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Flooring Design Dilemma

Using Bona NaturalSeal on top-nailed red oak

Rachel Westfall

3 years ago

last modified: 3 years ago

We are in the middle of refinishing our original 2 1/4" top-nailed red oak floors. I was really hoping to use either Bona NordicSeal or Bona Natural Seal to eliminate as much of the pink as possible and give them a more natural/white oak look. My refinisher is advising against using a water based product since the floors are top-nailed. They have been filled, but he is still saying the nails will appear/rust. Has anyone used these products on top-nailed floors?

Featured Answer

melle_sacto is hot and dry in CA Zone 9/

3 years ago

We had our 2 1/2" top-nailed red oak floors refinished with some kind of water-based Bona Natural seal...no stain...almost 2 years ago. The nails are visible in the existing floor, which were sanded enough to remove the stain; nails are not as visible on the matching floor we had them install in the rooms that had previously been carpet. I thought the nail visibility had more to do with how much floor was sanded down to remove the pre-existing stain. Nothing is rusty.

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Comments (8)

PRO
G & S Floor Service
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
The sanding dust from the nails will appear rusty after the first coat or if, it comes in contact with any water. A tip to avoid the rust is to walk around with a heavy duty magnet to pickup metal dust after the wood dust have been picked up with a vacuum. Not as important for colored stains. Only sealers and if, you water pop for light stains such as white are affected..
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melle_sacto is hot and dry in CA Zone 9/
3 years ago
G&S great to learn!
Rachel Westfall
Original Author
3 years ago
G&S that's good to know, thank you!

Melle_sacto would you mind taking a picture of your floors so I can see what the nails look like?
melle_sacto is hot and dry in CA Zone 9/
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
Original flooring:
melle_sacto is hot and dry in CA Zone 9/
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago

New flooring:
melle_sacto is hot and dry in CA Zone 9/
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
Now that I'm looking at these I wonder if our old floor nails ARE rusty?! It hasn't bothered me because I just thought it was from them being over 50 years old, possibly refinished a few times. And they were originally stained so I've thought maybe the refinisher wasn't able to remove every speck of stain around the nails.
PRO
G & S Floor Service
3 years ago
Your old floor nails needs to be set and filled . It will match. It was most likely not n your agreement .
Rachel Westfall thanked G & S Floor Service

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