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
We have pine plank flooring in our living room and refinishing is LONG overdue.
The wood was originally bleached/pickled and some areas are very pale while other areas the grain and knots show through with a light woody brown.
I really don’t like the super light and kind of prefer the seasoned look where the grains come through and some of the boards have a range of color from a pinkish to tan to light brown. We are going to have the floor sanded and
1. I am afraid the sanding will take away the seasoned look and leave just the bleached look. How deep does bleaching go? i really want to see the grain.
2. Is is possible to sand off all the interesting “features”?
3. how do you choose between oil and water based poly? I really do NOT want to have a shiny polished orange tint, but I don’t want a washout either.
Unfortunately, I don’t have the option of seeing the floor after the sanding before I have to choose between oil and water based poly.
Thanks,
Diane
Reply to Diane:
Good Afternoon Diane,
Thank you for getting in touch. You will not really know for sure until you sand the floor, what the result will be. Will sanding remove some of the features, possibly and its worth speaking to who ever you are going to get to sand the floor for you as they will be able to better say by looking at the wood what will happen.
Once sanded you are able to start trying test areas with product to get the look you want. If the wood is too pale after sanding you can look at applying colour, perhaps a coloured oil such as Osmo Polyx Oil Tints (https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/products/osmo-colour-foundation) , this is a penetrative oil that is hard wearing and durable, easy to apply, clean and maintain. And is colour and protection with just two thin coats.
Alternatively for a wider range of colours you could have a look at stains from the Manns Pine Range Manns Classic Pine Stain (https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/products/manns-pine-wood-stain) these just give colour to the wood and test area are vital as the wood will impact on the colour to be achieved. This will then require a top coat for protection, either Varnish or Hard Wax oil.
For further advice our friendly team are available on 01303 213838.
Kind regards Samantha.
Hello I am building a house . I would like wood floors . I am a single lady with a limited income so therefore I cannot afford much . I really like the look of the old pine floors so I am considering just getting some pine 1×8 or 1×10 pine planks from the hardware store . I didn’t really want to do the tongue and groove and I would like to distress them so they don’t look too smooth and new and since the house and building is kind of a cabin cottage style I want the wooden boards to fit in with that look. I do want to stain them and I like the look of the oil finish . My question to you is am I able to just go get some pine lumber and put that down as flooring and also what kind of finish should I put on it ? I have seen in previous comments that you recommend an oil finish which I like the look of, but how do you clean that?
Reply to Bobbie Kinberg:
Hello Bobbie,
Thank you for getting in touch with your enquiry. I am able to help with advice on treating your boards, you may need to seek further advice on the correct boards to use for your flooring as this is not something that I know a great deal about. However I would expect standard Pine planks to be suitable for flooring.
For the finish you could have a look at the Fiddes Hard Wax Oil (https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/products/fiddes-hard-wax-oil) this is a durable finish that leaves the wood looking and feeling very natural in appearance. It soaks into the surface of the wood and is very durable, easy to apply, clean and maintain. It is also available in sample tins to allow you to try a test area first and I would recommend this as the type, age and condition of the wood all impact on the finish that will be achieved.
If you want to add a little suggestion of colour or even a complete colour change then the Tints range is the same product but with colour Fiddes Hard Wax Oil Tints (https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/products/fiddes-hard-wax-oil-tints) and again sample sizes are available.
I hope that helps and if you have any questions at all please do not hesitate to get in touch via our contact us (https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/pages/contact) page.
Kind regards Samantha.
Hi there,
When I sanded my own floors I found your website incredibly useful! Now I’m here with an issue: I sanded my original pine floorboards about a year and a half ago, after uncovering them for seemingly the first time. The property was built around 1890 and I believe the boards are original as they’re similar to others I’ve seen. After some deliberation I used the Osmo Polyx Oil throughout. Now a few of the boards have begun to split, some hairline and others broader. It’s been roughly a year and a half since I sanded and oiled the floor – is there anything you’d recommend for fixing the cracks? And why might this have been happening and what are the options for stopping this happening in the future?
Thanks.
Reply to Laurence:
Good Afternoon Laurence,
So am I right in thinking the floors have been carpeted up until you removed and sanded the floor?
A carpet will ensure that the wood is exposed to limited environmental factors such as UV and Moisture. The natural balance of humidity, temperature and use have all been help back from the wood by carpet and now that it is exposed it is being subjected to these elements and this is likely to be why you are getting the splits. The wood is moving and shifting under ts new conditions. I say this with an element of caution as I can not see the boards or now the full history of them and the house but I suspect that this is the case.
The product you have used is a good option and will keep out much of the moisture and nourish the wood, however the wood will still be impacted over time by natural environment, you can look at theOsmo Interior Wood Filler (https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/products/osmo-wood-filler) which is great for small repairs such as yours. I suspect if I am right in the cause of the shifting that it will settle after a time and movement will be to a minimum once it has settled.
I hope that helps and if you have any questions feel free to get in touch via our contact us (https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/pages/contact) page.
Kind regards Samantha.
Hi, we have moved to a house where the main room has pine floorboards that are dark red. I hate the colour. Do we have to sand them to get rid of the colour or is there an easier way?
Reply to Debbie:
Good Afternoon Debbie,
Can you get in touch via our contact us (https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/pages/contact) page, with some further details please? If you can let me know the current finish oil or varnish ? And what look or colour you are hoping to achieve and I can advise from there.
Kind Regards Samantha.
I have seen several responses that say you do NOT want to use the OSMO raw on pine floors because the white in it turns all the auburn in the pine a pint color! HELP! want a matte finish on my pine that will not give it a pink color.
Reply to kathy barry:
Hello Kathy,
Thank you for getting in touch. I am not sure where you have read that about the Osmo Polyx Oil Raw (https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/products/osmo-polyx-oil-raw-3044) but it is the one I would recommend to try along side the Standard clear Osmo Polyx Oil (https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/products/osmo-polyx-oil). Testing both of these as alll wood is different. You can even get a different result with two similar pieces of Pine.
The Osmo Polyx oil Raw is designed to leave the wood looking as untouched as possible. It may highlight the natural pinks in your wood or it may not and you will only know for sure once you try a test area.
Sample sachets are available for this very purpose. A Clear oil will darken the wood very slightly and will give a slightly different result to the Raw.
You may find that a water based Varnish such as the Manns Extra Tough Floor Varnish (https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/products/manns-extra-tough-floor-varnish) will highlight the colour even less and this varnish is also available in sample sizes.
If you take a look at those recommended and I am here to help if you have any questions.
Kind regards Samantha.