Materials Matter: Water-based Floor Finishes
A benefit to real wood floors is how many ways they can be finished - again and again, even as your taste or trends change.
Pre-finished wood flooring and Luxury Vinyl Tiles are affordable, durable options, but you will never be able to change their look without completely removing and replacing them. With a lot of the older and historic homes we work with, wood floors are a given, but they almost always need to be refinished, so we have spent a lot of time working with different finishes.
One of our favorite products for finishing wood floors that we’ve been using for a few years is Loba Invisible 2k Protect, which is a waterborne finish. This product is perfect for retaining the natural appearance and feel of untreated wood. It’s an almost invisible layer that is also extremely scratch resistant. In fact, when the finish has been applied, the floors still look almost exactly what they look like right after being sanded. It’s light and bright, which makes it great for modern spaces. Its durability helps offset its higher price tag, and the color never ages or changes over time. And best of all - it’s non-toxic and environmentally friendly.
We test the finish inside the blue taped area. Notice how little difference there is from the areas outside the blue tape which show the newly sanded wood.
Wood floors finished with Loba Invisible.
Loba Invisible for the flooring.
Another great aspect of the Loba finish is that it can be used on any wood we’re working with inside the home. In this project we finished the mantle and the stair rails with Loba, tying them together visually with the floors and continuing the clean, fresh, modern look. It can also be used on parquet and cork floors in addition to hardwood.
Loba on the wood mantle
And also on the handrails.
The alternative choice for flooring finishes is, of course, polyurethane - a traditional oil finish. Poly is much easier to apply than Loba, but the oil can be fairly noxious, even after it has dried. Poly also darkens over time, giving floors an antiqued, amber finish. This is not always a bad thing, and in fact is desirable with older heart pine floors.
Heartpine wood floors with polyurethane getting installed.
The finished polyurethane product.
The finish of wood floors can dramatically change the look of a home, which is why we’re always looking for the best products out there to make the most of this beautiful investment.