Shellac Pine Flooring

It comes from the resin secreted by a lac bug found in india and thailand.

Shellac pine flooring.

However shellac is about as natural as it gets for a wood flooring finish. Varnish is typically heavier than shellac and will usually require only one maybe two coats to finish. Some shellac manufacturers recommend using it as a protective coat on non wood items. Shellac also blocks the resin from pine knots and very oily exotic woods which can slow the drying of lacquer and varnish significantly.

Unlike synthetic urethanes shellac is a natural resin that is derived from the lac beetle and diluted with. Though not often used one of the best finishes for pine is shellac which is attractive nontoxic once dry and resists the resins in pine. Shellac is a beautiful finish over every kind of wood imaginable including oak pine cherry mahogany birch chestnut maple as well as exotic and tropical woods such as ipe cocobolo australian cypress and many others. It also keeps pitch sealed in the wood.

Shellac is a versatile non toxic wood finish that enhances the natural grain while adding smoothness without the plastic like qualities of polyurethane or lacquer. The resin is scraped from trees and then diluted or processed in denatured alcohol when used for flooring purposes. Without shellac pine s pitch can bleed into oil based finishes leaving fissures or shiny spots that remain tacky especially around knots. Shellac can appear glossier than varnish but requires several coats to achieve that high shine finish.

Shellac finishes were common on wood floors until urethanes became more widely accepted. Varnish and shellac are two of the most commonly used pine wood finishes on the market today. You can brush on wipe on with a rag or spray on. As manufacturing and railroads made paints and coatings more available after 1860 varnish shellac and other clear hard finishes became popular for woodwork.

In the north tight grained old growth eastern white pine is still going strong in many homes. Shellac is easy to apply and with just a little practice you can get professional looking results quickly and easily. But notice that the first three situations are all refinishing problems not new wood problems and the last is rare for professional finishers. Apply it with a natural bristle brush or with a cotton rag.

This knowledge is equal parts gross and fascinating to me. The earliest wood floors usually softwoods such as pine were often never finished.