Question: what brands of poly have people used? And how good were they?
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Monday, May 25, 2009
Shellacking is done
Well I finished shellacking the floors and they came out very nice. Even though the new wood and old wood don't match, I'm not going to cry over it. Now I have to wait to put down the poly, which I will probably do next weekend when I can get some from my local paint store.
Question: what brands of poly have people used? And how good were they?
Before:
After:
Question: what brands of poly have people used? And how good were they?
Before:
After:
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5 comments on "Shellacking is done"
The shellac looks very nice. I suspect that over time the new wood will patina to be closer to the old, although as an outside I can't see a whole lot of difference in the photos :-)
Yea, you would have to actually be here to see the difference, but there is a difference. but I can live with it.
We also shellacked our floors-- they were heart pine and we did a 2# amber. You also have to put down a layer of dewaxed shellac (Zinsser SealCoat is an ultra blonde dewaxed) before the poly will adhere.
We used Varathane water-based satin to make it look a bit more like a waxed floor; I don't think it's advised to use an oil-based poly because the shellac is a surface treatment and oil is penetrative. But let me tell you about one problem we've seen with it. We have animals and their little nails scratch the top coat. Apparently some moisture got under the poly via one of these scratches and water turns shellac white. So I would recommend at LEAST 3 coats of poly (we were only told we only needed to do 2 by Goodwin Heart Pine); we put an extra coat of shellac and an extra coat of poly on the kitchen floor, and it is holding up quite well. I'm going to try repairing the individual boards at some point. There's a few more details on our blog.
And I'm so, so glad to see someone else continue to choose shellac for the floors-- despite our little problems, I have NO regrets-- it's more authentic looking and does beautiful things for the natural properties of each type of wood that other finishes just don't do, making it look instantly old-fashioned.
I actually used dewaxed amber shellac from shellacshack.net. I will remember to put a few more coats of poly on top when I get it. I sure hope it can hold up to dogs, because I have 6 of them. But this is the baby room , so I don't think many dogs will ever be in there. Hopefully it turns out nice.
Thanks for your advise
Silly me, I realized that I didn't read all your posts on the shellac before commenting-- I really wanted to order garnet shellac flakes, but decided to just go with the standard store-bought stuff instead.
Your floors look good!
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