Some advice on getting a good timber floor finish

Once you've spent the money on having a timber floor laid down, or if you just want to maintain an existing timber floor, it makes sense to spend some time looking into the various timber floor finish options.

In Australia, moisture-cured (MC) polyurethane is the most popular timber floor finish material, followed by water-based polyurethane and oil-modified polyurethane or tung oil. "Pure oil and hard wax oil are also becoming popular," says Jason Lee from My Flooring.

MC polyurethane timber floor finish

MC polyurethane timber floor finish is generally considered the most durable polish, but sometimes bonding or splitting problems occur when it is used on newly installed timber floors or Baltic pine floors. "Water-based polyurethane is also reasonably durable and it's relatively easy to remove scratches and apply maintenance coats," says Jason. "Oil-modified polyurethane and tung oil are less durable than moisture-cured polyurethane, but they penetrate well into the timber and only require basic maintenance coats – you don't have to sand back to the bare timber when the floor needs repolishing." It's also easy to repair floors polished in pure oil or hard wax oil.

A cautionary word on MC polyurethane timber floor finish

It should be pointed out that MC polyurethane timber floor finish has been banned in Europe due to its high toxicity, and it is not used widely in the US. It can cause headaches, sore eyes, sore throats, difficulty breathing and skin irritation. Oil-modified polyurethane and tung oil are less toxic, and water-based polyurethane is non-toxic. Hard wax oil and pure oil are both non-toxic and environmentally friendly.

Maintaining your timber floor finish

Each type of timber floor finish needs to be maintained slightly differently, but generally speaking it's important to clean floorboards regularly with products specially formulated for cleaning timber, and to get them repolished (or sanded back and repolished) when they become worn. It's very hard to remove scratches from floors finished in MC polyurethane, so it's wise to protect floors polished with this material from abrasive substances such as sand and soil.

Prices

The cost of having timber floor finish done by a professional can vary according to factors such as the state of the floors and the size of the job. If you get all the areas you want polished done at the same time this will help to reduce costs.

It is possible to polish your timber floor yourself, but it can be risky. The cost of getting a professional in to resand and repolish after a botched DIY job could well be much higher than it would have been had the floor never been touched.