re: Lets Talk "oil finishes"

There is a lot of erroneous information someone might want to correct on the Livos site question and answer pages. For example:

“A varnished floor has a plastic coating covering the timber boards. These coatings are generally hard, and edge bond the boards together. That is, the coating does not allow the boards to move, which may cause wide, uneven gaps in some floors. So-called water based coatings and urethane based ‘Tung Oils’ also create a coating, however they generally do not edge bond the boards as the coatings are not as strong.”

Tung oils are not urethane based, though urethanes, or polyurethanes use it as their base, then have resins added, as part of the process of making polyurethanes. The less expensive brands use linseed oil.

Too, tung oil is stronger than linseed oil.

As an aside, another reason tung oil is used for many finishes is, it is not as prone to darkening the wood as linseed (a/k/a) flax seed oil.

Finally, suggesting the oil finish is better because the wood can move more, which is nothing more than shrinking and expanding, as the wood gains and losses moisture, compared to poly, which is indicated to make the boars less prone to movement, makes no sense and suggest a lack of knowledge of what causes the gaps in wood floors.

Every wood floor I finished had gaps because the wood lost moisture. That is why I always applied a highly thinned coat and allowed it to flow between cracks and such and, preferably, under the flooring (between the wood and the barrier between it and the subfloor. This helped slow moisture loss, and gain. Of course, since the poly finishes were merely an oil base with resin added, thinning them allowed them to penetrate the wood were, once the thinner evaporated, the poly could react with the air, just as your product does and harden.

Adding raw oil finish, if it took a couple weeks to cure, would close gaps, as the oil soaked in and swelled the wood. Of course, if the hardening process took only a day or two, there isn’t going to be enough wicking to effect expansion of the wood significantly.