Of all the types of flooring available, wood with the perfect finish 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.
Pine Log Rounds – from antiquewoodnews.com
Vintage Pine Floorboards
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 pine floor that needs attention, or you’ve been tasked with getting one in apple-pie order for someone else, here’s everything you need to know.
Types of pine
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.
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.
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 Wood Database pine page, an excellent resource.
Horses for courses – The pine flooring aesthetic
There’s a variety of flooring ideas 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.
One of the best things about wood flooring 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.
You might love the hundred-year-old (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.
Eastern White Pine Cabin Interior
Your floor might be reasonably worn, partway between new and aged. You might adore the effect – 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.
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.
How pine changes over time
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.
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.
Testing the colour of your floorboards before finishing them
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 – not wet – cloth and you get the exact same effect as oiling or varnishing – 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.
What if you want to get rid of that bright orange/gold colour?
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.
If you’re looking to retain the natural appearance of freshly sanded boards, pine or oak, Osmo Polyx Oil Raw and Fiddes Hard Wax Oil Natural are both great products for defusing and countering the gold/orange colour you sometimes get.
- Osmo Polyx Oil Raw (3044) is made with natural oils and waxes, gives excellent protection and durability and is specifically formulated to retain the ‘natural’ look of wood. It counteracts the damp-looking darkening effect and grain enhancement you typically get with standard clear oils or varnishes.
- Fiddes Hard Wax Oil Natural also keeps wood looking as natural and unaltered in colour as possible and dries to a clear, satin-matt finish. It’s perfect for light-coloured woods like pine, spruce and oak.
Osmo Polyx Oil
Pine wood floor refinishing – Varnish or oil?
What’s best, an oil or a varnish? The protective qualities are much the same. But oil and varnish come with different types of maintenance, and to a great extent your choice depends on the amount of wear and tear the floor receives.
- Using a wooden floor varnish tends to provide better durability and less maintenance, but you’ll need to re-sand the entire floor back to bare wood when the varnish eventually gets damaged and worn. How long this takes depends on the type and quality of the varnish and how much wear your floor is subjected to. It could be every year if you have pets, visitors and kids running in and out all the time. It could be five years or more if your home life is a lot quieter or you’ve covered the floor with rugs.
- Using a wooden floor oil, on the other hand, requires maintenance, usually every couple of years, but it won’t flake, crack or peel off. It looks better than varnish as it begins to wear and is very easy to patch repair if it becomes worn in specific areas, unlike varnish. When an oiled floor starts to look like it’s past its best, simply clean with a suitable floor cleaner to remove any marks, scuffs or stains, then reapply a thin coat of oil, and “Voilà!” it’s just like new again. Even bad scuffs, stains, marks and light scratches can be fixed by lightly sanding the area and reapplying a fresh coat of oil.
A tough varnish, by the way, won’t make the flooring itself hard. If you drop something heavy on the floor, the wood will still dent even though the varnish stays intact.
We have put together this handy video helping you to understand the key difference between a varnish and oil, as well as application techniques.
Need help with your pine floorboards?
For more information about interior floor finishes and treatments, contact our team of resident experts who are always on hand to help with project advice and product recommendations.
We love to see before, during and after photos of any wood finishing project. If you would like to share your project pictures with us, you can either send us some photos or share on our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram pages.
217 comments
Hi There, we had quite lovely dark pine floorboards when we moved into a rental property about a year ago. Unfortunately despite our best efforts to restrict our Bernese Mountain Dog on walking on them much, she has left a multitude of scratches over the general extent of the floor (kitchen, dining and living areas). Some are deeper than others. I’m wondering on the general success of sanding the boards back and re-varnishing, in removing the scratches? Any experience or advice you may have with this would be much appreciated. We are contemplating this for when we move out…
Warm regards,
Ben
Reply to Benjamin Hurt:
Hello Ben,
Sanding back will certainly improve the state of the wood, it may not get rid of any deep scratches how ever and so when re-treating, a wood filler (https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/products/morrells-fillers) may be required. There is a range of colours available with the Morrells to match the finish that you will be doing and if you have a read up of the product and let me know if you have any questions.
All the Best Samantha.
Hello I have an Edwardian house with original floor boards that had a dark stain about a foot wide around the edge of the room obviously meant to have a rug covering the middle. I hired a builder and we sanded one rooom but the result was not perfect its very hard to lift all the brown stain. My question is is there a stain or dark varnis. that I could use over the whole floor I have period interiors so will also be covering the central section with a large rug. I have no idea what the dark stain is looked at old home managements and think it might be stain mixed with turpentine.
Reply to Sylvia Kessedjian:
Hello Sylvia,
Thank you for getting in touch. It is a common issue with floors in Victorian houses, and can be difficult to remove and persistent sanding can be the only way to get rid of it. Many people will make it a feature however, with great results. You could take a look at the Holzol Floor Oil Tints (https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/collections/floor-oil). These will colour and protect in one product. It will leave the floor looking and feeling very natural still and gives protection that is easy to clean, maintain and repair if needed.
You could also have a look at a Stain (https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/products/manns-pine-wood-stain) for colour and then a clear varnish (https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/products/manns-extra-tough-floor-varnish) for finishing and added protection. There are lots of helpful videos on our YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7-tgwbsUxm73aVnAjLGHRA) that will help with products and application tips.
And feel free to come back to me if you have any further questions.
Kind Regards Samantha.
Hi Sam, great website, very happy to find some online advice. We’ve recently had our landing and bathrooms original pine floorboards from our 1900’s terraced house sanded, stained and varnished (with matt varnish). The results we got were quite shocking! The boards are looking very orange, shiny and too new.
We were hoping for more of a mid brown, rustic, aged looking boards. Is there anyway back for us to salvage the boards and at least get rid of the orange look?
we were tempted to just leave the boards and not treat them at all but so many people told us we couldn’t as they needed protection so we went with the lightest stain ‘antique pine’ and a matt varnish, i’m wondering if the products used by the floor company were not that good or we simply went for the wrong stain.
we recently had our pine doors dipped in acid and finished with a mid-brown briwax and love the way they came out…
any help or advice would be much appreciated! i have photos i can send if easier for you to answer after viewing…
Thanks
Brinsley
Reply to Brinsley Kazak:
Hello Brinsley,
I would always recommend applying a finish to your floor to protect the wood. To leave it untreated will make it difficult to clean. Dirt and grease and general every day use will discolour the wood. So a Varnish or Hard Wax Oil would be ideal.
As you have already varnished, this leaves you two options. The first is to try a coloured varnish over the top. This is not really the ideal situation, but generally one varnish will go over another without issue. And one of the colours from the Ronseal Diamond Hard Coloured Floor Varnish (https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/products/ronseal-diamond-hard-floor-coloured-varnish) range may improve the look for you. A test area should be done.
The alternative would be to sand back to bare wood and this would open up options considerably. If you want to stick to a varnish finish then we have a wide range of stains from Manns Pine Wood Stain (https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/products/manns-pine-wood-stain) and you may need a colour that has a green tinge to it to counteract the orange tones of the pine. Test area would need to be carried out with a top coat of the Clear Varnish (https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/products/manns-extra-tough-floor-varnish) to ensure that you are getting the colour that you want.
Or you could have a look at some Tinted Hard Wax Oils (https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/products/fiddes-hard-wax-oil-tints) for colour and finish in one product.
I hope that helps and feel free to let me know if you have any further questions.
Kind Regards Samantha
HI Sam,
One quick question: Ive sanded our original wooden floorboards in our victorian terrace. In the kitchen we are going to be using Liberon Liming wax followed by Liberon Wax Polish Black Bison. Are these suitable for use in a kitchen?
Many thanks,
Ben
Reply to Ben B:
Hello Ben,
I am not familiar with the Liberon waxes but generally speaking waxes are not what I would recommend for a floor, particularly a high traffic area like the kitchen. That’s not to say they are not suitable, I just would not recommend. Wax gives limited durability and needs regular top ups, it can also get a little slippery over time.
For a more durable finish that still gives a natural look and feel to the wood you could consider the Fiddes Hard Wax Oil (https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/products/fiddes-hard-wax-oil). It will be much more hard wearing and is easy to repair and maintain over time. Its worth having a read up of the product and also taking a look at one of our YouTube videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzuvYbTjO-E&t=108s).
And if you have any further questions please do let me know.
Kind Regards Samantha.
Thank you for your reply Sam. The floor we have already done we are leaving with the whitewashed effect of the OSMO Polyx Raw. We are happy with the colour in that room.
However, we are renovating our bathroom next which has the same pine floorboards. We would ideally like a darker colour in there (mid to dark brown), but really hate that orange that you get from the pine. We do have some OSMO Polyx Raw leftover so did wonder if applying that first before any subsequent coats of another OSMO tint would counter the pine turning orange.
However if there are any other products you could recommend we could be tempted.
Hi
We have used the OSMO Polyx Raw on our pine floorboards as had previously used a walnut varnish which brought them out very orange.
The floor now has a whitewashed effect which does look ok. Certainly better than the orange we had before.
I wondered if we were to now go over the OSMO Polyx Raw with another colour of the same product would we be able to avoid that orange coming through?