How to stain and seal yellow tongue subfloor?

[Paul1974]

Hi all,

We have a bedroom and hallway recently built with yellow tongue subfloor and I am wanting to prime,stain then seal the floor.I'm under the impression that oil based primer and stain is the one to use and then 4 to 5 coats of polyurethane to top coat for durable hard wearing finish.Has anyone done this before or has any suggestions on best way of achieving best results?any feedback would be appreciated 

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Paul1974. It's brilliant to have you join us and many thanks for your question about staining yellow tounge.

I must admit I am most familiar with yellow tongue flooring being used as a sub-floor and flooring or tiles being placed on top. Using particle board as flooring is not widely seen, but I suspect it could be a viable, cost-effective option.

I can't see the need for the oil-based primer as untreated chipboard should accept a stain reasonably well. What sort of primer were you thinking? You'd generally only use primers, which are opaque, if you were going to paint the floor, not stain it. The yellow tongue comes with a waxy coating designed to protect it from weather prior to the roof being put on a dwelling. This will repeal any stain or coating, and you'll need to sand the flooring before staining. 

Using polyurethane over chipboard is not something that our suppliers recommend. This is mainly because of the waxy coating, the glues used to bind the timber chips, and due to it not being a commonly used material for flooring. I have heard of instances where yellow tongue has been coated and has worked just fine. I'd just suggest if you're going to give this a go, a test section would be appropriate. My biggest concern is that if this fails, you might not have the option to lay tiles or a cheaper alternative like vinyl sheet flooring due to their glues being incompatible with the polyurethane coating.

I'll be keen to hear if any of our members have experience in this area. Let me mention @TedBear, @Noyade, @Remarka6le, @JDE and @tom_builds to see if they have any thoughts.

Mitchell

[Paul1974]

Thanks Mitchell.i have seen it done before and the primer first stops the stain from absorbing too much as yellow tongue is porous.Then stain is applied and once dried poly is applied to give a very durable and hard wearing seal over floor.I know subfloor can be painted a wood colour as well as an option but was wondering if other techniques have been used.in regards to viynl sheet or tiles,not normally recommended to lay direct or stick to yellow tongue subfloor. If go down that route I'd need to lay masonite first over subfloor..

[Shane0]

Hello Mitchell, I can not believe you have never seen Particleboard (Yellow Tongue) used as Polished flooring before. All you have to do is hire a sander take the top layer off. Put down the stain colour you want then put down the clear coats. Have a look at google images for finished look. Kinda looks like cork flooring.

shane0

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Shane0. It's great to have you join us, and many thanks for jumping into the conversation.

I can only ever recall seeing it done in more industrial situations like workshops and not in homes. Do you know what's funny, though? Now that I think of it, I could have potentially grown up in a house that had this done. I had always presumed that it was a cork floor, but it actually could have been yellow tongue 😅 That's why this forum is so fantastic, so many different life experiences.

Looking forward to seeing what else you contribute to the community.

Mitchell