Hard wax oil or lacquer? Which one do I choose for my hardwood floor?

We have recently been contacted by a customer, enquiring about what finish she should use to protect her hard wood floors and I thought I would share with you our advice.

As this is quite a common question our customers ask us at Art of Clean, professional floor cleaners in Cambridge, the advice we gave was, it really depends on the type of finish you would like to achieve.  At Art of Clean we would normally discuss these options with you on our initial inspection of your wooden floor.

As hard wax oils contain a mixture of oil and wax, which completely saturates into your timber flooring, which means that no other liquid can be absorbed into your wooden floors.  So if you were to spill any drinks, accidentally tip up your bucket of cleaning water onto the surface then none of this would go into your lovely wooden floor.

The wax element of the hard wax oil, protects the surface from small scratches to the wood. Hard wax oil finishes are generally popular with our customer’s wooden floor cleaning requirements in and around Cambridge, as they are the easiest to maintain. The hard wax oil also comes in various shades and colours, and offers three different types of sheen finishes.

Lacquers on the other hand act in a slightly different way, rather than absorbing into the wooden surface of your floor, it will sit on the surface.

The type of lacquers we use at Art of Clean in Cambridge, have flexible qualities, so rather than drying into a solid rigid surface, the lacquer will flex with the timber when it is scratched or dented. This type of finish is harder to maintain, as although it is durable, if you need to touch up and scratches, it’s much harder. There are also only a two different types of finishes available too.

We realise at Art of Clean that it all comes down to a question of taste, and as hard wood flooring cleaning experts we will be happy to help you choose the most suitable finish for your hardwood floor, so why not give us a call on 01223 863632.
Looking for the most up-to-date advice? Read our updated blog on this topic "Why Are My Floorboards Shrinking?".

Art of Clean is a specialist cleaning firm in: 

Wood Floor Sanding,

Stone floor Cleaning,

Carpet Cleaning,

Rug Cleaning,

Upholstery Cleaning 

Leather Furniture Cleaning, 

CLEANING PRODUCTS

Working for domestic or commercial clients throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.

For more information on our services contact our friendly team on 01223 863632 or email us at info@artofclean.co.uk

Getting wooden floors - oiled or varnished?

Who has wooden floors, do you have varnished or oiled, and why?

There are many way to treat our wooden floors to protect and get the best out of them.  There are a couple of advantages of a varnished floor.  Varnished wood floors are easier to look after and clean on a daily basis.  They are also less likely to get damaged in the first place and the occasional dent is character anyway.  But if they get stained or damaged you can't really do much about it yourself.

Advantages of oiled wood floor -
If they get stained/damaged you can lightly sand and re-oil either small patches or the whole area yourself and it will look okay.

But it's not as easy to look after on a daily basis. e.g. you're not supposed to use microfiber clothe on it, neither wet nor dry as any large amount of moisture will swell floorboards. Sweep floor at least once a day, but both wet and dry with microfiber.

Art of Clean is a specialist cleaning firm in: 

Wood Floor Sanding,

Stone floor Cleaning,

Carpet Cleaning,

Rug Cleaning,

Upholstery Cleaning 

Leather Furniture Cleaning, 

CLEANING PRODUCTS

Working for domestic or commercial clients throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.

For more information on our services contact our friendly team on 01223 863632 or email us at info@artofclean.co.uk

Renovate hardwood floor without full sanding

Your lovely hardwood floor may look like it needs reviving and you may be thinking “how do I sand floor boards?”, or “where can I hire a floor sander?”  But restoring wood floors can involve a laborious process sanding floorboards using a drum or belt sander followed by rotary sander. This process completely removes all old finishes from the floor and is a lengthily and messy procedure.

But this process is though not always necessary!

Do you need to sand your floor first?  A light sand and re-coating on your wood floor will enhance the finish and add a protective layer to the floor, without the mess and expense of a lengthy sanding process. There are some requirements though:

• The floor cannot be badly worn
• The floor has to be smooth and even
• This process will not remove deep scratches or fix colour variation


There are key questions should you ask a wood floor company before you let them re-coat your wood floor:

• Have you carried out re-coating work on wood floors many times before?
• How would you prevent the fresh coat of finish to adhere to the old coat?

It is sometimes hard to tell if the finish will adhere and, we here at Art of Clean have access to a great product in the Pallmann range that gets applied to the floor prior to the fresh coat and this give full adhesion.

We completed a re-coat on a wood block floor and you can see the improvement.....

These improvements are not as drastic as full floor sanding though the benefits are vast and include:

• You do not sand your wood floor away every time - only a very light "key back" sand is required It takes much less time and usually dries faster than a full sand and seal.
• A fresh protective barrier gives your floor full protection.

For best results this service should be carried out on your wood floor BEFORE your floor starts to show a lot of wear. Once wear has caused the lacquer to break in you are through to bare wood you will require a full sand and re-finish.

A question we get asked a lot is "can an oiled floor be re-coated?"

Yes a wood floor that was oiled before can be re-coated with either a fresh coat of oil or it can be pre-treated with a product where after we can apply a coating of lacquer to the floor to give you a sheen

For more info on how to protect and care for your wood floor investment contact Art of Clean on 01223863632 or visit our website at www.artofclean.co.uk