# Advice on finshes please



## Anonymous (26 Feb 2004)

Hi
(1) I have just moved home and the wife and myself have decided to replace all the doors, skirting and architraves in the house. We will have standard s/wood 125mm Torus skirting and archs to match. The doors will be 6 panelled pine doors. We have decided that we will not paint any of them but go for a finish to set the wood off. We would like the pine a bit darker/or a nice yellow colour. I have been advised to use boiled linseed oil, what do you guys think ???

(2) In the bathroom and small toilet i will replace the floor boards again with standard s/wood t&g floor boards. Again i have been advised that i will get a good finish using boiled linseed oil and to give the underside a couple of coats aswell to aid the possible water going on the boards. Again opinions would be great.

(3) The stairs have 5 steps going up onto a landing and then return back on them selves. They are open on both sides. there are no fancy ballistrades just 2 off 100x30 mm rails running equally below the handrails on the both sides. The treads are pirana pine and the newels look like they are softwood. The risers are plywood and i will probaly glue some thin pieces of plywood over these instead of cleaning them up. All of it is currently painted and i will be stripping it and want to apply a finish. I have plenty of time to do this job and will do it in stages. I have so far stripped 1 tread and the pirana pine looks great. Again i have received some advice on using Van Dyck brown chrystals to obtain a reasonable colour and to allow for the difference in timbers used, which i can start of weak and add more chrystals if needed ( i really want it as light as possible). I was then advised that again i could finish them on top with boiled linseed oil. Your opinions on this and the other projects would be greatly appreciated.

I have found that axminster sell both the chrystals and linseed oil, if anyone knows a better place and can provide links that would be great. I live in Sheffield.

Many thanks
Coggy


----------



## Aragorn (26 Feb 2004)

Hi Coggy
I don't know about using the oil for a floor finish... Doesn't seem robust enough to me, but I may be corrected on that  
I do flooring jobs all the time - I use Merrells spirit based stain to get the boards to the right colour - mixing my own blends by diluting a basic stain (such as walnut) with meths and adding green to even out that unattractive orangey/red look pine can often have. These days I use a water based floor varnish, at least 5 thin coats.
I can match new pine to old pretty reasonably using this stain, and the varnish soon loses that plasticy look and withstands water well.


----------



## trevtheturner (27 Feb 2004)

Hi, Coggy,

If you can bring yourself to go into a DIY shed, certainly for your flooring and stairs, Ronseal flooring grade varnish may be worth considering. Some six years ago I used it on a garden summerhouse floor, 16' x 10', which has since had all the usual paraphernalia, tables, chair, BBQ, etc., dragged about on it, so it's had some pretty rough treatment - but the surface is still not far short of 'good as new.' I applied four coats to a sanded surface, it provides a tough satin finish and does 'what it says on the tin!'

It did provide only a bit of colour but might be worth trying out on a test piece before sorting out your staining/colouring .

Regards, Trev.


----------



## Anonymous (27 Feb 2004)

Many thanks guys for your replies, please keep them coming in

Thanks again

Coggy


----------



## Chris Knight (27 Feb 2004)

Coggy,
Staining pine can prove a bit problematic. It has a tendency to blotch and grain reversal is a common phenomenon. You can reduce blotching by wetting the surface of the wood before you apply the stain (assuming you are using water-based stain like Van Dyke crystals) . The pores that take up too much stain are thus part-filled first with water and don't soak up as much stain as they otherwise would.

Gel stains help too if you can find them


----------



## Anonymous (27 Feb 2004)

Hi
I have been advised on another Forum to use Danish oil instead of boiled linseed oil, because it dries quicker and smells better. I was advised to do everything with it, skirtings, doors, arch's, flooring and stairs. And on the flooring apply 5 coats to water seal it.

What do you guys think?

I am basically after 1 product which will do the lot easily and look good and natural.

Thanks all
Coggy


----------



## Anonymous (27 Feb 2004)

Coggy,
Danish oil is simply a drying oil, like Linseed or Tung with some resins and a metallic salt dryer added. It is a very useful finish for light duties and with sufficient coats will provide a degree of wear resistance and waterproofing. It is however not an efficent way to get waterproofing or wear resistant qualities because you need so many coats.

If you really want to go this route, I find Liberon Finishing oil to be the best in terms of drying time and clarity of the resultant film finish. If you want to test this for yourself, spread a little of these oils on a sheet of glass, time the interval until the oil has dried and look at how clear it is when dried.


----------



## Chris Knight (27 Feb 2004)

Coggy,
The previous post was mine - I forgot to log-in.

You can also test the hardness of the oil finishes in this way - they are all markedly softer than things like polys. acrylics, etc.


----------



## Anonymous (27 Feb 2004)

Many thanks

Would you recommend using Liberon finishing oil for the whole job then ie flooring, skirting, archs, doors and stairs ????

Do you think the finish would be nice, waterproof enough with a few coats (only on the flooring) and easy to apply.

Thanks
Coggy


----------



## Aragorn (27 Feb 2004)

Hi Coggy
I would really avoid going the oil way. It's just not going to be tough enough on the floor, and I would be surprised if you get decent enough waterproofing from it. You can of course get an oil finish wet, but it should be cleaned up immediately. You can't let water sit on an oil finish without expecting damage.
If you really want to use oil, finishing oil would be best. But, what's wrong with using an acrylic floor varnish? Easy to apply, you can do 3 coats in a day, clear satin or gloss finish and tough as old boots!


----------



## Chris Knight (28 Feb 2004)

Coggy,

I am with Aragorn on this. I would not use oil for the floor under any circumstances. Apart from anything else it is not a cheap way to go. A newly sanded floor will drink the first couple of coats like a man in the desert and you will need quite a few cans of the stuff.

Oil is simply not a heavy duty finish and floors and skirtings (because of feet and vacuums and things like that) are areas where heavy duty finishes are needed.

When you consider the length of time spent waiting for sufficient coats of oil to dry you could have put enough coats of a suitable finish on and have half finished your next project!


----------



## Alf (28 Feb 2004)

Yep, have to add my vote in there too. Finishing oil is great stuff, and it's held up well on the doors in our house, but you really want a good varnish on the floor. I checked Hayward's "Staining and polishing" and he says varnish too, and I believe him.  I slightly disagree with Chris on the skirtings, I think you could get away with oil there. But you'd have to be prepared to put in the hard graft of applying all those coats... :roll: 

Cheers, Alf


----------



## Anonymous (14 Mar 2004)

One could always combine the two, ie oil initially, till you are happy with the colour, then finish off with varnish, or maybe even mix oil and varnish together as HERE.



> But you'd have to be prepared to put in the hard graft of applying all those coats...



Personally I much prefer to apply oil( with a cloth) than varnish but with oil make sure you possess a good pair of 'marigolds', getting the oil off your hands is a curse. :shock:


----------



## Alf (14 Mar 2004)

bilzee":yrd9lef7 said:


> Personally I much prefer to apply oil( with a cloth) than varnish but with oil make sure you possess a good pair of 'marigolds', getting the oil off your hands is a curse. :shock:


Yes, same here. I've found the painter's hand cleaner from Screwfix (stock code D11912) very good for removing practically everything from my hands, btw. I get through quite a lot of it during rust removal sessions, :roll: but it deals with oil and wax very well too. Hopeless on shellac though, but a bit of meths sorts that out. 

Cheers, Alf


----------

