Oak facings - oil or varnish?

[Stones]

A great deal of conflicting advice out there, and I'm sure there will be a range of views here.  

 

We are fitting oak skirtings and facings, will have oak veneered doors, and plan to fit a oak flooring (still not decided on whether it will be solid or engineered) over 2/3 of our floor.  

 

What I want to avoid is the orange look you sometimes see in finished oak, and have the deeper colour you more often associate with an oak worktop.

 

My inclination therefore is oil, which would mean going for an oiled finish to the floor (rather than lacquer) and unfinished doors so we can oil them to match.  Of course the inverse could apply, lacquered floor, pre-finished doors and varnished woodwork.

 

Any suggestions thoughts?

 

Danish or Osmo oil?

Varnish - type/suggestions for particular product?

 

 

[Barney12]

I'm a massive fan of the OSMO range of oils. 

Fantastic product and finish and perhaps most importantly of all is incredibly forgiving of being patched in the event of localised wear or damage. 

The spray grade osmo oil product produces furniture grade results if applied properly.

[sphannaby]

We used Liberon Danish Oil and our staircase and loved the results.

Really brought out the grain, definitely not orange which we were keen to avoid.

 

Very easy to apply and I imagine you could achieve a darker shade if you wish by applying more coats but we stopped at 3 coats as it was exactly what we wanted.

 

Just reminded me that I still have 11 doors to do when I get back home in a fortnight 

 

[Declan52]

I used the same Danish oil on my own doors plus on my oak stairs. I also put 3 coats on and my doors are now 2 years old and still look well. 

Can you use both products on the back of a door that you will never see much of and see what one you like best.

[Stones]

We used danish oil in a previous house for an Oak worktop in the kitchen, and have to say it did look nice.  Is there a huge difference in terms of finished appearance between danish and osmo oil?

 

I don't have any of the facings / doors yet although that time is fast approaching.  Testing is certainly on the cards, but it would be good to narrow things down, and so far everything is poiting to an oil of some kind.

 

Assuming we do go for oil, how onerous is preparation and anything required between coats?

[Declan52]

I just gave it a wipe down with a cloth to remove any dust. Used a lint free cloth and dipped it into the oil and rubbed it in. After it was rubbed in I wiped any excess of and then put another coat on and repeated the steps until it wouldn't absorb any more oil.

[Stones]

That's the method I used on our kitchen worktop, albeit I had to rub that down with fine grade wire wool first as the kitchen suppliers had initially applied oil with a brush and it looked awful.

[Temp]

Most of our oak (eg floor, skirting stairs) was done using Osmo Hardwax Oil. Been dome 10+ years and had proved very hard wearing even in the entrance hall (family of four inc teenage rugby players). highly recommended. Have recoated the WC floor and that went down very well.

 

We also have some indoor oak beams done with Danish oil and that has darkened slightly. Still very happy though. Has a more matt finish than the hardwax oil.

 

Overall I prefer the finish on the Osmo but I would paint up samples with both and see which you prefer.

 

Have some outside oak done in Danish oil. Looks great but loads of work to maintain. Needs loads of coats and recoating ideally twice a year. Once a year minimum or it will go black.

Edited September 21, 2016 by Temp

[PeterW]

Oak worktops I use a mix of 50/50 coconut oil and beeswax. 

 

Melt the beeswax and stir in the coconut oil and pour into a jar. Just put it on with a cotton cloth and buff - works well and is 100% food safe too !

[Barney12]

On 21/09/2016 at 18:27, Stones said:

We used danish oil in a previous house for an Oak worktop in the kitchen, and have to say it did look nice.  Is there a huge difference in terms of finished appearance between danish and osmo oil?

 

I don't have any of the facings / doors yet although that time is fast approaching.  Testing is certainly on the cards, but it would be good to narrow things down, and so far everything is poiting to an oil of some kind.

 

Assuming we do go for oil, how onerous is preparation and anything required between coats?

 

OSMO will give you a higher build and greater wear protection than Danish oil. You can also have a higher sheen level with OSMO if that's what you desire.

 

If you want to really make a top job then lightly abrade the surface with 0000 wire wool between coats. Make sure you wipe the surface down well with White Spirit afterwards. The absolute key to applying all oils is "use it sparingly", especially the OSMO products. If you're doing floors then the investment in a floor brush is worth every penny, your back will thank you, just make sure you clean it well afterwards.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/OSMO-Osmo-Floor-Brush-220mm/dp/B005DR207Q

[ThePoplars]

A slightly different perspective - depends how houseproud you are :-D

 

In my old house, I decided to have oiled oak on the ground floor as it looked much better than lacquered.  Discovered just how limited I was in how to clean it so all I could do was sweep regularly, mop up spills immediately, then once every 3-6 months, I had to get down on my hands and knees with a specialist cleaner.  First time took a full day to do it painstakingly.  As time went on, I became happier to be more slapdash but could still never get it done in less than a couple of hours.  

 

If I were to install oak again, I'd have lacquered floors but still use Danish oil on skirtingboards, doors etc - but I'm OK with different tones of wood in a room.

[Stones]

All very helpful.  We've been out visiting a couple of self builds today, one helpfully had varnished oak, the other oiled.  We certainly prefer the oiled finish, so it will really come down to test patches to see whether its Osmo or Danish.

 

Interesting point about cleaning the floor, and TBH something I hadn't considered.  We had been veering to a brushed and oiled finish, but I can certainly see the benefit of a lacquer finish in this regard.  What product do you use to clean your floor?

 

 

[Barney12]

7 hours ago, ThePoplars said:

A slightly different perspective - depends how houseproud you are :-D

 

In my old house, I decided to have oiled oak on the ground floor as it looked much better than lacquered.  Discovered just how limited I was in how to clean it so all I could do was sweep regularly, mop up spills immediately, then once every 3-6 months, I had to get down on my hands and knees with a specialist cleaner.  First time took a full day to do it painstakingly.  As time went on, I became happier to be more slapdash but could still never get it done in less than a couple of hours.  

 

 

That adsolitely isn't the case with OSMO. My wife is a cleanaholic and our OSMO coated oak floors are mopped to within an inch of their life at least once a week. They are swept daily. They look as good as the day they were laid 2 years  ago.

Yes it is true that you shouldn't allow standing water, but that's true of any wood surface. Having said that our dogs water bowl sits on an OSMO coated floor and there are always splashes arround it. 

[ThePoplars]

I knew you were going to ask what it was @Stones - for the life of me I can't remember, and left the last tin at the old house. 

 

OSMO sounds like something I need to investigate if you can wash them easily like that @Barney12

[Stones]

On 9/23/2016 at 18:56, Barney12 said:

 

That adsolitely isn't the case with OSMO. My wife is a cleanaholic and our OSMO coated oak floors are mopped to within an inch of their life at least once a week. They are swept daily. They look as good as the day they were laid 2 years  ago.

Yes it is true that you shouldn't allow standing water, but that's true of any wood surface. Having said that our dogs water bowl sits on an OSMO coated floor and there are always splashes arround it. 

 

Good to know, it's this type of practical information that is worth its weight in gold.

[AliG]

We use a steam mop to clean the hard floors. Works really well as they don't get as wet as with a mop and it evaporates almost immediately.

 

I wouldn't worry about different shades, if anything I think you would benefit from a little bit of contrast. Its the great thing about real wood. We have oak doors and walnut in the kitchen, it works really well. I do think oiled looks better on doors, but lacquered is maybe more hard wearing on floors. Especially if they are likely to get wet. I wouldn't put wooden floors in a kitchen unless you are very careful and tidy.

 

PS on our walnut kitchen table I often just put whatever comes to hand on it, olive or vegetable oil. Oops!

[Stones]

We like the contrast between oak and dark wood (in fact my wife has just ordered a walnut topped coffee table), but we do want the oak to have the same finish if at all possible.  We have had pre finished lacquered oak doors in previous houses, and while these looked great, I don't want my skirtings / facings to look like that, and I think it would look a little odd having the doors lacquered but the other woodwork oiled.  The floor is an interesting one, as I can see benefits to both finishes, but until i have so samples of skirting to compare against flooring, it's a difficult one to call.

[dogman]

Word of warning if using oil on an external Oak door which is engineered, there is a chance it will lift the laminate as this happened to us.

 

We used Tung oil on solid oak internal doors and it gave a lovely colour,and it has lasted years.

 

 

[Stones]

As the joiners have been making our internal window cills, I've finally got my hands on some off cuts (solid oak and oak veneered MDF) to experiment with.  Unfortunately, nobody up here seems to stock Osmo, so I'm going to have to get some delivered.  Danish and a clear satin varnish tested.

 

Satin varnish on the solid wood looks very like the finished you get on pre-finished oak doors.  It doesn't look quite so good on the MDF veneered cills.

 

Danish oil has a deeper / richer but slightly darker finish on both the solid wood and MDF veneer.

[Stones]

My Osmo oil samples arrived yesterday (a very quick service from here http://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/ ).

 

The two contenders are semi matt and satin finishes, the satin finish being very close in appearance to Danish Oil.  Ordering Osmo in isn't an issue, but Danish Oil is readily available up here.  

 

One question that did occur, has anyone ever used Danish Oil over a previously Osmo treated surface or vice versa and what was the result?