What makes a floor finish more wear resistant than another? Very often the hardness of a finish is confused with the wear resistance, but these are 2 different things. A harder finish does not mean it is necessarily more wear resistant. For example, when comparing solvent-based finishes, a 2 pack finish whilst harder, does not have the wear resistance of a single pack moisture-cured finish. Even the method of measuring wear resistance can be misunderstood. The most common test method is by using a Taber Abraser machine, but numerous testing standards exist and this is where the confusion begins.

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Of the different Taber Abraser testing standards, the grit feeder method(SIS 923509) provides the most realistic prediction of the performance of a floor finish. The reason is because this test best simulates 'real life' wear and tear.

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Lower the mg/100revs the harder the surface and more resistant to wear.

Bona Traffic

2.5mg/100revs

Typical single pack moisture cured polyurethane

3mg/100revs

Synteko Best

3.1mg/100revs

Synteko Extra

4mg/100revs

Bona Mega

4.5mg/100revs

Nanosol Classic

4.7mg/100revs

Typical 2 pack polyurethane

5mg/100revs

Typical Oil modified/Tung oil finish

7.5mg/100revs

Synteko Classic(Acid curing)

8mg/100revs

Ref Bona X

As you can see, surface finish rank high in wear resistance while penetrating oils rank low in wear resistant. This is quite expected as natural oils does not create a surface layer which takes the brunt of the wear.