"Lil" wrote in message
...
We have a 1960's block wooden parquet floor in our entrance hall which is
driving me crazy!....It would look fabulous if we could just stop it
getting
scratched. Have tried tough floor varnish but it doesn't seem to make any
difference. With four kids it's impossible to keep yelling "mind the
floor!" everytime anyone walks through the door - and anyway floors are
made
to walk on and I'm that unusual type of female that doesn't like nagging
(yes really!). Love the look of the floor otherwise and don't really want
to change it - does anyone have any suggestions on what we could use to
stop
it scratching and marking - non-slip of course!

Lil


What type of varnishes have you tried? There are some unbelievably tough
ones out there.

I laid an oak strip floor in my office before christmas & needed something
hard wearing (because I use one of those office chairs on hard plastic
casters & it would have ripped the finishes I've used elsewhere in the house
to shreds in days) and quick drying (I was on a tight timescale - christmas
was looming & missus beginning to glare frighteningly at the mess).

Picked up a tin of Blackfriar Duratough clear floor varnish - an acrylic
finish - from the decorator's merchants & I've been amazed at how tough this
stuff is. After 2 months of abuse under the chair casters it still looks as
good as the day it was finished, not even surface scratches visible under
light.

The other bonus is that this stuff dries after about 30 minutes & is
recoatable after 2 hours - I did the whole job in one (long) evening which
included having to shift about some Ikea (spit) whole-wall shelving about
the room (couldn't be removed from the room without being dismantled).

For areas of very high wear & when you don't want the hassle of maintaining
the kind of finish that gives you the olde-worlde-super-soft-sheen look of a
waxed floor I'd recommend this stuff very highly.

--
Richard Sampson

mail me at
richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk