Finishes for Pine Flooring
Stain, Polyurethane, etc. for Wood Floors
Most of Old Texas Floors’ wood is sold unfinished. Your choice in finish will have a very large impact on the final look and durability of your floor. I (Lee Edwards, owner of Old Texas Floors) personally tried 20 different oils, polyurethanes, stains, dyes, shellacs, etc. when I put this antique pine in my home! The great news is that both types of finish I’ll emphasize below—oil-based polyurethane and water-borne polyurethane—make antique longleaf pine look amazing. Your installer can educate you about your finish options, and there is a big advantage to going with something your installer likes and has experience with.Polyurethanes
Polyurethanes are the most commonly used finishes in the U.S. for floors that are bought unfinished. They dry quickly and provide a finish that is good at resisting dents and stains and that lasts a long time. The downside of polyurethane finishes is that they take much more work to repair than oils and oil hybrids do. Polyurethane finishes come in water-borne and oil-based versions; the water in water-borne polyurethane evaporates, leaving just the permanent finish, whereas the oil in oil-based polyurethane penetrates the wood and is a permanent part of the finish. Water-borne polyurethane will make your floor look like a slightly prettier, slightly darker version of the unfinished floor, whereas oil-based polyurethane will darken it a bit more, giving it a more antique look, and depending on the particular product, may add a beautiful, amber hue and subdue the reds slightly. Water-borne dries even faster than oil-based. Both tend to be very durable.
Duraseal and BonaKemi are a couple of manufacturers of high quality polyurethane finishes. Home Depot carries Parks Pro Finisher polyurethanes in stores, not online. The Pro Finisher also makes a water-borne sealer that adds a little bit of amber color; if you use this with Pro Finisher’s water-born polyurethane, you’ll get a bit of darkening/amber, but retain more of the natural color of the wood than you’d get with an oil-based product. This is a beautiful look. The classic look, however, is the oil-based finish. I consider Duraseal a step up, and BonaKemi yet another step up. BonaKemi has a good reputation for finishes that can handle extreme wear, such as restaurant applications.
Stains
Antique pine is often installed without stain because many people want to retain the look of the natural wood, but a huge array of stain appearances is available, so you can do anything you dream of. Stains can bring out the reds, darken the whole board for an old-timey feel, or add a fun color such as blue-green. Antique pine looks great in all of these styles. One option is doing something fun and different in a specific area, such as a closet or an office. Gel finishes sometimes do better than others on pine. For a fairly subtle stain effect, such as blending in some newly re-milled longleaf pine with longleaf that's been in your home for a century, you might experiment with an Early American color; Cabot makes one that Lowe's carries. Zar makes some stains that look good on pine. If you have a local hardware or paint store whose paint people you trust, you might chat them up about options, then take home several small cans to try on sample boards.
Stain is applied before the rest of the finish or along with the first coat of the finish, then the protective finish is applied on top of the stain. Be sure to do test stains before committing to a stain for your whole floor! It’s crucial to make sure your stain penetrates the wood evenly and smoothly and that you love the color on a variety of boards. If a stain is too heavy, try cutting it with paint thinner, mineral spirits or citrus solvent for oil finishes or with water for water finishes; you can make a stain as subtle as you want!
Alternate Finishes—Pure Oils and Oil Hybrids
Oils and oil hybrids are only practical for people who have little need to protect their floor from scratching, denting, and staining—in other words, for few people. They are great, though, if you actually want a lived-in, beat up, rustic look and easy repairs to the finish. Oils, such as tung oil or boiled linseed oil, bring a rich, amber hue to vintage pine and highlight the contrasts in the grain. This is a gorgeous, classic antique look. Repairing scratches in an oil finish is extremely easy: just add more oil to the scratched spots. The downside of oil finishes is that they can take a long time to dry when first applied; they do very little to protect your wood from being dented or scratched or stained; and they can subdue the reds in the wood. There are oil products available, such as Waterlox or Dura Seal Penetrating Finish, that dry faster than 100% pure oils, protect against stains better, and have a harder finish than pure oils, though not as hard as either oil-based or water-borne polyurethanes. For most people, these oil hybrids are much more practical than pure oils, but they still do NOT protect your floor as much as polyurethanes. My own experience with Waterlox in my home was that it looked fantastic at first, but soon wrinkled. I later learned that others have had this same experience.
My recommendation
Overall I'd recommend an oil-based polyurethane for most people; water-borne polyurethane for those who don't want to change the color of the wood at all; and pure tung oil for those who want a classic look, can handle long drying times and actually want the floor to get roughed up.
Old Texas Floors phone / text: 512-694-1322 
Content copyright . Old Texas Floors. All rights reserved.
Content copyright . Old Texas Floors. All rights reserved.