Our residence workplace rework is s-l-o-w-l-y coming alongside and I’m loving my refinished hardwood flooring – they began out all scratched and orangey however now… beautiful!
That is the fourth time that we’ve had hardwood flooring refinished in our home – it might have been a lot simpler and cheaper to have achieved all the hardwoods without delay however sadly I didn’t have that foresight earlier than we moved in. The primary hardwoods that we refinished had been in our kitchen the place we used oil primarily based polyurethane, however for all of our refinishing jobs since then we’ve gone with water primarily based. There are execs and cons to every so I believed I’d share what I’ve discovered when making my determination between these two kinds of polyurethane.
The foremost variations to think about are:
Drying Time
Water-based polyurethane dries a lot quicker than oil-based polyurethane. With oil-based, you usually have to attend till the following day so as to add one other coat of polyurethane, however water-based polyurethane may be recoated in as quickly as 2-3 hours. Since refinishing wooden floors entails a number of coats of polyurethane, which means the full time of your refinishing job is longer with the oil-based. Additionally, as soon as the final coat of polyurethane has been positioned on the ground, the time earlier than you possibly can stroll in your flooring and put your furnishings and rugs again is way shorter with water-based polyurethane. Once we refinished our wooden stairs, I made a decision water-based polyurethane was a should as a result of in any other case we couldn’t get to any of our bedrooms or full baths and would want to sleep some other place for a couple of nights. Through the use of water-based polyurethane, by the tip of the day we had been capable of stroll up our stairs in socks and sleep in our personal beds.
Odor
Oil-based polyurethane is way increased in VOCs so it has a powerful odor and isn’t environmentally pleasant whereas water-based polyurethane is a low VOC product with little to no odor. The odor and attainable well being results of utilizing a excessive VOC product ought to at all times be thought-about, however particularly for those who’re refinishing hardwood flooring within the winter when you possibly can’t air the home out properly. Once we refinished our kitchen flooring with oil-based polyurethane, it was the center of winter and our home reeked! We made the error of sleeping in the home the primary night time that the flooring had been polyurethaned and it was horrible – I couldn’t sleep because of the terrible odor and my fear about what my youngsters had been inhaling.
Shade
Flooring which can be completed with oil-based polyurethane are inclined to amber (flip an orangey yellow) over time whereas flooring completed with water-based polyurethane are usually not anticipated to vary colour with age. Some folks just like the wealthy ambering that happens with oil-based polyurethane and really feel that this kind of polyurethane provides extra richness and depth to the flooring whereas others don’t recognize the change in colour.
Price
Water-based polyurethane is a dearer product than oil-based polyurethane. Nevertheless, some corporations don’t cost a complete lot extra for water-based polyurethane as a result of there’s much less drying time between coats, permitting them to get your job achieved quicker and transfer on to the following job. After I’ve gotten bids for hardwood refinishing, I discovered that the added price of water-based polyurethane different enormously from firm to firm.
Sturdiness
I’ve come throughout all kinds of various opinions in regards to the sturdiness distinction between oil-based and water-based polyurethane. Some refinishers really feel that oil-based polyurethane is extra sturdy. Others really feel that the sturdiness is pretty equal in case you are utilizing a top quality water-based polyurethane.
So that you’ve most likely guessed my desire by now – I like utilizing water-based polyurethane. For me, the additional price of water-based polyurethane is price it because of the quicker drying time, decrease VOCs, and low odor. For the kind of flooring that we’ve got, I additionally like that the colour doesn’t change over time, as our flooring that had been completed with oil-based polyurethane years earlier than we moved into the home look downright orange. Have you ever tried each kinds of poly and, in that case, which kind would you utilize the following time your refinish your flooring?
