{"id":3424,"date":"2015-09-11T15:18:48","date_gmt":"2015-09-11T14:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wood-finishes-direct.com\/blog\/?p=3424"},"modified":"2025-06-16T15:57:03","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T14:57:03","slug":"everything-you-need-to-know-about-pine-flooring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wood-finishes-direct.com\/blog\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-pine-flooring\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything You Need to Know About Pine Flooring"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Of all the types of flooring available, \n\nwood with the perfect finish<\/a> is still the most popular. And oak floorboards are gorgeous as well as fashionable. But pine wood flooring is another strong contender in the beauty stakes, a softwood that’s been used to make floorboards for centuries and a feature of many old homes across Britain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pine Log Rounds – from antiquewoodnews.com<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Vintage Pine Floorboards<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We’ve taken several long, detailed looks at oak flooring, furniture and doors. Now it’s time to explore the wonderful world of pine. If you have a \n\npine floor that needs attention<\/a>, or you’ve been tasked with getting one in apple-pie order for someone else, here’s everything you need to know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Types of pine<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Pine, also sometimes called redwood, is cheaper and more common than traditional hardwoods, ranging from almost white through various yellow shades to a deep, rich red. For a softwood it’s often remarkably resilient and long-lasting, especially in the context of well looked after pine floors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pinus is the species we see most in UK and EU plantations. It’s useful for all sorts of utility work, a common wood for beams, flooring and structural purposes. But that’s just the start of it. There are a whole load of different types of pine trees found in the wild, so many in fact that the Wood Database website’s impressively long list is far too detailed to repeat here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’re interested in the similarities and differences between soft pines and hard pines, and those within each group, you can’t beat the \n\nWood Database pine page, an excellent resource.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Horses for courses \u2013 The pine flooring aesthetic<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There’s a variety of \n\nflooring ideas<\/a> and opinions concerning keeping wooden floors looking good. Some concerns involve floor maintenance, as some floors require little in the way of maintenance, while others require plenty of elbow grease and attention. And the choice is often a matter of aesthetics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the best things about \n\nwood flooring<\/a> is that it changes, going through all sorts of fascinating stages over time, depending on its type and location, with an equally wide range of end results. And every stage of the ageing process has its own beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might love the hundred year (or much older) patina your old pine boards have acquired through generations of wear. It might be stained and dirty, uneven and bent, sometimes more or less black. But to you it’s perfect – a living piece of history marking decades or even centuries of human use. And that’s fine. If it has lasted this long in one piece, it might well last a great deal longer without falling apart on you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eastern White Pine Cabin Interior<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Your floor might be reasonably worn, part way between new and aged. You might adore the effect \u2013 the real shabby chic ideal – or you may prefer to get rid of the muck and repair any damage, giving it a whole new lease of life as well as a smooth, contemporary look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A brand new pine floor, on the other hand, can look pretty raw. The paler it is, the newer and less settled-in it looks. You might want to use a wood dye to create a subtler, less in-your-face effect, calming the brightness down a bit, and if it hasn’t already been protected, you’ll want to add a finishing oil or good quality varnish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How pine changes over time<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The colour is one thing. The condition of old pine floors is another. Old boards can cup or arch over time, each board curling up at the edges, which means when you try to sand them you tend to get a thin sanded strip down the middle of each board at the high point, which widens on each pass of the sander as the boards are slowly levelled by the sanding process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you sand old pine boards back to the wood they can look very pale, even colourless. But don’t worry. The minute you apply a clear wood finishing product like an oil or varnish, that warm, attractive natural golden colour will come flooding through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Testing the colour of your floorboards before finishing them<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This change in colour is so dramatic that it’s usually best to test how it’ll look finished before choosing an oil or varnish. Luckily it’s easy. All you do is rub the surface with a damp \u2013 not wet \u2013 cloth and you get the exact same effect as oiling or varnishing \u2013 the colour suddenly shines through. Once you know what’s what, you can choose your finish: either something to enhance the natural colour or a colourless product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What if you want to get rid of that bright orange\/gold colour?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Orange or golden pine isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. And that’s the effect you can get from a standard clear oil or varnish – as time passes it can turn a deeper orange\/gold, even a nasty brown. If your pine floor has gone a funny colour, you can always sand the old finish off and replace it with a product that won’t change colour as it ages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’re looking to retain the natural appearance of freshly sanded boards, pine or oak, \n\nOsmo Polyx Oil Raw<\/a> and \n\nFiddes Hard Wax Oil Natural<\/a> are both great products for defusing and countering the gold \/ orange colour you sometimes get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n