Houseworks: lightening floorboards

White-washed and grey-toned wooden floors are one of the most dominant trends in interiors right now. If the wooden floor in your home is more on the yellow/orange spectrum, fret not, as new varnish products are making it possible to give most floorboards a light Scandi-style finish.

"Traditionally professional floor-sanders would use a two-pack, acid-based varnish to seal most floors. It gives wooden boards a really durable finish, but even though it's clear, it stains the wood slightly yellow at first, which turns a much deeper shade over the years. And if you used it over a light stain, the end result was just awful," says Joe Hyland, of Hyland Flooring.

Fortunately, water-based hardwood floor finishes, predominately imported from Sweden, are now widely available here and give just as durable a finish as clear hard varnish, but without any of the yellow tinge and also without any of the nasty smell.

If you have oak or pine boards, they can be sanded back to the grain and sealed with the water-based finish, which gives a blond wood tone to the floor.

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“A really popular option with most of our residential clients is to stain the sanded floorboards with light grey or off-white tint and then we seal them with the water-based finish. The transformation is incredible and really lightens up most space and gives an interior a modern edge. Oak and pine boards work best for this as their grain is great for taking stains, “ says Hyland.

Popular option

The other popular option is to use an oxidising compound on the sanded floorboards, which turns them dark at first and then a white oil is brushed over them before sealing. The combination of oxidisation and oil gives more depth to the finish and the end result is very sophisticated but typically add an extra €2-3 per sq m to the job.

Beach or maple floorboards don't take the lighter tints or oils well as the grain is too tight, according to Hyland. However, it will work on semi-solid floors, which were the cornerstone of most 1990s decor schemes. "Generally, these floors have at least a 4mm layer of wood on top of the click and stick element on the underside, and this is enough to sand back, stain and seal. However, you can really get away with doing this only once in their lifetime. So, if they have been stripped back to the grain already it may not be realistic," says Hyland. The going rate for this two-day job in a 40sq m house is €1,100-€1,500. hylandflooring.ie