# Forum Home Renovation Flooring  Liming question - tannins in cypress pine?

## paddyjoy

I have some 80 year old cypress pine floor boards that I am planning to white/lime wash. The supplier has recommended using their tannin seal product to prevent tannins leaching out. My understanding was that tannins are more a problem in outdoor scenarios with darker timbers like merbau. Does anyone know if cypress pine of this age is likely to leach anything? 
Also if anyone has any recommendations on products that would be greatly appreciated. So far I have tested feast watson liming white - too light even after 3 coats, porters paints wood wash - leaning towards this one, it worked pretty well but is difficult to apply consistently. The only other one is intergrain enviropro liming white floor stain but I'm worried it will be too light and I will need to buy a large quantity of product just to test it. However apparently it is much easier to apply. 
Thanks

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## Renopa

Some years ago a friend lime washed their floors through the whole house (newly built at the time) because money ran out and they couldn't afford floor coverings.  It looked so good, they decided to continue with the lime washed floors.   
While I can't remember the quantities she made her own mix of Lime and water and added some natural plant based dyes to get the colour she wanted.  Was a bit of trial and error but offcuts were used for testing.  Boiled Onion skins give great colours, but other plants etc give great results as well...just depends on the level of colour you want to add to the Lime wash.   Natural Dyes - Red Onion Skins â Folk Fibers    ....is just one site, there are many more.   
In some rooms she cut a stencil and added this as a border, using a natural dark dye painted with a fine paintbrush.  So many options and just depends on the style/colours/etc you want.   
Not sure if this helps?  ;-)

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## Dusty

Use acrylic paint....1 part paint to 2 parts water - as such 4lts of paint yields 12 lts of stain. This *HERE* is one I did recently on Tasmanian Oak. it works just as well on the various Pine species.

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## Bloss

Dusty has greater experience on floors than I, but cypress IMO is a different matter. 
The issue with cypress is not the tannins, but the cypress resins that give it the easily identifiable smell and makes it such a kong lasting timber and resistant to termites. And cypress are unrelated to pines i.e.: they are conifers, but not pines. Cypress is a softwood and is not attacked by Lyctus borers. When painting and finishing it is the dark resins that cause the markings and sometimes failure of adhesion of coatings - especially of water based products. Older cypress such as yours would be less likely to be a problem, but might well still have enough resins left to be a concern. Oil-based finishes tend to have fewer problems, but of course lime-washes are generally water based. Lime washes on cypress react with resins often trying the finish green or greenish yellow - and does not come up as expected (radiata pine lime washes very well). 
Oil based white tinted 'lime washes' are available, but read the labels to see whether they are OK for cypress.

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## paddyjoy

Thanks for all the advice, Dusty that floor looks great. I'm trying to get that type of finish but with a satin top coat. 
I decided to go with porters paints "Palm Beach White wood stain", did three rooms today and it was a bit if a disaster, I'm going to sleep on it but I think I'm going to have to sand them back and start again. 
The instructions said to apply evenly and then wipe away the excess within 3 minutes. It was incredibly hard to get a consistent colour, the paint did have problems adhering and turned into this gluggy goo after about 45 seconds making it really hard to wipe off. It was more like polishing or rubbing it into the grain of the wood before it would look ok. In some places I just couldn't get to it in time, leaving nasty patchy areas. 
Here are some that came out ok   
and here's an example of the streaky ones    
What a nightmare  :Doh:

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## OBBob

They both look good to me... but I guess it's different in reality. Maybe it's worth trying some sort of light mechanical buffing on it to see if it's recoverable before you have to be more drastic?

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## paddyjoy

One room came out ok and reasonably consistent but the lounge room is hideous and looks like a garden lawn with the different shades of white. I'm not sure if it can be recovered but I could try sanding the brighter areas lightly and see what happens.

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## OBBob

OK, a lot more obvious in that pictures. It's strange ... like there was some residual coating on those particular areas?

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## paddyjoy

> OK, a lot more obvious in that pictures. It's  strange ... like there was some residual coating on those particular  areas?

  Yes that's exactly what happened, so on the  lighter strip I was able to apply the paint and wipe the excess off in  about 90 seconds however on the larger strips it took me about 120  seconds to apply and wipe, hence the paint went all tacky and left that  inconsistent residue. I'm going to try and sand it with some high grit  paper and hand held orbital sander tonight to see if I can remove those  residue patches. 
The only way I can see this product working is if you did it board by board.

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## Gaza

Lime wash is pain in butt
Two man job plus a crap load of masking tape, 
You are a brave man to attempt it   
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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## paddyjoy

> Lime wash is pain in butt
> Two man job plus a crap load of masking tape, 
> You are a brave man to attempt it   
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  Yeah been through 200m of tape already and that's reusing it twice. 
Looks like I'm going to have to sand out the strips with excessive paint and try again.

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## METRIX

> Use acrylic paint....1 part paint to 2 parts water - as such 4lts of paint yields 12 lts of stain. This *HERE* is one I did recently on Tasmanian Oak. it works just as well on the various Pine species.

  As much as it' may look good, it's a shame to cover such nice select grade boards with paint, I must say the reflections look amazing, this is obviously the mark of a good sanding / finishing job.

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## OBBob

> ... I must say the reflections look amazing, this is obviously the mark of a good sanding / finishing job.

  I was thinking that! How would you actually use the room.  :Smilie:

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## METRIX

Not sure, but that kitchen sure is a LOUD color, someone will have plenty to say in 15 years when their ripping it out.

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## Dusty

LOL. You're right it is a bold kitchen...not too sure that the owner was a 100% sold on it either, he must've asked me 97 times if I liked it. From experience, when someone really digs something they've done in their house they don't need constant affirmation from outside sources. Anyway, the main thing is the floor came up a treat. 
As for using the room, well, yes, lot's of dead space. The largest open section hoses a dining table, and that's it...but having said that it was a case of _less is more_ in this property.

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## paddyjoy

Ok all sanded off and time for round two....

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## paddyjoy

Using the dulux intergrain endure mixed with 10% liming white solution this time. Going on much better but only when applied board by board with a brush, roller was leaving too much texture and lambswool was too streaky. Pic is one coat except for two boards on the left that have two coats.

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## paddyjoy

Here is the final result after 2 coats, really needed one more coat but we couldn't face it lol

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## OBBob

Glad it worked out!

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