Pallmann Magic Oil Review after 12 Years | 2026

It’s hard to believe it’s been 12 years since we wrote this blog post: Pallmann Magic Oil review. The response we received from that series of articles about using hardwax oils for wood floor refinishing has been incredible. A lot has happened since then.

At that time, not many people had heard about hardwax oil and hardened penetrating oil finishes. And only a select few hardwood floor refinishing companies were offering them to their clients. We were the only Naperville hardwood flooring company using them.

12 years down the track and hardwax oil finishes have become extremely popular. They are now a very serious contender among mainstream wood floor finishes. It’s been fun watching their progress. We have completed over 150+ hardwax oil refinishing projects in that time… almost half of them Pallmann Magic Oil.

So I guess the big question is: What do we think of hardwax oil finishes now? How are they performing? Are we still using and recommending them for our hardwood floor refinishing projects in Naperville and Chicago? Are there any issues to be aware of?

What Color Should I Stain My Wood Floors?

One of the biggest questions we get here at Tadas Wood Flooring Inc. when it comes to staining wood floors is: Should I get my hardwood floors stained and if so, what wood floor stain color should I choose?

It’s easy to see why this can be such a dilemma for some people, your floors will have a huge impact on the look of your home and if you get them wrong, you’ll be stuck with them for a long, long time.

The answer isn’t as hard as you might think. There are a number of factors that will affect whether you should stain your hardwood floors and what stain color best suits your home, all of which need to be taken into consideration before making a decision.

How To Decide on a Final Stain Color

In our last blog post, we went into great detail about choosing stain colors. If you haven’t seen that post yet you can read it here.

One of the hardest decisions you may have to make when it comes to your hardwood floors is choosing the color you will eventually stain them. This is an important decision because you will have to live with your choice for a long time.

If you’ve followed the advice from that post, you’ve probably narrowed your choice down to 2 or 3 of your favorite wood floor stain colors.

So, in this article we’ll show you the steps we can help you go through to finally decide on a stain color that you’ll be completely 100% happy with for your hardwood floors.

Sunlight, UV and Fading Hardwood Floors

Everyone with hardwood floors knows that direct sunlight can be a problem for your floors. Most of us have moved a rug or a piece of furniture and noticed the covered part of the floor is either lighter or darker than the surrounding wood.

The longer the wood has been covered up, the more noticeable the difference in color is. Why does this happen and what can be done about it?

Let’s start off discussing why it happens.

Water Popping Hardwood Floors

One of the procedures we go through with every single hardwood floor that we stain is called “water popping”. It’s also called “grain popping” or “raising the grain”. Basically, water popping is a process used to open up the grain of wood flooring.

Why is it needed?

Well, once we’ve completed several sanding passes with various paper grits – from coarse to fine – the hardwood floor naturally becomes extremely smooth. The hardwood floors grain has become closed and tight, or in other words, it isn’t always open or porous enough for it to accept stain properly and evenly.

Rescuing a Botched Rubio Monocoat Fumed Floor

For this project we were called in to rescue a failed attempt at a Rubio Monocoat floor. It was in a downtown Chicago apartment thirty eight floors up overlooking the lake.

The original company that had installed this beautiful 5” engineered white oak quarter sawn floor realized that the ‘fumed’ process was beyond their skill set. So they did the right thing and passed along that part of the job to (a business they thought were) hardwood floor finishing professionals.

Cure Time vs Dry Time

One of the first things our clients will ask us once we put on the last coat of finish is “When can we walk on the floors?” The next question that usually follows is, “When can we put the rugs and furniture back?”

Good questions and ones that need a good answer.

Let’s have a look at each closer.