Water Based Wood Floor Finish

I am looking for a water based floor finishing product for a new oak floor and some old pine floors. Please can you sugggest/recommend a product reasonably widely available in the UK. Thanks.

Bona Mega, Bona Traffic, Blanchon Initial, Blanchon Intensiv. I use all of these products, primarily the Bona, who invented water based finishes in the 1970's. They are a Swedish company and more square meterage of floors are finished with Bona Mega lacquer than any other finish in the world I think it's a few tens of millions of square metres a year. Strangely you won't find this in the DIY sheds though and not many builders know about it but it is freely available online. Waterbased finishes are very difficult to remove once applied so if you apply a cheaper acrylic based finish like Diamond Glaze for example then it can wear out quicker and you will have to sand back to the wood again. If you use a top quality finish and put on three or four coats then you should never need to sand back your floor to the wood for at least 25-30 years, only top up coats every 5 or 6 years. I have coated several tens of thousands of sqaure metres with this product. It is made from refined maize starch and has less than 6% organic solvents. It looks like an oil finish but is much more environmentally friendlydue to far less solvents and much greater durability (oil requires much more regular recoating). Using a shellac floor seal underneath gives you that 'solvent' finish look (like an oil finish) and enhances the grain and promotes adhesion, only use one coat. I buy Mega at £57inc and Traffic £85inc (trade) for 5 litres. People charge silly money, my builder depot wanted £120 for Traffic until I laughed at them, then they dropped the price 30 quid. If you can get Mega for around £60 or £65 that would be good and Traffic for under £100, traffic is twice as durable as Mega but it's quite expensive and more tricky to apply (two part finish) Mega is meant for commercial floors so in a domestic setting should be more than strong enough. If you have young children 'aka' destructacons and dogs then maybe using the Traffic would be a better choice as it is pretty much the most durable floor finish you can buy.

Toby

Thanks for such a helpful response.

I think the Bona Mage version will be fine.

One of the reasons I want water based is because I plan a very light washed/distress effect on the oak boards before sealing and water based has less effect on changing the colour and keeping more natural. I have done this with Osmo wax oil and although turned out well it does tend to make the white slightly yellow.

Alex

I have just been researching the products. For my particular requirements (which is for the wood colour to be little effected but adequatedly sealed for domestic requirments) they do a Bona Naturale. Do you have any experience with this one Toby? unfortunately this one is even more pricey at £95 for 4.5 Litres!

Bona everything. I do feel as though I've strayed into a Julian and Sandy (no, not Sandy, just fine sandpapery) sketch. :lol:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polari

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_and_Sandy

help to unravel Mr Hughes' obscure references to both vintage comedy and a forgotten language, but I'm glad I'm not alone in finding all the recent excited references to Bona rather enjoyable.

I am not going into B & Q and asking for a Bona. :|

Hi

Bona Mega and Traffic both DO change the colour of the wood but obviously not as much as a modern oil finish, which as we should all know by now (search my other recent posts!) is just another name for a thinned out PU varnish with other chemicals replacing the PU bit! (and poncey marketing!)

Bona Naturale is ridiculously expensive and Bona are very cagey about giving info on it's formulation, Alec Stacey their UK technical director remained shtum. However one of my suppliers a fellow anorak actually got it analysed of his own accord and found it to be a 'microball' finish, that means it contains millions of tiny little plastic balls that scatter the light making it very matt but make it not very durable, also it is very thin, I think the durability is around that of an oil finish but less than a hardwax oil and much much less than Mega or Traffic.

I have never used it and the Bona rep who visited me gave me such a piddly sample I laughed at his sheer stupidity and threw it in the bin! (I spend thousands on their products and they come to my house with a half filled milk bottle!!!! for me to try, what was I supposed to do? coat one board?! Blanchon popped round and dropped off £500 worth of their products for me to try ansd I use a lot less of them!)

Bona Naturale isn't very durable (much less durable than Mega) and WILL change the colour slightly but it is very very matt which does look nice. Blanchon Wood oil environment looks very similar, very very matt and is much cheaper (more than 50% cheaper) it's hard to say as that would darken the wood a bit more.

Basically if you want a really light finish go for Mega and put it straight onto the wood and DO NOT use a shellac floor sealer which will darken the wood and ruin the whole effect, this is very durable. If you are applying by brush I would do 5 coats. If you are applying by roller I would do 4 coats, unless you know how to roll really heavily, like me! then 3 will be enough. Use a matt version and it will look very similar to an oil finish in sheen level but lighter.

Toby Newell said:

Bona Naturale

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Bona Naturale?? Oh come on Toby - you're pulling our legs! As Gareth observed above, you've been listening to too much Round The Horne!

Still, it's bona to vada yer dolly old eek. :wink: