The 2 Most Popular Finishes For Your Hardwood Floor: Oil Finishes

In the first part of this series, we explored the advantages and disadvantages of water-based polyurethane finishes. In our second installment, we’ll take a look at the benefits and some of the drawbacks of oil finishes, the second most popular finish in flooring today. These include Tung Oil and UV-cured Oils that are applied at the factory.

What are oil finishes?

Oil finishes are oil- or solvent-based liquid substances that are applied to a hardwood floor to protect the wood from scratches, scuffs and spills. By minimizing wear and water damage, oil finishes can significantly extend the life of the floor and help to preserve its original beauty.

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Why choose oil-based finishes?

While each type of oil-based product has its advantages and disadvantages, most people choose an oil-based finish for one of two reasons: appearance and cost.

Appearance

Oil-based finishes offer a unique amber richness that can’t be found in other finishes. The oil components of these finishes penetrate the wood more deeply and sink into the fiber. The amber tones of the oil brine the grain, which instantly deepens the natural color of the wood. Before water-based finishes became popular, these oil products were the only option for finishing floors, and many homeowners still prefer amber-tinted floors that become darker with time as the floor is exposed to sunlight.

Cost

Oil-based finishes are typically half the cost of water-based polyurethane, which can be a deciding factor when budgeting for refinishing floors or installing new surfaces.

What are the disadvantages of oil finishes?

Higher VOC content

Oil finishes typically have higher levels of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, which emit gases that can be harmful to health and the environment. Water-based finishes in contrast have zero to little VOC content.

Longer drying time

Oil finishes take longer to apply and dry. Moving furniture into the room may require an even longer wait.

Strong odor

Unfinished flooring is a popular option and can reduce lead time significantly.  When it comes to finishing the floor, Oil-based finishes typically have a very strong odor, which usually requires homeowners to vacate the premises during a finish that takes place on-site.

Types of oil finishes

Tung Oil

Tung oil is an extract from tung tree nuts and a natural substance that absorbs into the grain of the wood and hardens or “cures” over time as it is exposed to oxygen. Rather than forming a protective coating on top of a hardwood plank, tung oil protects the wood by hardening the top layer of the wood itself.

One of the biggest advantages of Tung oil is that scratches and scuffs can be easily repaired. A small application of tung oil to a worn spot or scratch can help seamlessly restore the appearance of the floor to its original luster. The new coat will penetrate into previous coats of tung oil, making it easier to spot apply it in high traffic areas without having to refinish the entire room.

One word of caution on tung oil finishes: not all products are made for wood flooring. You must use a tung oil finish with added polymers that are similar to those used in water-based polyurethanes.  At Carlisle, we recommend Waterlox, a brand of tung oil finish that will deeply penetrate the flooring while at the same time turning hard and offering a protective coating.  Many tung oil finishes do not contain these polymers and will not turn hard on the floor.

UV-Cured Oil

UV-cured oil is an oil-based finish that is treated with ultraviolet light to harden the oil between each coat. As a result, UV-cured oil finishes may offer a higher level of protection. They may also accelerate the finishing process – an important factor for installation in businesses that don’t want to have to shut down for multiple days to accommodate the finishing process.

UV-cured oil finishes preserve the original beauty of the woodgrain, protecting the surface by seeping into the grain rather than forming a protective coating on top of it. And UV-cured finishes can be applied with very little luster for an extra matte sheen.

Typically these floors are only available in a prefinished format where the finishes are applied at the factory and cured in UV light ovens.

Floors with oil-based finishes from Carlisle

Carlisle produces the finest wide plank luxury wood flooring in the country. We’ve been handcrafting exquisite floors for more than half a century, and our products are widely recognized for their incredible beauty and quality. Our forest-to-floor ethic ensures that our floors are produced with sustainable forestry practices even as we harvest the highest quality timbers from American forests.

When you contact us to explore your flooring options, our design consultants will work with you to understand your aesthetic and help you choose the wood, grade, texture and finish that will make your Carlisle floor a defining feature of your home.

At Carlisle Wide Plank Floors, we offer prefinished hardwood flooring with an oil that is fully cured prior to installation.  You can see this finish in our Casual, Tranquil and Inspire Collections.  After the floor is stained with a single or multiple layers of color, we apply two coats of UV-cured oil.  The result is a very low buildup of finish and an extremely low sheen that gives the floor a very organic, unfinished look.  This is in sharp contrast to the high-buildup, higher sheen finishes of a polyurethane floor. This is currently our most popular trend in prefinished topcoats.

Although the finish is cured and maintained just like polyurethane, it does not have as thick of a finish coat as polyurethane.  This makes it easier to penetrate the topcoat and disrupt the underlying color, through very high traffic or aggressive wear.  On the other hand, small daily scratches are more difficult to see in such a low sheen low build floor versus the higher sheens of a polyurethane finish.

Read Part I: 3 Most Popular Finishes For Your Hardwood Floor:  Water-based Polyurethane Finish

Read Part 3:  3 Most Popular Finishes For Your Hardwood Floor:  Hard Wax Oils