Soap Finish Floors

I lived in denmark for two years in the mid 1970s and have visited many times since.

Soap finish floors. To maintain them you just mop with a more diluted version of the soap water mixture. His advice sent me down an internet rabbit hole on soap finished floors and it turns out that in some parts of the world it s a very common and effective way to finish and protect wood floors. Bob flexner is author of understanding wood finishing. It sounds like a folktale.

While aged soap finishes i ve seen on hans wegner chairs are indeed dead flat a new soap finish looks much more like a wax finish. White soap is a way of keeping the floors light by adding a new layer of white overtime you wash it. This post is to encourage you to give the soap finish a try and to dispel some of the questionable advice i ve collected on it. I d call it semi gloss.

Soap is an age old scandinavian wood finishing tradition for flooring and furniture. In this excerpt from no fear chairmaking christopher schwarz shows you how to make and apply a traditional soap finish it s easy clean and safe. Here s what i ve found. A soap finish makes a soft to the touch light finish and is best suited for light toned softwood species which are more porous like pine and douglas fir and hardwood species like oak.

From what i can tell the typical term for. It s the same you do with white oil soap to keep the oiled floors looking fresh. Soap finish is used a great deal in scandinavia. The results are light buttery soft gorgeous floors that smell amazing.

It sounds like the floor needs to be sanded down first to get rid of all the old layers of treatment and dirt. For these whiting calcium carbonate is usually added to the soap to produce a pickled look. Now to your problem. Y ou may be surprised to learn that a quite popular finish for furniture and floors in denmark and other northern european countries is soap.

The soap finish is why many danish furniture pieces from the 1970 s look natural and unfinished. The soap is 100 vegetable based and it soaks into the pours of the floor making a barrier against dirt. While this natural danish finish looks beautiful it s high maintenance. First on the sheen of the finish.

Soap is also used in denmark to finish floors. In denmark in particular where the soap finish is considered to be desirable and sophisticated. The procedure for application and maintenance is the same.