Special Colouring wooden floors: a summary of the various techniques

EACH WOOD SORT HAS ITS OWN COLOUR, BUT …

OIL IS THE ONLY SOLUTION WHICH BOTH COLOURS AND PROTECTS

Photo – Blanchon

It is phenomenal to note how preferences in taste and styles develop over the years. It is even more phenomenal to see how that development is almost always shaped by a common shift. Today, we all like colour and then, tomorrow, that’s no longer the case. A few years ago, the world took on a greater shade of ‘yellow’ than ever before. It was the top trend; yellow in various shades gave our homes a certain sphere indoors, but also outdoors as well. Today, shades of white, grey, and black are taking over, but colour has never gone away!

Does colouring really make sense? Wood is a natural material ‘created’ by trees on a base of water, CO², and sunlight. It is a compact and fairly hard substance which is formed by the vessels through which the sap flows. Wood usually consists of 50% carbon, 42% oxygen, 6% hydrogen, 1% nitrogen, and 1% of other elements. If we consider the various types of wood, we see a huge variety not only of textures, but also of colours.

Colourful ‘tropics’ The colours of wood range from black to white and anything in between. Each type of wood has its own colour and that is affected by the age of the wood and the characteristics of the location where the tree has grown. The latter says a lot about the huge variations in colour of tropical wood sorts. Indeed, don’t tropical forests conceal a huge variety of locations which are determined by the climate conditions? One thing is certain: We don’t need to colour tropical wood because the choice is infinite. Just think of the for many unaffordable ‘black’ of wenge, an African wood sort which charms us with its high design content. Or the red shades of wood sorts such as afzelia or merbau. Or the scintillating brown-red of panga-panga and the startling brown colour shades in jatoba.

Oak is a different story Oak plays a special part in this story. Oak is still the most coveted and best-selling type of wood for parquet. Throughout history, oak has always been the most readily accessible type of wood in our regions and it has also offered the advantage of being extremely stable and suitable for building applications. We can be brief in this debate: Oak has a serene and gorgeous grain texture, but is limited in terms of colour. Some people think that the natural shade of oak is the ‘pinnacle’, whilst others see the limited choice of colour between ‘light or dark’ as a serious drawback. However, the colour options below lend themselves ideally to colouring oak and certain light softwood sorts.

Let’s add some colour! We turn immediately to the star players in the world of parquet colour, namely stains and colour oil. Or perhaps a brief word about those other methods?

Thermal treatments and smoking/treating with lye Smoking wooden planks highlights the specific grain of the wood. The process gives the plank a somewhat darker shade. Oak is still a type of wood which is ‘conducive’ to smoking. The effect is even stronger with double-smoked oak floors. Traditionally, ammonia was used to smoke wood. Nowadays, there are various products as an alternative to ammonia. Thermal treatments also colour the wood darker. They give the wood a darker colour which approximates to the effect of a smoked floor. The big advantage is that floorboards treated in this way are also immediately coloured across the entire surface, and this means that they can still be sandpapered again many times without losing their colour.

Precolouring with stains Staining parquet can give the wood any desired colour from black and blue-grey to white, anything is possible. The stain penetrates deep into the wood, gives a nice contrast, and thereby highlights the specific wood structure. In the past, most stains were available only in wood colours. And so, for instance, it was possible to give a cheap pine floor the look of oak by means of a darker oak colour. Today, the colours appear in a range of trendy colours. Any sort of wood can be given a completely different look by applying certain colours.

Colour oil protects too! We start here with the big advantage of colour oil as opposed to the various precolouring techniques. As people often say, it is necessary to supplement some wood colouring methods with a protective treatment. With a coloured oil we apply protection and colour in one finish product. Coloured oils consist of a wide range of modern and timeless colours. They are usually prepared by adding pigments to the natural oil. And so, this transparent colouring for wooden floors can be supplied in various colours which can even be combined with each other.

What’s on the market?

Blanchon Decorative oil touch and performances of a glazer with Blanchon

DevoNatural®

For pre-colouring parquet and wooden floors, Devomat offers clients two lines of products: DevoNatural® Easy Colour (a vegetable colour stain) and DevoNatural® Reactive (a reactive distress product with smoked effect for ‘oak’ parquet and wooden floors). In addition, DevoNatural® Floor Paint is a covering universal waterdilutable adhesion primer based on vegetables. It can be applied to various substrates such as wood, stone, concrete, synthetics, etc. DevoNatural® Floor Paint serves as a covering primer and can be finished further with any DevoNatural® varnish. Since the launch of DevoNatural® Easy Colour, Devomat has noticed that, despite the convenience of the product, more floors are once again being coloured. There is a growing demand for unique colour combinations e.g. the floor is distressed with DevoNatural Reactive and then finished with a coloured DevoNatural® High Solid Oil. For DevoNatural® Easy Colour Devomat also offers the option of creating customised colours. Both product lines can be applied on site, in the workshop, or in the factory. DevoNatural® Easy Colour gives a deeper colour to the entire floor, whilst a colour oil will highlight mainly the grain and only to a lesser extent the surface. DevoNatural® Reactive is a reactive product and cannot be compared to a colour oil or another colouring product. The distressing effect depends on the tannic acid content and thereby

The DevoNatural range of professional parquet floor products meets the highest standards when it comes to treating parquet floors.

It is all about quality without compromise, developing products using the best raw materials and cutting-edge technologies.

DevoNatural is available in original colours and contemporary finishes, which are fully in harmony with the latest trends in interior design.

Blanchon presents a real innovation thanks to its Solid’ Oil TM + Intensive® concept, which makes it possible to combine oil with a glazer. The hard and single-coat Solid’ Oil TM from Blanchon offers a wide range of shades which can all be mixed with each other to create an infinite number of shades for all decorative requirements. The vitrification of the oil by means of Intensive®, the polyurethane glazer for parquet in a watery phase with high resistance, makes it possible to offer all decorative options, thanks to its six finishes: brilliant, satin, matt, ultra-matt, the effect of invisibility, or the natural effect to highlight bright colours. This revolutionary process makes it possible to obtain decorated and vitrified parquet in three coats and offers an unrivalled result! It is an innovative concept which combines the depth of the oil colour with the resistance of vitrified parquet and its low maintenance.

You want to play on your parquet floor ?

PROFESSIONAL PARQUET PRODUCTS

Makes it possible !

Discover the DevoNatural product range :

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differs from plank to plank. This gives a unique look to each parquet floor. Both products can be finished with any DevoNatural® finish product (lacquers, oils, or beeswax).

Chimiver

LIOS BIOIL Colorato is a colored natural oil treatment for wooden floors with easy application, very durable and soft effect on the surface. LIOS BIOIL Colorato is available in 20 different colors, miscible together to make a wide range of new colors. After it is possible to apply ECOSTAR 2K: two-component water-based polyurethane lacquer for wooden floors, characterized by high solid content, easy to apply, high pore wettability even on brushed woods giving a warm and pleasant shade to the floor treated.

Osmo

Osmo offers different products for applying a coloured base coat to wooden flooring: Oil Stain, Polyx®-Oil Tints, Polyx®-Oil Effect as well as Wood Wax Finish. With Oil Stain, Polyx®-Oil Tints and Wood Wax Finish, different colour intensities can be achieved from transparent to intensive and even opaque; depending on the product and the application, different results are created. Shimmering gloss effects are made with Polyx®-Oil Effect Gold/Silver. Wooden floors treated with Polyx®-Oil Effect Natural look if they are almost completely untreated. The final coat should always be carried out with a clear Polyx®-Oil. The products can also be used by professional craftsmen as well as by end consumers.

Pallmann

With the Pallmann Color Collection Pallmann provides a wide range of coloured oil primers. A spectrum of 24 colours encourages every opportunity for creativity and individual interior design. Each option in the Pallmann Color Collection consists of 3 components: The clear 2K oil primer Pall-X 333 A / B is given a color C concentrate as a third and final component: this combination is suitable for the priming and simultaneous colouring of many commercial European wood types, especially oak, ash, pine on site. The surfaces created with the Pallmann Color Collection can then be protected with the 2 component water-based wood floor coatings Pall-X 98 Gold, Pall-X Zero, Pall-X Pure as well as with the 2-component wood floor oil Magic Oil 2K Original. This clear protective finish not only contributes in the creative process, but is of course vital for the long life and great looks of the floor.

Plastor

Plastor serves construction professionals and offers a full range to meet all the needs of traders. They recommend Plastor COLOUR FLOORS PARQUET TINT for colouring all parquet floors in endless options and personalising them. With this product you can play with several shades (wood, natural, and mineral) and give old parquet floors a new lease of life. It is easy to apply, has no overlapping, and has modern, intense, or subtle shades, grey or coloured. This product makes it easier to renovate parquet floors. They offer other high-quality shaded finishes, such as DECOPROTECT Hard Wax Oil or COLOUR FLOOR COVERING PARQUET VARNISH. For durable floor protection they recommend finishing COLOUR FLOORS PARQUET SHADES with a PLASTOR parquet varnish. The coloured floors can also be waxed or oiled with a parquet oil or bees wax from Plastor. However, a parquet varnish is the most suitable finish for protection against wear and all forms of daily use.

STAUF

STAUF sets new accents AKZENT is the name of STAUF’s new line of wood treatment products. The range includes not only primers, oils and varnishes, but also offers a joint putty as well as products for cleaning and caring for wood surfaces. The new »AKZENT OIL IN ONE COLOR« now boasts a coloured impregnating oil based on natural oils. This pigmented product dispenses with the use of lead or cobalt drying agents and is ideal for applying to parquet, cork and wood floorings. Depending on the particular use, the drying time is 10-24 hours after application. »OIL IN ONE COLOR« is currently available in 34 shades plus a colourless version – and since they can all be mixed together, this offers even more possibilities when applying it in situ or in the parquet layer’s shop. The oils not only lend an attractive appearance, giving floors a well-groomed matt finish, but they also afford reliable protection. This results in products that meet the highest requirements when it comes to a healthy living environment, occupational safety and durability.