Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Product Review - Basic Coatings Emulsion Finish



For the typical homeowner, this review could bore you to tears. I'll try to stay on the surface and keep the content relevant to what matters to you. Basic Coatings, a manufacturer of wood floor finishes has a product called Emulsion, which I have wanted to try out for a while. They advertise Emulsion as a water-based polyurethane finish that has the "the warm, rich, amber tones of an oil-based finish." Their claim is in fact THE ANSWER (assuming it works!) to the one major complaint both contractors and homeowners alike still have against current water based finishes.





Water based finishes, as you may know, are designed to outperform oil-based products. They also dry very quickly: 2-3 hours, versus 8-12 hours for oil-based. VOC levels in water-based products are considerably lower, better for the environment and better for our respritory systems as well. Finally, water-based finishes don't turn orange after several years the way oil finishes do. So, if someone could please just manufacture a quality water based finish that had some color to it...enter Basic Coatings and their product Emulsion.





I used it first on my own floors that were originally finished with clear water-based finish. My complaint about my own floors is the same one we hear out in the field all the time..."I love the upsides to water-based finish, I just don't like the color (or lack of)." Instead of sanding my floors, i just coated them, hoping that using the Emulsion finish on top of previous clear coats would still add some color.





On a scale of 1-10, I give Emulsion a 7+. It is very easy to use and did give the floor a warm, rich look that it didn't previously have. Outside of resanding or using toxic oil finishes, I didn't believe it until I tried it, and like I said I was very happy with results.







I wish I had some before pictures so you could see the difference. I can tell you that floors that are not colored/stained inititally, and then finished with traditional water-based finishes, will be very light in color to start and will fade over time; often giving them a near white-wash look after 5 years or so. In most homes, this is not a nice look.




The reason I rated the product a 7.5 instead of a 9 was that is was not easy to apply (compared to other high water-based products). It bubbled and foamed up too easily, and wasn't quite as thick as I would have liked. That said, I'm sure after I use it several more times I'll feel better about it and perhaps rate it higher.




To conclude, I really do like this finish. I like to use it when re-coating (not sanding) floors that are in good shape, but need a little rich color. Now that I'm sold, I am able to provide a much better selection of options to my clients...and this is good for everybody!


Thanks for reading and hopefully this was helpful...


Matt Landauer - The Floor Guy

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