Whenever we have a client whose ultimate objective is to use the least toxic product, Schotten & Hansen samples always win the testing. Water based finishes can be of very low VOC content, but they are simply not durable without their hardeners, and these hardeners do not test well. Hardeners of the so called Zero VOC hardwax oils experience the same testing problem. Everything in the softwax oil finish is natural and there is no hardener needed nor used. Torben often says that anything you can find in his finish you could find or use in your own kitchen. He never wears any gloves while coloring or oiling his samples. Every time we re-wax a Schotten & Hansen floor, the place smells like a lemon  juice mixed with walnut oil. It is a pleasure to be working with this product. And the self healing property of these oil-wax re-coats seems truly miraculous to me. The floor, no matter how abused in the meantime, can be healed through the deep cleaning and re-oil-wax, and it restores its overall appearance to the greater level than any hardwax oiled floor re-coat I have ever experienced. At the same time these maintenance coats do not cause any additional build up of finish, as would be the case with re-coats of water based finishes. Therefore we can keep maintaining a Schotten & Hansen floor, keeping it constantly great looking, for decades to come. It will essentially keep on looking the same. And this certainly could not be said of the industry standard water based coatings. Yes we can buff and re-coat such floors once or twice, but every re-coat builds up an additional layer, and with too many top coats the floor starts feeling and looking like plastic. 

All very light as well as very dark wood floors are more difficult to maintain. As is the case with our clothes or cars. Dirt and wear or dust and scratches become very noticeable on such backgrounds. So does everything else affecting these surfaces. So I tend to sway clients away from impractical situations, as often as I am able to. But whenever they are after a really dark surface, to me a water based coating should not be a part of the consideration. I have been asked to look at too many failed floors where this faulty specification was the cause of the aggravation of a client. If I needed to recommend a very dark floor surface it would either be coated with epoxy, or a Schotten & Hansen floor finished with softwax oil. My favorite Schotten & Hansen color is Oyster. It looks like a beautiful collection of mid range of earth tones. It hides wear marks so well. And because of this mixture of tonality, it sets such a wide background that will complement so many other color tones of any interior.

Please make sure to use the S&H wood soap for cleaning your Schotten & Hansen floors. Bona Kemi floor cleaner is way too aggressive for this coating as it is for the hardwax oils as well, and would eventually destroy these finishes.