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What is my best way of protecting oak skirting board and architrave?

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wanoennogs

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Name
Wayne
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I am removing my old skirting board and architrave. I am replacing it with solid oak. I want to give it a hard coating to protect it bumps and scratches. I am getting conflicting advice when searching. Is a clear hard varnish my best option to protect the skirting board and architrave? If it isn't my best option what is?


This is the wood I will be buying https://www.timber2udirect.co.uk/shop/torus-skirting/
 
Welcome to the forum. When you say "protecting".....what do you mean? The oak will be perfectly OK without a finish. The only thing I can think of that it might need protecting from are marks from a vacuum cleaner (or floor polisher), and arguably, it would be just as easy to sand any of them away as it would be to touch up an oil or varnish finish. So, I suspect you don't mean "protect". It is just an aesthetic choice, I reckon, combined with a consideration of the effort involved in applying the finish. In that aspect, I suggest oil is easier than water-based varnish which is easier than oil-based varnish. If you want to spend a fortune but save a coat or two, then Rubio Monocoat would probably sit just behind oil on the easiness league.
 
Having just completed a large area of oak flooring and skirting plus much experience in this regard, I would strongly recommend Osmo polyx oil. Proceed with caution re a water based varnish.... just not as good as an oil based finish in any way.
 
I've just finished a kitchen project with oak-faced ply and used Osmo as a finish. This includes end panels and plinths down to floor level, and it's holding up well and should be relatively easy to refinish in the future. If you've not used it before be aware it requires thin coats of application
 
PAC1 said:
I have similar skirting and architrave. I have used Osmo oil on all of the skirting and architrave.
Click to expand...

Is this it? What sheen should I get? Matt, semi matt, satin or glossy?

Osmo Polyx Oil | Original Polyx Hardwax Oil from Osmo

Buy Osmo Polyx Oil. Easy to apply and extremely strong, Osmo oil is perfect for all wooden areas requiring a hard wearing yet easy to maintain wood finish.
www.wood-finishes-direct.com www.wood-finishes-direct.com
 
I have laid oak floors, skirtings, architraves etc throughout the upper floor and part of the ground floor of our 17C barn. None of the doors (hand made oak), skirtings, architraves, and other adornments are finished in anything at all. Floors are osmo floof finish, pad wiped. Oak is basically indistructable and marks sand off in seconds and no refinishing required.

Hence Mike is spot on. ;)

Part of our property operates as a busy restaurant now. Hence lots of traffic - far more than domestic. I prefer no finish as very easy to deal with marks. Oak ages beautifully. Leave it be. Or a bit of natural wax if you must.
 
A customer of mine has just treated some Oak bits and pieces with Osmo, they didn't do any test pieces and it has turned out darker than they expected, I felt bad for not mentioning the Osmo raw to them. The raw has a small amount of white pigment in and leaves light coloured wood looking a bit more natural rather than the kind of wet look that you normally get with oils. Might be worth a look if you like the Oak as it is.
 
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