Wax finish for wood flooring

Wax finish is still lot found until today. Although there are variety of modern finishing materials available, but the wax finish still has fans. Instead of be used for furniture, the wax is also many used for wood flooring. Wax for flooring is actually the same as for wood furniture; they work with the same principles and have particularly similar properties. according to the ingredient there are two types that are: carnouba wax and bee wax. Carnouba wax is produced from the  carnouba palm a palm tree from Brazil. Meanwhile, the bee wax is made from the honeycomb. At this time when there are some brand and wax producer are available, there are a lot of mixing and modifications have been made ​​to make the wax to be more flexible to meet the needs in the wood finishing industry.

 Flooring wax finish

Wax however, will not form a protective film layer as: coating, varnish or shellac. The wax will saturate from inside the wood and give a thin protecting film on the surface. The wax must fill the pores and the grain completely to leave a protective harden layer behind the surface. Since the wood floor is saturated, then there no wax on the surface. There is no film layer  that give protection from the physical abuse. There is no resistance to the staining liquids such as: coffee, wine, cola, etc. As soon as the wood hardened, it can bear quite a bit of water, but before coming to this the floor must be saturated and it can take some time. The saturated time could be very long time, it may take years, but now the saturation can be fasten by applying oil before the wax application.

The waxed wood floor is slippery surface make it has better resistant to the scratches, while mostly the scratches are almost invisible since the natural wood color appearance. The wax does not seal the wood as varnish, it still keep the wood breathing freely. The wax is also elastic; the wood floor can still undergo its normal setting without any crack appearing.

The wax can be repaired and renewed on the spot or entirely. A new layer of wax can be applied when there some spot or damage at the certain area. The wax for the entire surface is most often used to renew the finish. It can be done once every year to take care the flooring.

The wax application

The wax finish is used to make a transparent finish. The wax finish is only proper to the wood with good quality. The teak wood, merbau, walnut, hickory and other wood which have nice grain and color and have enough strength and hardness are the proper wood. The wax finish will enhance the natural beauty of the wood, but cannot make new color to the finish.

The proper wood preparation is needed. The wood has to be well sanded and properly dry. The wood surface has to be plain, smooth, free from oil, grease, wax or other chemical. We may need to select the wood to make sure wood flooring product are well blended and matching each other.  Too fine sandpaper sanding should be avoided. The  final sanding with #120 grade is recommended to keep the pores and grain open to let the impregnation oil can well penetrate into the pores and grains.

The oil is applied before the wax to saturate the wood pores and grain. The oil application manner varies from brand to brand. The oil can be applied by roll, brush or even with metal spatula. Apply the oil to the entire wood surface. After about 15–30 minutes, clean the oil excess with white pad. The excess of the oil will create irregular surface visually and affect the hardening by the wax.

Depending on the wood type, temperature, air humidity, the dying time of the oil is about 12 hours to 24 hours. Afterwards the wax can be applied. Wax applied in thin layer, evenly to the overall surface. The wood will only absorb the wax as he can do, too much wax will leave  thick and sticky layer of wax on the surface.

The wax that has been applied has to be polished out.  The wax applied on the wood surfaces will give a dull appearance. To make a shiny surface and clean then we have to polish the wax. We can polish by hand but it will take lot of energy and time. We can use a buffing machine (polishing machine) to polish the wax with more consistent result. 

The maintenance to the wax floor finish

A polished wood floor demands certain vigilance. It is advisable to regularly use a “Swiffer” to remove the dust. The parquet need to be mopped with a well-run cloth. The damaged or scratched part may not contact with water. Everywhere there is damage must immediately be treated with additional floor wax. Depending on the intensity is walked upon the floor, it must be regularly retreated. For heavily threaded floor the treatment for the flooring may be done every month.

A polished wood floor has the advantage that tropical wear and tear can be touched up tropically. The frequency with which the floor needs a touch becomes less as the years go by. The better the wood  floor saturated, the smaller for additional wax treatment.