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Remodeling Flooring Design Dilemma

White Oak Hardwood- Nordic seal fading from sun?

3 years ago

Hi everyone, I have rift only white oak floors in my home that are either going to be coated with Bona Nordic seal or Bona natural. I am debating between the two. My house is a very contemporary home with a LOT of windows in every room and big slider doors everywhere.. My worry is that the nordic seal/white wash will fade.. and if I go with natural there will be less fading. Which one should I go with for less fading? How do I protect my floors from fading from sun too?

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Comments (4)

PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
3 years ago
IMO not only will the floor fade but so will everything else in the sapce . You need to get solarr shades on those windows now. They protect from heat and the damaging UV rays let you keep the view and provide daytime privacy. I find the darker the color of the shades the better the view and I use 10% All of my clients love them and I use them in my home too. I mix them with drapes if night time privacy is an issue or sometimes roman shades work
Mel S
Original Author
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
@Patricia Colwell Consulting thank you I don’t want to ruin the look in my house with the shades since there’s so many windows in just one room. Privacy isn’t an issue we live secluded up a private driveway, we do not have an issue with neighbors. is there anything else you suggest? Maybe tinting windows?
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Pallman is fine. There are two things I would change: Humidity - it is at the lower end of acceptable. Even though 35% is allowed, it is still going to show some problems with splitting and checking. Please get it up to 45% - 50%. That will really, really, really help the wood look health and beautiful. This should be done SLOWLY. About 5% increase every 7 days or so. Ditch the Minwax. It is low-end DIY stuff. If Pallmant makes stains, then get them to work with Pallman stains. Get them to redo the colour patches for you to decide on your colour...again going with a coat of finish over the stain patch so that you can see the depth of colour. That's it. They are stepping up and fixing a finish that was really rough. They buffed three times (I'm assuming the buffing was between every coat) and yet they still came up with a rough finish. So they are doing it over. Very nice. You have an stand-up group of guys there. If they won't switch out the Minwax - it probably isn't a huge deal. Many refinishers like to work with Minwax because the stains have remained the same for DECADES. I'm not a fan, but oil based stains work with oil based finishes all the time. The HUMIDITY is going to be your challenge as a homeowner. If you can bump it up to 45%, you will have a much happier floor. Much, much happier floor.
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I really appreciate these updates! It looks like the Bona products have really held up as far as color is concerned. We have LVP throughout and just purchased white oak stair treads. I tried and tried to match with stain but the yellow kept bleeding through. I’m now considering the Bona finish on my treads and keeping the natural oak look. Unfortunately the Bona is only sold in large sizes and I will probably use less than half of it. Your treads look really good! You said they were stained with minwax weathered oak. Do you happen to know if there was a sealer applied first or what the top coat was if any? I think that’s where I may be going wrong. Any advice you can offer is greatly appreciated! Thanks again for taking the time!
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I assume you're using standard two part wood bleach with hydrogen peroxide and sodium hydroxide. Bleach can have stop and lap marks so we always do two coats to ensure the effect is even. If you don't want it quite as white, the bleach can be diluted, but still apply two coats. We've never used NordicSeal right over bleach but I can't imagine why it wouldn't work. We generally use Bona White over bleach. Regardless of the color you decide on, you should use a Bona sealer. Bona recommends using a sealer before coats of urethane.
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How are you liking the elandura so far? I’m trying to see if anyone has had the same problem with the floor that I am currently having. I had it installed throughout my entire house a little over a year ago. The salesman really sold me on the pvc free aspect. There were no reviews that I could find as I believe it was a new product at the time. However, if I could go back in time, I would have never installed these floors. The product (well what I received) is defective. I am waiting on response from customer service. Let me know if you have had any issues.
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SJ McCarthy
3 years ago
To stop fading you must stop the UV from entering. BTW, NordicSeal creates a frosted look on white oak. Now imagine that frosting looking MORE like frosting? Rarely have I ever heard of someone complain about their whitish floors getting WHITER!

Right. Your floor will simply become more contemporary...not less. If you want to see what fading does, get the pro who does your flooring samples to apply a SECOND coat of NordicSeal on a sample patch (because you are going to ask for sample patches...because that's the smart way to do it right?).

You will notice the slightly whiter effect in the sample. It will take YEARS for your floor to reach that level of frost...but it will eventually happen.

Of course this is all assuming your windows are more than 15 years old. If you absolutely MUST HAVE the perfect colour of wood for the perfect amount of 25+ years, then you will need to update the UV rating on your windows.

The problem with UV foils is they can cause damage to the older windows. The heat builds up between the panes and the windows break/fracture/explode. That is rare...but it has happened in the past and will continue to happen.

Wood is a 'living' surface. It changes as it ages. That's its beauty. If you want the frosted look then go with 1 coat NordicSeal and let nature do the rest.

If this is terrifying for you, then you will probably need to work with a faux wood look product.
User
3 years ago
Oak doesn’t fade so much as it ambers from light exposure. Your white floors will get the classic warm oak look much faster with a lot of UV exposure. Nothing stops wood from behaving like wood.

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