Hardwood flooring is a fantastic choice for your home and can look truly stunning in any room. In order to keep it looking great, it requires a good cleaning routine and the right type of finish. Whether you are looking to have hardwood flooring installed for the first time or you need to have an existing floor refinished, there are a number of different finishes that you should consider.
If you are considering a finish for your hardwood flooring but are not sure where to start why not contact a company who specialise in wooden flooring in Surrey and see what they recommend.
Making the right choice of finish is really important as it will not only govern how much maintenance your hardwood floor will require, but it will also have the effect of changing the look of your floors.
Oil
When it comes to hardwood flooring, oil finishes have been used for centuries. They not only help to protect the flooring but also make it more moisture resistant. Oil is an easy finish to apply and requires minimal maintenance to keep it in good shape. It is also incredibly easy to touch up individual areas of the floor without the need to refinish the entire area. The oil will penetrate into the wood which means that the colour of your wood will deepen and the grain patterns in your natural hardwood flooring will be enhanced. This will have the effect of making a real feature of your flooring, showing off its patterns really well.
Oil finished wood does not scratch so it is a good choice for those slightly higher traffic areas such as hallways and lounges. However, it does need to be completely reapplied every two to three years.
This is a more matte finish that would look really appealing in an older property – perhaps a cottage¬¬ ¬– where the wood grain would stand out as a real feature of the interiors.
Hard Wax
Wax is very much a time tested, if rather old-fashioned method for finishing hardwood floors. Although it is not as durable as some of the other finishes out there, what you do gain by choosing to finish your hardwood floors with wax is a more muted, somewhat organic feel to your flooring. This works especially well if you’re looking for an alternative to a high-shine finish. Wax does however darken your flooring so if you like the shade you have chosen and don’t want it any darker, this is probably not the finish for you.
This type of finish is very easy to apply but it is rather labour intensive and needs a few layers which make it a more impractical choice for larger rooms. On the plus side it is very easy to touch up if any maintenance is required as the work can be carried out on just a small area rather than needing to redo the whole floor.
In the short run, this makes a waxed finish a very low maintenance option however it is important to remember that in the long run the whole floor will need to be re-waxed more often.
This type of hardwood finish is probably best suited to a period home where the more Matt look will be in keeping with the style of the rest of the décor.
Resin
Unlike both wax and oil finishes which penetrate the wood, resin is a surface finish that sits on top of the floorboard rather than seeping into them. Resin provides a highly durable finish for your wood floors. It does, however, take a good while to dry and will need more than one coat. This type of finish is very well suited to floors in rooms with a higher moisture level such as a kitchen or bathroom; looking at its best in modern properties.
