish that is very durable. It will hold up well to traffic, and will resist the spills and other minor disasters that are common in the house. And, unless the floors are in a deplorable state, all that will be required to spruce them up the next time is a light sanding and a couple of fresh coats of polyurethane (making sure to lightly sand between each coat). Most major manufacturers of polyurethane produce it in a variety of different sheens: gloss (for a shiny finish; semi-gloss (for a European hand-rubbed appearance; and satin (for a more matte surface).

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