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Why does the question of maintaining timber floors become so important this year?

Much of our local timber is no longer available. Therefore it is much more impossible to replace. For many years this has been a very simple process because timber was relatively easily replaceable. If you had damage it was possible to obtain boards very easily to replace the damaged material. This has changed considerably as a result of a number of decisions made around Australia. This changes the entire question of using timber and repairing timber especially in terms of flooring where high quality Australian hardwoods have dominated in the Australian market.

Around Australia there are many hundreds of timber flooring expert who are all available to help to care for timber flooring. These experts have become dependent on the supply of timber that they can use to repair or extend existing timber floors. The situation is changing now in 2024. Already there is a lack of timber being supplied and many of the traditional timber millers around Australia are closing their doors.

As the timber is simply not being cut to process, there is no work to be had in milling and machining timber on a large scale. So, we are more dependent on the existing supplies of timber which are quite small.

How does this work at a practical level?

A classic example is where someone wants to modernise a kitchen. When the cabinets are changed and there is a timber floor fixed to the concrete subfloor there will need to be some repairs and alterations to the flooring as the new cabinets never identically match the pre-existing cabinets. Up until now a person has been able to source and replace or add timber boards. Because of the plentiful supply of timber, it was a straightforward though time-consuming exercise.

Going forward this will not be so straightforward. The additional timber boards that may be required will become less and less available. In fact in some states it has become almost impossible to obtain some timbers already by the middle of 2024.

What does this simple example illustrate?

Since it will be virtually impossible to source and replace timber boards of the solid variety going forward it will be essential to maintain and look after the existing timber floors. This becomes more important.

The life of a timber floor.

Solid timber floors are designed to last for between 30 and 100 years depending on the installation method that has been used. Potentially, a solid timber floor can last for many decades and even longer than the 100-year mark. However, it does need to be maintained properly and in the first place it needs to have been installed with permanence in mind.

Threats to the ongoing existence of the timber floor.

Moisture Intrusion

Timber can expand and contract when there is seasonal change. However, when larger quantities of water are introduced to timber [or taken away] the timber can expand and contract much more obviously and when a lot of moisture is added to the timber it also has the potential to twist and split along natural grain lines and fault lines inherent in the timber.

Therefore, it is important to maintain the moisture content of the timber. This is not a complicated thing. In the simplest of terms if a house is maintained at a comfortable living atmosphere from summer to winter for its occupants, this will work for the timber as well.

Non-Compatible Floor Coatings.

A coated surface that cannot easily be maintained. Some coatings used on prefinished flooring are very difficult to maintain because there is no forward compatible coating that can be applied to the surface. If there is no forward compatible coating, then the surface will need to be sanded away completely back to the timber before a new coating system is used. Obviously in the sanding process some timber is lost. Therefore, it’s always good to know that the coating that has been applied to the surface of any floor is going to be compatible going forwards.

This is a key question – Is the floor coating forward compatible?

A forward compatible coating system. If the coating used on the floor cannot be recoated or resurfaced without needing to cut the coating completely away from the timber this will result in some loss of the timber surface. The best coatings to use for sealing timber flooring are coatings that are compatible with existing coating systems in the market. Forward compatible coating system means that the surface of the floor can be cleaned and may be sanded very lightly before an additional coating or finish is applied. In this way, the timber itself is not actually sanded each time a recoat is applied.

Adjusting our thinking

Australian timbers are easily some of the hardest and best timbers in the world. This being the case they are valuable features to maintain. We simply cannot go out and replace the floors as easily as we have done over the last many decades.

Moving away from solvent based finishes.

Older style plastic finishes are what we commonly call solvent-based finishes. Solvent based finishes are the finishes that give us the yellow plastic look or the glossy look that was popular in the 60s and 70s. In the 80s we began to move away from plastic looking finishes to the more subdued satin or semi-gloss finishes that look more attractive and reveal the timber instead of lots of shine.

What are the better options in Timber Floor Coatings going forward?

Moving away from old fashioned solvent based finishes as well as acrylic finishes is essential going forward.

Solvent based finished manufactured decades ago were a lot tougher than the finishes that are manufactured today. Decades ago the ingredients used in solvent based finishes were very different to the ingredients available today. Some of those finishes were pretty much bullet proof but that is definitely not the case in the modern era as many ingredients are simply not available any more due to manufacturing and safety considerations.

Waterborne And Heavy Duty Hardwax Oil Coatings

Waterborne coatings and heavy duty hard wax oil coatings are very much the future as far as caring for timber floors is concerned. These are forward compatible coatings because they can be applied over existing floor coatings. Already companies are developing materials that are suited to re coating timber floors without the necessity to pre-sand the surface to a major degree.

[As a side note it is important to acknowledge that applying solvent based coatings over the top of acrylics, waterborne coatings or oils will often result in floor failure and require a full re-sand of the timber which will lose a lot of valuable material from the floor.]

Osmo heavy duty hard wax oil products our one of our key recommendations here at VCS. We know that these coatings work extremely well because the coatings work with the nature of the timber itself and are drawn from natural renewable resources. They have a long proven history and are distributed in over 70 countries worldwide with phenomenal success. In Australia we have been using these coatings for the last two decades and the results have been amazing.

Osmo Hardwax oils are designed as penetrating coatings which bond with the cellular structure of the timber to achieve an extremely hard wearing surface. [This is not to be confused with alternative approaches to hard work oils which are resin reinforced and will often have the flammable label on the side of the tin. This approach is akin to a combination of an oil based finish and a solvent based finish because of the introduction of resin or plastic. The osmo Hardwax oil is a penetrating coating that does not need to have any plastic added to it to make it perform. The technologies are very different.

There are a great number of waterborne coating products available in the current era. Some very much soft acrylic products while others tend towards being heavy duty clear polyurethane products.

[The old fashioned polyurethane product ages yellow as the product is exposed to light. Therefore on a timber floor a natural amber or yellow effect would occur. Many reddish brown Jarrah floors appear to be very yellow or orange in colour due to the fact that the solvent based polyurethane on the surface is ageing yellow. ]

As a general rule waterborne polyurethane products that include a hardener in the formulation and are therefore a 2 pack formulation have greater bonding ability when used to coat over existing floor coatings. Product such as Bona Traffic and Bona Traffic HD Heavy Duty are classic re-coat solutions that work extremely well. [All be it with the necessity to do a test patch to ensure adhesion given the very complicated range of coatings that have been applied to timber flooring over the years.]

The Key Lesson

Going forward the key lesson is to try to avoid actually sanding away the valuable timber flooring that is in place. Sanding the timber away has always been dependent on the ability to replace the timber with like for like. This lack of availability of solid hardwood means that it will be very hard to replace like with like regardless of the financial capacity of the end user. It is much better to adopt an approach that maintains the timber without sanding away the finish or the actual timber itself.

Adopt a serious approach to timber flooring maintenance that includes using a cleaning product that does not leave a residue behind such as VCS solid timber floor cleaner. This will not accelerate the wearing properties of the coating unlike using some aggressive solvents such as Methylated Spirits which is sometimes recommended based on anecdotal evidence. VCS solid timber floor cleaner is a non-residual product that is simply diluted with water. It is supplied as a concentrated product and can be diluted with water 20 parts water to one part cleaner. This makes it a very reliable and economical cleaning product. It is also manufactured here in Australia so we encourage local support.

It is also good to have mats at entry points into homes to ensure that grit is removed from shoes as a person enters into the home. Rather than walking dirt into the home which sometimes contains sharp grit that will cut into the coating and cause early wear, it is good to leave this where it belongs which is of course outside. Some basic steps such as this can dramatically extend the period between any required amounts of maintenance.

Going forward we going to provide a series of articles that will provide additional information on how to continue to maintain our beautiful timber floors. In Australia we have millions of square metres of timber flooring that had been installed over the course of the last century. These are beautiful timber floors that are irreplaceable. Therefore, it is extremely important that we adopt a proactive approach towards maintaining these beautiful timber floors.