Go back 100 years and the flooring of choice in homes was wood plank, before the rise of tile and carpet, and certainly long before the 21st century’s current popularity of real wooden flooring. Back then if you wanted to enhance and protect your floors, beeswax was the product you used. However after the end of World War II that all changed — modern synthetic products came onto the world market, with tough, high shine, glossy finishes, and wax became a rarely used product. Yet in these eco friendly and cost conscious times, wax finishes are making a strong come back. We asked Malcolm Cooney of the Ultimate Floor Sanding Company to shed light for us onto this trend.
“Well you see the modern wax floor finish product has several benefits that synthetic products do not give” answered Cooney. “Probably the first benefit is the look of a wax finished floor, many people now prefer the more natural warm, matt, finish that comes with wax. It makes the wood obviously real, as opposed to artificial laminate flooring and there is no plastic high gloss shine.
“Secondly, wax is different from synthetic floor finishes as it is repairable. You can touch up a damaged area and it will blend into the overall floor, with the synthetic finishes you have to re sand and recoat the entire floor to get it to blend in. So it can be maintained for many years saving you money and major repair work. Third, it is a 100 per cent natural product with no dangerous chemicals or additives so it is good for the environment and your family — and has been so since before the term environmentally conscious was even thought of!”
“Lastly the current wax finishes are much harder wearing and durable than the version our grandparents used, which was basically bees wax, the current finishes are produced by blending wax from various natural sources including carnauba, sunflower, candelilla plants, and of course bees!”
So certainly in terms of beautiful, hardwearing, economic and environmentally safe real wooden floors — the old ways are still the best!
Malcolm Cooney can be contacted on 1890 252383 or by visiting www.UltimateFloorSanding.com
