Hardwood Finishes

Urethane

Most factory hardwood floors have several coats of finish applied to the wood’s surface. As example, many floor companies are applying 6-10 coats of ultrs-violet (UV) cured urethane.

This is one of the reasons why many flooring mechanics, flooring retailers, and builders are pushing pre-finished hardwood floors. Instead of taking several days to install and finish a new hardwood floor a pre-finished hardwood floor is generally done in one day.

Oil

If you want a custom stained hardwood floors, or a wood floor to match an existing floor, than a job-site finish is your answer.

Job-site finish means you start with an unfinished soild or engineered hardwood floor. The floor is then sanded, stained and finished in the home.

The other advantage of a job-site finish is, if you are concerned with uneven heights between planks the sanding process will smooth out the floor. Be warned though, this can be quite a mess and the process does take several days.

Job-site Hardwood Floor Finishing Methods Include:

• Water based urethane – water is used as part of the chemical make up of the polyurethane finish.
• Solvent based urethane – oil is used as part of the chemical make-up of the polyurethane finish.
• Moisture cured urethane – a similar chemical make up as solvent based urethane but this finish needs the humidity in the air to cure.