Shellac Pine Flooring

Unlike synthetic urethanes shellac is a natural resin that is derived from the lac beetle and diluted with.

Shellac pine flooring. The resin is scraped from trees and then diluted or processed in denatured alcohol when used for flooring purposes. It comes from the resin secreted by a lac bug found in india and thailand. Shellac is easy to apply and with just a little practice you can get professional looking results quickly and easily. Shellac can appear glossier than varnish but requires several coats to achieve that high shine finish.

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. Shellac finishes were common on wood floors until urethanes became more widely accepted. Shellac also blocks the resin from pine knots and very oily exotic woods which can slow the drying of lacquer and varnish significantly. Varnish is typically heavier than shellac and will usually require only one maybe two coats to finish.

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. However shellac is about as natural as it gets for a wood flooring finish. The earliest wood floors usually softwoods such as pine were often never finished. Shellac prepares the dyed surface for glazing step 4.

As manufacturing and railroads made paints and coatings more available after 1860 varnish shellac and other clear hard finishes became popular for woodwork. Without shellac pine s pitch can bleed into oil based finishes leaving fissures or shiny spots that remain tacky especially around knots. This knowledge is equal parts gross and fascinating to me. Varnish and shellac are two of the most commonly used pine wood finishes on the market today.

Some shellac manufacturers recommend using it as a protective coat on non wood items. It also comes in solid form or in flakes that must be dissolved and it has a shorter shelf life than other finishes. In the north tight grained old growth eastern white pine is still going strong in many homes. 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.

Apply it with a natural bristle brush or with a cotton rag. But notice that the first three situations are all refinishing problems not new wood problems and the last is rare for professional finishers.