A common questions from our potential clients is what finish they should use. There are a million rabbit holes we could go down with that question. However, for ease of this article we will only be going over the different appearance of oil based and water-based products. The attributes given to the wood are different depending on what product you end up using on your floor. Do you want clarity and natural look of the wood or do you want depth and a more yellow appearance?
Oil Based Products
- yellowing or “orange” in appearance
- more depth – finish appears “thicker”
- candy like coating
- hides grains/tones
- yellowing around rugs is much more apparent due to reaction with UV from the sun
Water-Based Products
- more natural in appearance
- see grains/tones easier
- finish appears thinner
- does not yellow – uv from the sun doesn’t make finish react over time
As you can see the 2 different coatings have a much different look to them. There is more than just appearance differences to these products, but that will be added to this site at a later date.