The floors are slightly scratched from lots of traffic.
Answer
Dear Joan,
When you describe your floors as factory-treated, I am led to believe that they are a pre-finished engineered floor product (three to ten layers [plies] of real wood glued in a cross-ply construction with the top layer being a decorative veneer).
Further, when you ask the question “Can I use Osmo Polyx Oil on them?” I am assuming you mean can you refinish the floor, in its entirety, with the product — not just do spot treatments.
Based on these two assumptions, refinishing a pre-finished hardwood floor has two potential ramifications:
- Although the overall board thickness may be 1/4” to 3/4”, the decorative veneer has a dimensional thickness of 1/16”-3/8”, depending on quality – thicker being higher quality. Therefore, significant care must be taken when sanding off the existing finish so as not to expose the non-decorative plies.
- The edges of the individual boards are beveled (not so with solid pre-finished floors) which requires time and patience to sand off the existing finish.
Osmo Polyx Oil is a wonderful nontoxic finish product in many ways, including durability, low-VOC, ease in application and the ability to perform spot repairs. However, you cannot spot-repair your existing finished floor with the Polyx Oil.
Additional items of note about wood floor refinishing with this product:
- It is very important to thoroughly vacuum the floor after sanding to ensure dust particles will not get trapped in the Osmo Polyx Oil finish, which can give the finish a dull appearance.
- OSMO NA, the importer of the product, recommends that Brazilian Cherry (also known as Jatoba) be “degreased” after sanding and before refinishing with Osmo Thinner.
- Osmo Polyx Oil only comes in one finish — satin. A satin finish has many advantages over a shiny finish — it will not highlight scratches or traffic marks nor show dust particles and hair as much as a shiny finish will.
- Properly maintained, a refinished floor should not be slippery.
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