Varathane 230131 Crystal Clear Floor Finish, Semi-Gloss 1 Gallon

Great product, easy to use and easy to clean up, leaves a very had and durable finish that is very smooth and easy to sand/scrape for finishing.More specifically, the smell is on the weak side compared with other varnishes, it brushes on like a dream and generally flows really nicely, and it was possible to completely remove it from my brush with soap and water. I will buy this again for any non-water contact wood jobs.Worth noting that the product need not be used only on floors. As far as I know, the floor finish is just a really high urethane formulation of the usual urethane + acrylic finish. I have used it for the wood supporting a mattress in a bed, shelves, desks, various hand made wooden devices, and of course floors, and it has performed well and provided a great finish in all of these applications.To apply, I generally scrape the intended application area and if it's dirty, I'll wipe it down with a damp cloth. First coat of the finish is always rough because of wood fibers left free to bend when they get wet by the finish. It usually takes only a few passes with my cabinet scraper to get a smooth foundation for the second coat which is usually very smooth (takes about 4 minutes for me to scrape 30 square feet). I hardly have to sand/scrape at all after the second coat for most hardwoods. I'll do 3 coats minimum on hardwood, often more like 4-5 on soft wood like pine. I always use a brush, some people say to use foam "brushes" for varnish, but I've found it leaves too many bubbles in the surface of the finish after application. Much better results with a brush and as I said above it's easy to clean the brush like new with soap and water.Final Tip: This stuff seems to store well in plastic containers. Don't take my word for it, try putting a small amount in a polyethylene container under controlled conditions. You might find a viable container that is much easier to seal and unseal than the metal can.

The product works fine. The package was not acceptable. The can was damaged quite a bit.

Good water based poly. Hard to find. B

First time user of this product. I used three coats on some cabinetry. Between coats I wiped the surface with steel wool. Gave me a great looking surface.

Need to take more care in shipping. Can was all dented up when received.

From what I can tell so far, great product! Very easy to apply, super convenient to be able to re-coat after 2 hours, and the semi gloss was just the right finish I wanted for our floors.A few notes.. we way over ordered. We were able to do 3 coats on our roughly 450sqft of floor with BARELY over a gallon. So it goes further than it says.We used a synthetic foam pad on a pole to apply. Just dumped a small puddle and spread with the grain, slightly overlapping the pass before.If I could change one thing, I'd go back and lightly sand after the first coat.. because as I read could happen, the water based did raise the grain of our old oak floors, but we just didn't take the extra time to do that step.. it's not terrible but didn't give us the super sleek/smooth finish most would prefer.It's been about a month, and the floors are holding up great so far with just 3 coats.. would have went ahead and done the 4th if we weren't selling the house soon.All in all, would definitely recommend this product and will use again in the future!

Easy to use, clean up after ! No odor is a huge plus. And super durable.

This is The Best Product in the Paint/Stain/Polyurethane category! So easy to apply with large paintbrush, dries in one hour with almost no odor. Application is assisted by the polyurethane having a milky color, but it drys crystal clear. I used this product several years ago and the wood floors look the same despite traffic. This time it was used on family room floors. I can't say enough about how great this Verathane Polyurethane is. Kudos to the chemists that developed it. Superb!!