Our favorite Finishes

Site Finished the Advantages and Disadvantages

Time, the amount of time and effort to site finish and install real wood versus factory prefinished versions is substantial. The simplicity of factory finishes are an advantage as well. All you do is, acclimate and install it, with a few cuts here an there. Of course, prefinished wood floors offer very few choices as they sell to  the masses. Color, widths, edges, length of floors, multi color and stain options are all wide open with a site finish. Beach blue, very popular with actual homeowners but not mass produced very often.  Check out Beach Floors from SYP Direct customers. 

Lipstick on a pig

Putting ‘lipstick on a pig’ means you are attempting to fool someone, for one reason or another. Prefinished pine floors mass produced for liquidation stores are the absolute perfect example of this practice. A 50% measure of heartwood meets standards for a Heart Pine, it our minimum.  However 50% at Lumber Liquidators has a different meaning. Every other board will have some heartwood, seriously the lengths are 8″ and up- do you see the problem? One of the worst, prefinished Caribbean Heart Pine which you will find advertised at cheaper prices than the unfinished version. How? Lipstick baby! The prefinished version is not the same 85% heart pine, not even close but is allowed to share the name. All we can say, Caveat Emptor or buyer beware. .

How long should floors acclimate before installation? How long does acclimating a wood floor take? Acclimation is not about time but moisture content. For example, Southern Pine boards should acclimate to 10% and White Oak, 6The first thing we must understand about acclimating a wood floor; wood is hygroscopic.

What does this mean for your floor? 

In laymen terms,  it will absorb (expand) moisture when exposed to high humidity and will expel (shrink) it in low humidity environments. So, if we do not have the boards at the same moisture content this process will not be done with a consistency and could result in separation. This is true for both finished and unfinished floors.

Can you glue down ¾ solid real wood?

Yes, if you use a polymer-based adhesive such as Bostiks. Bostik’s Ultra Set “Single-Step2” is a high-performance adhesive with built in moisture control and a sound reduction membrane. Using Bostik’s helps maintain the long-term durability of your Floor based on its polymer technology, allowing for movement just like nails. Bostiks contains one percent recycled rubber and is a certified Zero VOC product along with the Greenguard stamp. Bostiks is the only adhesive SYP Direct recommends for gluing down solid wood.

Buying a wood floor unfinished means you are going to finish on site versus prefinished. A site finished floor using Tung Oil much different than Monocoat, more on that later. Site finished wood floors start with unfinished boards, planed smooth and ready for sanding. Site finishing means you are limited by the imagination not inventory. While prefinished floors, which are mass produced, have 10 colors with 100 different names, site finished floors have no limit. However, site finishing real wood certainly has drawbacks centered around inconvenience. 

Which one is the best factory or site finish?

So what is best, buying unfinished or prefinished wood floors? Unfinished floors must be site finished, while prefinished floors are finished in a factory.  Site finishing unfinished boards allows the artisan to create and no factory finish compares with the look of a hand finished floor. Having said that, installing prefinished floors take much less time than its real wood counterpart.

4 color blend monocoat

Site finished or Prefinished

Prefinished hardwood flooring has been finished prior to arrival. These floors have been run through a flat line factory finish. Many of you recognize the term UV coating, which always means a factory coating for protection applied on top of the stain. Site finished wood floors start with unfinished boards, limited by the imagination not inventory. 

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How to find a real wood pro

How do you find a professional willing to install and finish real floors? Yes, within a budget helps define the question, so put affordable in front of professional. Wait, capable or experienced should be part of the equation, too. So now the question becomes, how to find a willing, experienced, affordable professional to finish your real wood floor? As you search, remember time is money and real floors take time, but they are an investment not a lease. You will be surprised with the resources we offer once who are ‘in the fold’.  Get the floor of your dreams or at least some honesty-hope to hear from you soon.

Tung Oil the best example of “time is money”

The problem with a Tung oil finish is about time not the look or protection. After drying time, this oil finish forms a protective final coat strong enough that to be used by ships, on the deck. Yes, Ships used Tung Oil because of the ease of repair, yes ships on water. We realize you thought boats had Vinyl or Engineered hulls because the way each handles water but no, all real wood finished with natural oils. Tung oil is FDA approved as food safe, butcher blocks, and cutting boards where it again encounters water. As for Southern Pine and Heart Pine our experience has been with blends or additive products, i.e. not 100% pure Tung Oil. However, as long as you are using 50% or greater Tung Oil you can get that amazing protection which looks great on pine

Face Nailing? Face nailing is when the nail is driven perpendicular into a piece of material, with the nail head exposed. We suggest that our customers face nail wide plank Heart Pine when the width gets to 10″ and up. Although our slow-growing Longleaf Heart Pine, as with our 85% heartwood Caribbean Pine, are far more stable than box store versions, we still suggest a little extra prevention in the wider planks. So, while you do not have to face nail our Wide Plank Heart Pine, and in most cases, all will be well, it is still better safe than sorry when the solution takes such little effort or resources.