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Berti advises: Varnished or oiled parquet?

Berti advises continues to delve into the more technical aspects involved in parquet flooring and the choice for your wood floor. With an eye on the requirements for furniture and, of course, all the aspects that come after installation. Because wood is a living material, and the beauty of it is just living with it, savoring to the fullest its merits and qualities that make it one of the materials excellence of Made in Italy.

This time we try to answer one of the most popular questions: is varnish finish or oil finish better for parquet?

At the risk of being repetitive, again this is a very subjective choice: it depends on the aesthetic result and the feeling you want to get from your parquet floor.

The oil finish gives the wood floor a very natural effect, while the varnished finish highlights and enhances the tones and colors of the wood textures. Varnished parquet is more practical, since it is more difficult to scratch and easier to clean: in fact, a soft, damp cloth is all that is needed, without the use of special detergents. On the other hand, it has a natural tendency to create more reflections when subjected to direct light, thus looking less natural than an oiled parquet. If oiled parquet is known for its “natural effect,” we must also specify that nowadays techniques developed for varnishing that allow us to choose an equally natural parquet. At the same time, a varnished finish has greater resistance to abrasion and scratching, with the advantage of water repellency and surface hardness. In the case of an oiled parquet floor if surface scratches occur, it will be enough simply to carry out a new oiling, while for a varnished-finished wood floor the scratch can only be recovered by providing for a new sanding of the entire floor.

All the prefinished Berti are supplied already varnished: they undergo a high-strength varnishing process, which, thanks to the special finishing technique, makes it possible to have a product that is practically eternal, thanks to its high hardness and resistance to wear. The different stages of finishing involve 4 to 6 coats of primer paint applied by roller, which is followed by the subsequent velo finish. This is because, beyond the aesthetic aspect, the finishing of your parquet is a guarantee of first-rate functional performance. The drying of the varnish in special UV ovens makes Berti prefinished flooring usable and walkable immediately after installation. Berti’s products are water-based varnishes and are environmentally friendly: they can boast 95 percent fewer harmful emissions compared to a regular solvent varnish, while at the same time allowing you to maintain an excellent professional quality standard.

For all Berti prefinished parquet planks, you can request an oil finish: you can choose between a product that is supplied unfinished and will then be finished with natural oil at the time of work, or Berti produces prefinished parquet that is oiled in-line using UV urethane oil.

In general, since oil requires more care and maintenance, people very often opt for a varnish finish.

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