Tung Oil - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

C.C.R. · 12-11-2006, 05:04 PM

Has anyone used tung oil on floors and with what degree of success?
I'm Installing a pine floor (8" wide old growth heart pine) in log home. And the flooring salesman suggested tung oil ( 4 coats) but at
$80.00/gal. I want to make sure it's the right choice. He has me down for 10gals. (1200sqft. x4). I've heard it's relatively high maintance but easy to work with. But I don't want to have to go back to this house every 6 months to do touchups. I don't know how handy the H.O. is.

Any insight would be appreciated.

VA nail bender · 12-11-2006, 08:20 PM

Oiled floors do require more maintenace than poly finished floors. For my clients I have always used poly, but on my own oak floors, I used oil. Partly because I like the look, but mainly because I have four dogs and a cat. When the floors get scratched, it is much easier to repair.
I put down 2 coats initially, 2 weeks apart. Now I oil them once a year.

Bob

mdshunk · 12-11-2006, 08:47 PM

This is what happens when you oil your floor too much with your tongue:

C.C.R. · 12-12-2006, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VA nail bender

Oiled floors do require more maintenace than poly finished floors. For my clients I have always used poly, but on my own oak floors, I used oil. Partly because I like the look, but mainly because I have four dogs and a cat. When the floors get scratched, it is much easier to repair.
I put down 2 coats initially, 2 weeks apart. Now I oil them once a year.

Bob

yes, that's the impression I got easy but often repair. I always push polyurethane, but this customer has his heart set on tung oil. But the job is about 120mi away (local customer's summer home) so I just want to do it and be done with it. I do love the look of it though ( maybe for my own floors).
Thanks for the insight.
Rog

C.C.R. · 12-12-2006, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdshunk

This is what happens when you oil your floor too much with your tongue:

So that's what happened to me

Richard · 12-12-2006, 05:17 PM

I've only applied tung oil on pine walls--god it looked good--put in bucket, fold rag, dip, wipe on

didn't even know that people put it on floors--

VA nail bender · 12-12-2006, 09:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by C.C.R.

yes, that's the impression I got easy but often repair. I always push polyurethane, but this customer has his heart set on tung oil. But the job is about 120mi away (local customer's summer home) so I just want to do it and be done with it. I do love the look of it though ( maybe for my own floors).
Thanks for the insight.
Rog

So give him tung oil and an annual maintenance contract. Make sure he understands it needs maintenance, include the same info in the original contract and charge a premium for repairing his floor every year.
Bob

ThePaintStore · 12-12-2006, 11:10 PM

Consider a Clear Aliphatic Urethane. It has a very strong odor when wet, but it is the asolute strongest and scratch resistant urethane made. It is a 2 part product.

Robie · 12-12-2006, 11:28 PM

Tung oil will greatly enhance the appearance of the wood. It's called "popping the grain". I would probably go a less expensive route and apply a coat of boiled linseed oil first, let dry 2 days and then apply the poly. You'll get the best of both worlds and like tung oil, the linseed will be as easy as it gets to apply...wipe a liberal coat on and leave!

747 · 12-12-2006, 11:56 PM

What did you guys use before poly showed up on the market?

Robie · 12-13-2006, 12:05 AM

Uh...varnish...which is basically the same thing as polyurethane. Poly has synthetic resins and varnish has natural resins.

Lazarus · 12-13-2006, 07:26 PM

Yeah....like Robie said......use the boiled linseed oil. Tung Oil is graet for gun stocks, though......

Richard · 12-13-2006, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 747

What did you guys use before poly showed up on the market?

before poly showed up?

--I was probably in diapers

...but I'm a baby compared to some of you cats in here

camden09 · 12-14-2006, 07:35 PM

Hello,
I just walked in from my new house where i spent the day applying Tung Oil to my pine floors. $80.00 a gal is B.S. I just bought 2 gals today at Home Depot for $17.98 a gal. It is made by Behr. The directions for using for different applications are right on the can. I have around 4000 sf of Old Growth Eastern Pine throughout my house. I sanded the floors, applied a liberal amount, let stand overnight, wipe off excess next day. Applied stain, let dry. Applied liberal amount of Tung Oil, let set overnight. Wipe off excess and apply liberal amount, let set for 60 mins. Wipe off excess and buff to shine. It seems to hold up pretty well (7 kids) and animals. If there is any more info you need feel to PM me.
Tim
McBride Construction

C.C.R. · 12-15-2006, 11:24 AM

hey thanks Tim,
18 bucks for 2 gals. nice. That's high resin right. (I think that's all they have now) I've installed and finished hardwood, exlusively, for about 7 years. Now I have a remodeling co. but still do my own floors. I've never used tung oil though. Somewhat like yours, these are old growth heart pine, 8" wide. (first for that too).

Thanks for the info. I'm calling homedepot now

Rog

747 · 12-18-2006, 02:07 AM

Hey serious question. Is it possible back in the day they could have used orange shellac to stain a floor and then i guess varnish over that? Would that be unheard of back in the day? Meaning early 60's

stp57 · 06-07-2009, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by camden09

Hello,
I just walked in from my new house where i spent the day applying Tung Oil to my pine floors. $80.00 a gal is B.S. I just bought 2 gals today at Home Depot for $17.98 a gal. It is made by Behr. The directions for using for different applications are right on the can. I have around 4000 sf of Old Growth Eastern Pine throughout my house. I sanded the floors, applied a liberal amount, let stand overnight, wipe off excess next day. Applied stain, let dry. Applied liberal amount of Tung Oil, let set overnight. Wipe off excess and apply liberal amount, let set for 60 mins. Wipe off excess and buff to shine. It seems to hold up pretty well (7 kids) and animals. If there is any more info you need feel to PM me.
Tim
McBride Construction

You mentioned letting the tung oil set overnight. The instructions say to wipe of after only 10-15 minutes. If you go longer is it real hard to get the excess off?
Steve

PrecisionFloors · 06-08-2009, 10:07 PM

Just a thought here...but this is how I refinish most of mine. 2 coats shellac followed by 3 coats of water based semi-gloss poly (Bona Mega or Traffic). The shellac gives it a much richer tone imo, without raising the grain, and the water based poly doesn't amber like oil based. Another upside is shellac will stick to damned near anything so it is an easy system to use without screwing it up. I just did a 100 year old Dade County Pine down in FL a couple of weeks ago sing this method and it came out absolutely beautiful.

romoranger · 06-08-2009, 11:21 PM

there is 100% tung oil and tung oil varnish. They are different. I bet home depot has tung oil varnish, and at $18 for two gallons I can't imagine it being decent quality.