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Linseed oil mix for wooden floor

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  • 30-03-2008 10:38am
    #1
    mcirl2
    Closed Accounts Posts: 99 ✭✭


    I want to treat my deal timber floorboards with a Linseed oil mix. I have been advised to use turpentine but it's hard to find. Some people said that white spirits will do instead but I'm not so sure?

    It will be a 3:1 mix (Turpentine:Linseed Oil)
    Has anyone done this before?

    Any advice would be great!

    Thanks,

    Mike


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    #2
    CJhaughey
    Registered Users Posts: 14,907 ✭✭✭✭CJhaughey


    The Oil I used was called Jupex 45 and has linseed oil as a carrier but one of the ingredients is Tung oil which is one if not the best wood preserving oils.
    I used pigment in it both brown and white for different applications but the end result was the same.
    One coat gives a matt finish the second gives it a slight glaze look.


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    #3
    Wertz
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11,909 ✭✭✭✭Wertz


    Spirits will do (I thin danish oil with spirits for first coats and it hasn't backfired yet), but your 3:1 ratio is a bit high....2:1 is about as high as it should be and that's only for the initial coat...decreasing the ratio further for successive coats.
    Turpentine is recommended because it will give more working time than white spirit (doesn't evaporate as fast), but it's expensive and can be tough to source.
    If you're treating pine, remember that it's a softwood...it will need more coats than hardwood to protect it, and oils tend to take a while longer to cure than they would on a hardwood surface.


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    #4
    ciss
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1 ✭ciss


    Were you able to proceed with your project?

    I was surprised at the ratio you mentioned. A 'standard' old mix is 50-50 boiled linseed oil and turpentine. If you check out <oldhousejournal.com> article on floor finishing ("A Clearer View of Floor Finishing'), you'll find in the 'how we proceeded' box, a ratio of 4:l, but it is 4 parts boiled linseed oil to 1 part turpentine. You definitely do not want to be using more turpentine than linseed oil: none of the recipes ever call for more turps than oil. Some of the instructions I have seen mention heating the oil, but doing so is something one has to be really careful about as the oil & turps are combustible. (Rags should be put in a can or bucket of water after use and then dried outdoors if possible.)

    Were you able to find these products, and find at reasonable cost? Real turpentine is more expensive than fake turpentine, and a good bit more than mineral spirits (white spirits), in the US, but it is far cheaper than white spirits in Ireland--I frankly don't understand the high cost of this sort of thing in Ireland, or the difficulty of finding basic, traditional materials.

    If you go to <oldhousejournal.com> and choose the old format option, not the new format, of the talk forums, you can search for information on a finishing questions, with many of the answers provided by people who really know what they are talking about. You could also google 'linseed oil, turpentine finish'.


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