Hi all,
I'm a long-time lurker, first-time poster with a quick question.
Here's the background: after some wrangling, I've taken possession of a tumble-down family property in Corfu. Age unknown, as records are poor and architectural styles chnage slowly there, but its thick stone walls, Venetian-style arches etc make it look pre-19th c at least.
It's two storeys, of which only the upper floor is habitable, and that at a pinch. I'm going over there in a few weeks, for a few months, to get the top floor in a liveable condition while I worry about raising funds for laying stone flags over the dirt-floored downstairs floor...
In the top floor, I'm fortunate to have wide, solid cypress-wood floorboards, which are quite dusty and shabby-looking. I want to seal them, in anticipation of inevitable red wine spillages, but don't want to lose their faded charm. Would it be possible to seal them with olive oil? (I should point out that olive oil, in Corfu, is cheaper than bottled water, and certainly wax finishes).
I've looked online, and there are a few hits for "olive oil + floorboards", but they're mostly American, geared more towards giving a high-gloss finish to new, sealed flooring, and aren't quite as obsessed with maintaining a sense of venerable antiquity in the house as I am... Would this be possible, do you think? Are there any downsides to using olive oil? It wouldn't, somehow, cause the floor to rot or stain over time?
A few pics are attached. They're not quite as close-up on the floor as they should be,as I hadn't thought about this problem when I took them.
I'd be really grateful for whatever advice you guys can throw at me... I'm sure I'll have plenty more questions over the next few months, especially when it comes to explaining distemper and concrete-less mortar to local tradesmen...
PS I know this is a UK property forum, but Greeks don't renovate old houses in the same way as we do here. And when they do, the results are often less... authentic (or 'authentic')-looking than I'm aiming for...
I'm a long-time lurker, first-time poster with a quick question.
Here's the background: after some wrangling, I've taken possession of a tumble-down family property in Corfu. Age unknown, as records are poor and architectural styles chnage slowly there, but its thick stone walls, Venetian-style arches etc make it look pre-19th c at least.
It's two storeys, of which only the upper floor is habitable, and that at a pinch. I'm going over there in a few weeks, for a few months, to get the top floor in a liveable condition while I worry about raising funds for laying stone flags over the dirt-floored downstairs floor...
In the top floor, I'm fortunate to have wide, solid cypress-wood floorboards, which are quite dusty and shabby-looking. I want to seal them, in anticipation of inevitable red wine spillages, but don't want to lose their faded charm. Would it be possible to seal them with olive oil? (I should point out that olive oil, in Corfu, is cheaper than bottled water, and certainly wax finishes).
I've looked online, and there are a few hits for "olive oil + floorboards", but they're mostly American, geared more towards giving a high-gloss finish to new, sealed flooring, and aren't quite as obsessed with maintaining a sense of venerable antiquity in the house as I am... Would this be possible, do you think? Are there any downsides to using olive oil? It wouldn't, somehow, cause the floor to rot or stain over time?
A few pics are attached. They're not quite as close-up on the floor as they should be,as I hadn't thought about this problem when I took them.
I'd be really grateful for whatever advice you guys can throw at me... I'm sure I'll have plenty more questions over the next few months, especially when it comes to explaining distemper and concrete-less mortar to local tradesmen...
PS I know this is a UK property forum, but Greeks don't renovate old houses in the same way as we do here. And when they do, the results are often less... authentic (or 'authentic')-looking than I'm aiming for...