For wooden floors new and old, Briwax Danish Oil is a far better finish than polyurethane. Instead of forming a synthetic coating over the top of the floor, Briwax Danish Oil penetrates and hardens the wood from the inside, allowing the natural beauty to shine through. Danish Oil won't yellow or crack over time. When the surface wears or gets scratched, polyurethane coatings have to be laboriously sanded off and reapplied. Briwax Danish Oil can be easily re-coated at any stage in its life to bring back the original finish. Briwax Danish Oil doesn't stick floorboards together. Floorboards can and will move over time. If you use a polyurethane or other ‘plastic’ surface finish, this will crack as the floorboards move. With Danish Oil, each board is coated and protected. It doesn't matter if the boards move, the finish remains intact.

Whether the floor is new or old, make sure the surface is clean and sanded smooth. The better finish you start with, the better the final result will be.

For the first coat use Briwax Danish Oil neat, or thinned slightly with about 10% mineral turpentine. Apply plenty of oil with a brush, cloth, or a foam roller, to make sure the wood takes up all the oil it needs. Wipe off the excess with a cloth as you go. This way you make sure there's enough oil in the timber, but you don't run the risk of creating a 'surface’ of Danish Oil on top of the wood. Leave this first coat to dry overnight.

Once it's dry, rub the floor lightly with a fine sandpaper (about 320 grit), and wipe off the dust. You can apply the second coat either neat or thinned up to 50% with mineral turpentine, again making sure that you don't leave too much on the surface.

For a more durable finish, rub with 0000 grade steel wool and apply another coat. Some people even like to apply four coats, if the floor is particularly heavily used or subject to water, such as a kitchen or entranceway.

When the surface becomes worn, you can restore it very easily. Wipe the floor with mineral turpentine, and apply another very thin coat of Danish Oil. This will renew the original finish with very little effort.

Danish Oil goes a lot further than most finishes. As a guide, we find that a 5 litre tin of Danish Oil is enough for four coats on about 30 square metres of flooring. The first coat uses around half of the oil, and the subsequent coats are much thinner, because the wood has been sealed by the first coat.

If you want your floor to have a gloss finish, apply Danish Oil for the first coat as described above, then use Teak Oil for the second and subsequent coats. The first coat of Danish Oil 'grips' the wood slightly better.