# Tung Oil over 5 quarter reclaimed heart pine floors



## drew chaplin (May 8, 2013)

I have recently installed freshly planed 100+ year old heart pine flooring in my cabin. The cabin is in a VERY sandy/chalky area and I have been told that the new poly floor finishes would not last long due to the heavy sandy foot traffic. I was also told that these newer finishes would not adhere well because of the heavy fat content of the wood.
I have applied two coats of 100% tung oil which was cut 50% with turpentine and applied very liberally. After letting the tung oil soak in (30 minutes), I hand rubbed to a nice finish. I am very disappointed in the results!!! The floor picks up every scuff mark and keeps this hazy finish from the soiled shoes. What is going on? We are controlling the sand/chalk with three stations of boot brush mats. We have two rooms with contemporary wood flooring and poly finishes and they show no signs of this haze or scuff marks.
Do I need more coats of the tung oil or do I go straight to a wax finish which was also suggested to me to use originally?
Please, please help.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Part of the problem you are having is tung oil is a very slow drying finish. It probably shouldn't have been walked on for a week. Is it plain tung oil or a polymerized floor finish? If you used plain tung oil I would let it dry for a couple of weeks and go over it with the floor finish. If you did use floor finish let it dry and put another coat on. It should get better. I for sure would keep wax off of it until you are sure the finish is what you want. The finish needs to fully cure anyway so you should wait a month after you decide the finish is done before using any kind of wax. Wax is difficult to clean off if you choose to do further work on the finish.


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## drew chaplin (May 8, 2013)

Steve Neul said:


> Part of the problem you are having is tung oil is a very slow drying finish. It probably shouldn't have been walked on for a week. Is it plain tung oil or a polymerized floor finish? If you used plain tung oil I would let it dry for a couple of weeks and go over it with the floor finish. If you did use floor finish let it dry and put another coat on. It should get better. I for sure would keep wax off of it until you are sure the finish is what you want. The finish needs to fully cure anyway so you should wait a month after you decide the finish is done before using any kind of wax. Wax is difficult to clean off if you choose to do further work on the finish.


Steve thanks very much for responding. I did use a plain tung oil without any polymerizing agents. When you said "go over it with the floor finish", am I suppose to still apply a polymer finish over the tung oil? The tung oil has certainly cured by now (two months since last application). I am still concerned about sand and the poly finishes.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

drew_chaplin said:


> Steve thanks very much for responding. I did use a plain tung oil without any polymerizing agents. When you said "go over it with the floor finish", am I suppose to still apply a polymer finish over the tung oil? The tung oil has certainly cured by now (two months since last application). I am still concerned about sand and the poly finishes.


Well I didn't mean a polyurethane, I ment a polymerized tung oil floor finish. It is harder and would wear better than the standard tung oil. http://www.sutherlandwelles.com/original.html I'm not sure if they changed their packageing or I have the wrong link. It used to say "for floors" on the can. 

There will be some abrasion from the sand regardless of what you use. All you can do is keep an eye on it and when the finish starts to look thin apply another coat or two.


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## CharlesNeil (Jun 26, 2007)

I agree with Steve , the tung oil is not going to work very well. Even if the heart pine is 100 years old, the resin in it remains to some degree. The tung oil can actually soften the resin and it can take a long time to dry . I recently did a cabin floor, out of heart pine. We actually use it alot . 

You definately want a good varnish oil, that has good dries in it. 

If I was doing this personally, I would clean the floor with some naphtha. This will pull some of the tung oil off and it will dry much faster. Let it dry well, then I personally would use some General Finishes Arm R Seal.... This is what we did in the floor we did 3 years ago and it still looks like new. In addition the oil finish will be easy to repar and/or renew . I have also used the Sutherland Welles , it is a good finsh. However I thing here because we have the tung oil , possible pine resin, we need soemthing with some good dries to help harden it all up . I think the Arm R Seal would be my choice.


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## HowardAcheson (Nov 25, 2011)

Tung oil is a poor choice. Tung oil--and linseed oil have little or no abrasion resistance or little or no moisture resistance. Anything gritty or rough is going to show.

Wax is almost as poor a finish as an oil. In fact, the only thing more poor as a finish is an oil.


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## CharlesNeil (Jun 26, 2007)

Arm R Seal is a urethane , I have it on floors and stairs and so forth . no issues . :thumbsup:


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