Oiling a timber floor: by hand or with a machine

Here is what each way actually involves, when the machine is worth hiring, and what you need alongside it.

What re-oiling actually is

An oiled floor is protected by oil soaked into the timber, not by a coat sitting on top of it. That oil wears down over time, first in the walkways, and the floor starts to look dry or patchy. Re-oiling tops it back up. It is not sanding, and it is not recoating.

FirstFloor states coverage of about 70m² per litre in a single coat, and a dry time of 6 to 12 hours with good ventilation. That is the same whichever way you apply it.

By hand

A cloth or a hand pad, working in thin even coats, then buffing the oil in. It is the right call for a small room, a hallway, or a touch-up on the worn track in front of the kitchen bench. No hire, no booking, and you can start now.

The catch is the buffing. Working oil evenly into a whole floor by hand is slow, repetitive work at floor level, and an uneven buff is what leaves a patchy finish. On one room that is manageable. Across a whole house it is a long day.

With a machine

A floor machine does the buffing for you. You spread the oil thin, then walk the machine over the floor with a white pad to work it in evenly. You are standing up, and the pad covers a lot more floor per pass than your arm does.

The machine we hire is the Floorservice FloorBoy XL-300, made by Overmat Industries in the Netherlands. It is a domestic single-disc machine, not an industrial one. It weighs 13.9 kg, runs a 300mm drive disc with a 12″ pad off a standard 230V plug, and has a 6 metre cable. Overmat describe it as easy to handle and controllable for everyone. It fits in a car boot.

It is not a sander. It will not take a floor back to bare timber, and it is not for stripping a finish off.

Which one to choose

Hand is fine for one room, a hallway, or a worn patch. Hire the machine when you are doing a whole floor, when the floor is big enough that an even buff by hand would be hard to hold, or when you would rather do it standing up in an afternoon than kneeling through a weekend.

What you need either way

Maintenance oil matched to your floor, white pads to buff it in, and a neutral wood-floor cleaner to get the floor properly clean and dry before you start. Oil goes onto a clean floor or it seals the dirt in.

If you are not certain your floor is oiled rather than lacquered, check before you buy anything. Maintenance oil is for oiled floors only and will not behave on a lacquered one.

Two safety points, not optional

Oil-soaked cloths and pads can heat up and catch fire on their own. FirstFloor’s instructions say to submerge used cloths in water straight after use. Do not leave them screwed up dry in a bin.

Keep the room well ventilated while the floor dries, and stay off it for the full 6 to 12 hours.

Hiring the machine

The machine hires for $120 and is collected from our Newmarket showroom, 2 Roxburgh Street. Hire periods are 2, 4, 6 or 8 hours, and longer is available if you ask. There is a hire agreement to sign and a card authorisation to complete, which covers damage, loss and late return, so get in touch and we will sort the booking and the paperwork with you.