Ask Mr Sanders

Thank you for your question regarding parquet floor restoration.

Both, lacquers and hardwax-oils can be used to seal parquet floors. However, there are some differences between the two types of wood floor sealants that you need to be aware of before you make up your mind.

Wood floor lacquers are more hard-wearing and durable sealants providing long lasting protection for parquet floors. Theay are highly recommended for floors, which are subject to high level of foot traffic. Some popular products, which we regularly use for our parquet floor restoration services include Bona Mega, Bona Traffic, Loba Viva and Junckers HT700 lacquers. There are also solvent based varnishes on the market, which also provide a thick layer and higher level of protection. However, they emit strong odour and are therefore a less popular choice for residential properties.

In comparison, oil-based wood finishes such as hardwax-oils are less hard-wearing and require more frequent maintenance and recoating. However, they make the floors look and feel more naturally appealing.  Some of the most popular products that we use for our wood floor re-oiling products include Osmo Polyx hardwax-oils.

Hi and thank you for your question regaring whitewashed effect on wooden flooring.

Achieving whitewashed / nordic finish on engineered oak flooring during floor restoration service with the use of either stains, lacquers or by using precoloured oil-based products. You need to be aware that there will be a slight difference in the appearance of the whitewashed effect depending on whether it has been achieved by lacquer or oil.

If you decide to seal your floors with lacquer, whitewashed effect can be done in two ways. You can either use white pigmented primer like Bona White, or you can first apply white stain on the sanded floors and then coat it with multiple coats of clear lacquer. For our wood floor restoration service where staining is involved, we rely on some of the most popular products such as Bona Create Ice, followed by the application of three coats of waterbased Bona Mega lacquer in either matt, satin or gloss finish.

If you prefer to achieve the whitewashed effect using oil-based products, then you need to be aware that this will achieve less uniform appearance.

Hi and thank you for the question regarding the choice of sealant for pine floorboards.

Pine is soft wood and while it is possible to seal pine with both laquers and Harwax Oils, we would always recommend the use of hardwearing varnish when sanding and sealing this type of flooring. The reason for this is that pine tends to absorb oils, which means that pine floorboards sealed with hardwax oils will have lower level of protection and durability compared to those sealed with varnish. This is particularly the case where staining is required. Therefore we would recommend stained pine floorboards to be sealed with hardwearing varnish.

We hope that the above helps.

Hi and thank you for contacting us with your question about cleaning and polishing of engineered wood floors.

The first thing that you need to be aware of is that cleaning and polishing service is not applicable for floors which are badly damaged and where the existing sealant has worn out. It is rather a service that is performed on wooden floors which are ina relatively good condition without any parches that do not have any sealant left and is merely done to provide an exrea coat and extra protection to the existing sealant. By doing this, cleaning and polishing can prolong the life of varnished floors before they need to be sanded and revarnished. Cleaning and poslishing can be done on any wooden floors which have been sealed with varnishi, including engineered wood flooring, parquet flooring and any solid wood floorings.

Having said that, if the sealant on your floors has already worn out, then cleanign and polishing will not be possible and in this case a torough sanding and revarnishing will be required in order to completely remove the existing sealant and to apply new varnish on top of the sanded floros. 

Yes, staining can be performed on any wooden flooring including stairs. Once the area is sanded to a smooth finish we can apply several samples of different colours on your stairs so you can choose the colour that best matches teh rest of your flooring.

I hope that this helps.