First and foremost, a wood floor with an oiled finish will give the ultimate natural appearance which will age more gracefully. The wood shading will be a little richer and the grain will be more pronounced as the finish is soaking into the wood as opposed to just laying on the surface. An easy way to get an idea of the finished tone is to quickly pour water over a sample piece of the wood. While the wood is wet, the colour should be the same tone as it will be after the oil finish is applied.
When using wood flooring over under-floor heating, a constant drying out of the wood can occur during the heating season without the correct climate control. With a lacquer finished floor, the first signs that the wood is being damaged is linear cracks opening up down the grain. This is due to all the moisture being dried out of the wood. Occasionally this can make the floor beyond repair.
With the same scenario, but with an oiled finish floor, the surface will start to become pale and patchy as the moisture is the moisture is drying out of the floor i.e. the moisture content is leaving the floor. It is then a fairly easy job to apply a thin coating of oil care to the wood which will help to restore the moisture that has been dried out of the floor.
Hard-wax Oil is a fluid penetrating finish that permeates through the hardwood wear layer. This means that the protection becomes inherent into the floor over time thereby becoming more and more resilient. By contrast, a polyurethane lacquer finish although initially maintenance free, ultimately requires. professional time consuming and costly re-finishing.
Parquet floor designs, even a simple herringbone feature wood grains of multiple directions. As sanding a floor should always be in the direction of the grain, this makes re-sanding a parquet floor to a good standard almost impossible.
By contrast, a finished hard-wax oiled floor is as resilient to wear, staining and moisture as most lacquer finishes. With a little regular maintenance, an oiled finish floor will never need to be sanded. There is also the extra advantage of being able to repair localised damage such as scratches and abrasion wear quickly and easily.
Maintenance of a hard wax oil finished floor is simple and straightforward. Always use a natural soap for wet cleaning the flooring. The mop should be well wrung out before using on the floor. Rinse the mop in diluted soap between mopping. Use paper towels to quickly absorb any excess moisture.
Within 2-3 days of installation, the floor should be thoroughly cleaned and a coat of maintenance/ oil care applied to the floor. This will top up the finish and will absorb into the joints and bevels to help protect the wood from moisture ingress. This process should be repeated every 9-12 months or so depending on use. This will keep the floor stain free and resilient to scuffs and marking.