Case Study Saving a Jarrah Floor
A couple came into the showroom with a floor that had been sanded several times over the years. They live in a character part of the city of Perth and had beautiful Jarrah flooring. Because the floors had been sanded many times they were wondering what they could do to restore the flooring. Why is this question important? You cannot continually re-sand timber floors because eventually you begin to get cracking in the edges of the boards and you interfere with their ability to perform as a structural floor.
In this case we are looking floor boards being the principal floor rather than overlay timber that has been stuck down the concrete. However the same principle holds true with any tongue and groove flooring. This also holds true with floors that have been installed using a locking system. You cannot continually re-sand the timber. And the last thing you want to do is to reach a point where you need to replace the floor because this can be an expensive exercise.
The couple had been told that the floor had one good sand left in it. So there was sufficient timber above the timber profile to sand but this would be the last time. They recognized the need to get the decision right because they knew that if they did not get it right this would result in the need to replace the floor in the not-too-distant future.
This question does arise because floors do not have the infinite ability to be re-sanded back to timber.
This is not an unexpected problem. It does occur around Perth quite regularly as we have a rich environment in timber flooring. There are beautiful floors made of classic timbers and the last thing you want to do is to reach a point where the floor needs to be removed or a floor laid on top. So what was the solution?
In this case the couple seriously wanted to keep their timber floor. They had beautiful jarrah and the house was built in the 1930s which was the time period preceding the kiln drying revolution and the timber had that bright classic red colour that you associate with the better quality flooring. They had heard about hard wax oil is but were also aware that some of them don’t perform so they were keen to check out the Osmo range. Osmo has saved a lot of floors over the years because of its higher solid content in oils and waxes which work with the timber rather than acting as a sacrificial coat on top.
This couple were looking for the benefits of a full bodied hard-wax oil and had heard that it is made by OSMO.
They were also keen to retain the colour of the jarrah. In the renovation that they had been doing they had added a number of rooms and some larger windows and they were well aware of the fact that ultraviolet light would affect the timber colour. They were most impressed when they visited the showroom here in Osborne Park and saw that we have Jarrah in the entry that has been exposed to light for some years now and has not faded to any appreciable degree. Our floor is coated in Osmo, so they were able to see for themselves just how well it protects the surface. In the end they decided to use a Osmo Polyx satin finish on their timber floor knowing that they will not have to re-sand in the future but that they can maintain it to a large extent themselves and get a floor sander in to do deep cleaning and a maintenance coat without needing to actually sand the surface down the track.
They saved themselves $12,000 and got to keep their character floor.
This was definitely a win for the couple as the cost of replacing the floor would have been over $16,000 whereas a sand and a change to the Osmo coating with its obvious benefits down the track amounted to just over $4000. This was clearly the solution that met all of their requirements because they really did want to keep the existing Jarrah and the character that it brought to the home rather than changing over to some plank on plywood system with new Jarrah that looks very different to the Jarrah from the 1930s.
Yet Again OSMO POLYX Full Bodied Oils Saved the Day
Situations like this do arise regularly and at VCS we have spent a lot of time working in the industry and finding solutions like this. Osmo with their full-bodied hard wax oils which have substantially more oil and wax than the alternatives, offer real benefits to homeowners in terms of added durability and ease of maintenance. They are chosen for commercial and domestic locations and maintenance can mainly be done in house unless there is some deep cleaning required and a maintenance coat is needed. But again, a maintenance coat following a deep clean is not the same as having to sand the floor, so valuable timber is retained. You get to keep your timber floor because you had the foresight to use the OSMO system on your floor.
Coatings Used
2 Coats OSMO 3032 Satin Polyx Oil