Cabot's CFP Floor Water Based

This wonderful product has come in for an unfair pasting on this website and so I thought I'd add my experiences. I've used CFP floor varnish to fix up wear spots before selling my previous house and again to protect the floors when moving into my new place. The product is easy to apply and, because it applies relatively thinly, seems to match… Read more ·  1

the sheen of the previous coating. It's dry enough to walk on in about two hours (whereas oil based finishes need at least a day- that just doesn't work for a place that's being lived in). The only word of caution that I would raise is that you have to use the product EXACTLY as per the instructions. It is not as forgiving as CFP's oil based product. In particular, please take care to clean your floors really well beforehand. I had a problem in one corner of the hallway, where, ahem, my cat had done a bit of a pee that must have partially soaked into the timber (so mopping alone didn't get all of it). That resulted in some white precipitation. The fix is easy. Just sand back with fine grit sand paper and re-apply CFP floor varnish.

I probably wouldn't use this product to coat raw timber, but for re-coating existing timber (whether previously coated with water or oil based products), water-based CFP floor varnish is hard to beat.

DO NOT USE this product – Would strongly recommend to NOT use this product. The temperature and humidity requirements for the 7 day cure are out of touch with most of the weather conditions in Australia. The three coats recommended went on beautifully, looked fantastic on finish and then over the next month after application it became increasingly cloudy, white bloom… Read more

patches expanding across large areas of the space. In response to advice from Cabot’s I had fans, heaters and dehumidifiers running 24/7 in the space, to no avail. The floor now looks ghastly. The worst areas look like white glue has been applied to the floor. Huge expense in buying this product, the effort in sanding and staining floors prior and a massive energy bill trying to mitigate the problem. Enormous effort and money wasted. Calling Cabot’s today they had no further advice yet to sand it all off and start again. Like that was easy. It’s not just the sanding but the clean up afterwards that takes a toil. This is 100’s of hours of my life and $ I will never get back. They offered me more of the same water based product, yet why would I ever use this product again as it will never cure in my weather conditions here in the Yarra Valley? They would not offer compensation or an oil based alternative. Deeply disappointed and devastated. Please read all the negative comments here and take them to heart. DO NOT use this product unless you are guaranteed to have goldilock conditions for a full 7 days including overnight. Who has 25 degrees every day including overnight for 7 days?

Solution for removing clouding – I got major clouding on my new staircase after applying the last coat of CFP satin floor varnish. It got rather annoyed after all that hard work so before going down the sanding back to wood path so I played around with one step to see if I could chemically remove it because I read that Petroleum Jelly (Vaseline) removed it. I tried some Vaseline… Read more ·  1

in a small area and it worked but I wasn't prepared to cover my entire stair case with Vaseline. After some playing around I found by using a saturated rag with Methylated Spirits it removed all the clouding quite easily. I then let it sit for a few days to see if the clouding returned and it didn't. I then purchased a new can of Varnish because I think my problem was I didn't stir the the varnish and work the matting agent in together properly. There was probably a larger amount of matting agent left in the bottom of the old tin. I cleaned up all the remaining steps with Methylated spirits and then gave them a rub down with a Scotch Brite Pad. I then mixed my new tin of varnish until my arm got cramps to ensure the matting agent was thoroughly mixed in with varnish and applied another coat. Every single step and riser came out perfect.

Solid product – We have wooden boards of low quality throughout our house. We don't plan to stay for another ten years and so we were hoping to avoid sealing the floors before we go. However the highly worn kitchen area was just too bad to leave any longer. Needed a low odour product that didn't require extensive floor preparation. Cleaned the floor really… Read more ·  1

thoroughly and a very light sand. Four coats of CFP Matt finish (30 minutes each coat) and it looks a treat. Easy to apply, easy to clean up, almost no smell. If I knew this was going to be durable (I will find this out in time) I would have given it five stars.

Inconsistent shin, expensive but spreads even – I bought 1 litre and another 4 litre of the same product, with satin shin but got a completely different shin across products. The product spread even but not the shin you would expect, and for the very high price of the product, you expect a more consistent look. Their customer service was slow, but eventually they did replace the product and were very generous Show details ·  3

Waste of time and money – This product deserves a zero star or -10000 stars. I wasted a few precious weeks sanding my floor and then using Cabot’s water based cpf. It’s more than a few weeks now and the finish keeps becoming cloudy whenever there is overcast condition. You don’t want that from your floor. Stop wasting time and money on cpf and use an oil based feast Watson finish or something. This is a useless product. Show details

Good product. Needs many coats – This is a good product, however it needed lots of coats on our old raw timber cypress pine floors. The floors were sanded to 120 grit. It took 8 coats to get a decent result, and needed some sanding between coats to hide grain raise. The cam says 3 coats. After 3 coats the floors were extremely blotchy and inconsistent. We used a brush. In retrospect I’d have used the oil based. Longer to dry, but less coats, and no grain raise. Show details

Patchy white – Cabot’s CFP water based Matt finish, applied over a black polyurethane floor, I have applied 2 coats, it has now been 2 days and the floor now has very patchy white marks all over. I’ve had the air conditioning on to help drying with no success. Not sure how to fix? Show details

Bought the 4 litre. Applied to handrail of stairs it was removing the stain – Needed hard seal for stair treads and the handrail and a tabletop. However after I had stained and let dry for three days it's started to ake the stain off. Show details

Fit for purpose – Old house, Jarrah floor in kitchen hall and "front room". all pretty distressed, some big gaps between 125mm wide boards (to give an idea of age of house), particularly kitchen so a high gloss finish would not look good without full-on sanding back and considerable filling to bring to a smooth finish. Sanded with 60 grit disc then 120 grit. … Read more

Swept, vacuumed then damp mopped. First coat on around 2pm. Second coat down 9am next day. Looked good. Would have probably benefited from 3rd coat, but owners unwilling to pay for extra labour (selling house}. I chose water-based finish, as my experience was very positive from refinishing a school Gym floor annually over 5 years TIPS: Ensure you are applying coats during suitable weather conditions. Keep a wet edge if possible. Apply 1st coat in one direction, then alternate with subsequent coats, with final coat along floorboards.

Great result - satin finish – We used the satin finish and it came up beautifully. Instructions were easy to follow. We did three coats and it looks great on our cypress pine, it’s clear and didn’t yellow the timber.  Show details ·  1

Still cloudy after 3 weeks! – Not dissimilar to several other reviews, we’re having problems with clouding after 3 weeks. Weather has ranged from 40deg down to 17 deg (in Leura NSW). The use of a hair dryer (as suggested by Cabots help hasn’t made any difference). We are hoping to list the house for rental but with this issue we are now looking to resand and look for an alternative. Very disappointing and not one to be recommended. Show details

Cabot's CFP matte water based – I've never stripped and revarnished floors before, applying the CFP was really easy and turned out brilliantly. I read the reviews before I started, so I made sure I didn't shake the can, but mixed it up really well. There was no clounding or anything unpleasant and it looks like it was done by a professional. Great product. Show details ·  1

Excellent product – I saw some negative reviews but my experience using this product has been excellent. I have used other water-based polyurethane products on our baltic pine floorboards many years ago and it was time to recoat. A preparation that didn't require sanding made for a quick and dust-free start to the job. It was very easy to apply and because it was… Read more ·  1

quick drying meant I could get the job done in a weekend. And what a brilliant finish - looks a treat. Highly recommend.

Worst mistake of my life – I applied this product to a floor that had been sanded by a professional tradesman. He suggested that I do the coatings because the job was only small. I applied the CFP to the floors last Sunday with the correct applicators, and to ensure it wasn't too cold, as I live in Melbourne, I had the central heating on 22 degrees all day. Unfortunately… Read more

the floor has dried with white cloudy patches throughout and looks terrible. I have spoken to Cabots who advise that it can take up to 7 days to dry and harden. I have now gone 5 days with no sign of the cloudy spots disappearing. I have just spoken to them and they now say it could take longer to dry. So what do I do? I still have to put down 2 more coats. At this stage it will be Christmas before I can use the room.

The oil based product is fantastic - I only used this one as the room is adjacent to our bedroom. One positive is that it doesn't smell.

Good product – I varnished some cork flooring in two rooms a couple of years ago, and very happy with the results from this and will use again. I liked the easy wash up and it did not take very long to dry, i used a extra wide brush and it was done in no time,  Show details

Saved $$ worth the gamble on $140 tin – Saved $$$. Seven years ago we sanded and polished our floors in our investment property using Cabots. Seven years on due to high traffic and low capacity tenants who didn’t take the time to care for things, it was looking a little tired. I used satin in two rooms. A day later hubby used satin but may not have stirred it properly and it was… Read more

also raining. Advice was to open up and let it dry. Didn’t work. Advice was to sand it. Groan. No time to hire a sander and lift into the car. We bought gloss and it came back looking great! Glad we used our instincts and took a gamble.

Cabot’s are No.1 – Renovated our stairs by ripping off old carpet. Most floor specialists told us we couldn’t revive our mdf treads. Called Cabot’s and they didn’t miss a beat. Patiently informed us about everything we had to do step by step. The result? A gorgeous new staircase with Cabot’s products. Thrilled with the company’s product and their outstanding service!  Show details

Fantastic product – Great product that is easy to use and pretty forgiving if you're an amateur like me. Did a surprisingly good job at reviving our patchy timber floors. Seemed to soak into the more bare bits and even out the floors over all. Really quick and easy to apply with a roller.  Show details

Did the magic on our matt finish timber floor – We recently moved to a new house and had a Vic Ash floor in Matt finish installed. No matter how much I clean it, still lacks luster, the floor really looks dusted. Good thing there’s one review here who had use it already on their Vic Ash so we decided to give it a try too. We bought a small tin can first to try on a small piece of our left out… Read more

uninstalled floor. Happy with the result, we decided to get the big can and do it on our whole house. The product is very easy to use. We did it ourselves and viola! Our matt timber floor come to life! Very happy with the result that I am giving this review to help out others in the future who might have the same issue with on their matt finish floors.

Looks good , we choose satin finish – have coated floors 5 times. Does have some spots where it looks a bit rippled.... it's been on the floor approx 4 weeks now and color of floor is getting a bit warmer. It stays pretty soft for a while....we were very careful putting in our new fridge but still managed a scratch. This was with at least 7 days rest after the last floor treatment!  Show details

Cloudy after 1 week – I've had the same problem as others. I have new stairs and use this product on the treads. Done by professional builders and painters. The rest of our new work is perfect but the stairs are letting us down because of this product. The problem is it goes milky/cloudy if you wipe it down. I waited a full 7 days and wiped it down with a just damp… Read more

cloth and the two treads I wiped are cloudy. Even after 7 days.

I'm glad I didn't do all the stairs now but surely after 7 days a soft damp cloth should cause the stairs to go white and milky. Very unhappy at this stage. I'll give it a while to clear up but if that doesn't work it will all have to be re-done.

Quite unhappy at this stage and wouldn't recommend using this and I won't be again.

So disappointed - my floor is a mess – We are restoring a 110 year old farmhouse. After days of meticulous preparation, my newly sanded floors looked great ... until I applied Cabots CFP Floor. It was easy to apply and the wood looked great, but the next day my floors were cloudy. I went online and found this forum and wish I had read some of these comments before I bought this… Read more

product. I've tried some of the suggestions, eg testing an area with a warm blow dryer (who would want to do that all day?!), left the doors open, left ceiling fans on, but it didn't improve. Wasted hours and hours of time and effort, and hundreds of dollars. It's now day 3 and my floors show no signs of improving. Looks like we'll be starting the whole process again - thankfully I've "only" applied one coat so far! I won't be using Cabots products. Thought we were buying the best - obviously not. Based on my experience, my recommendation is to avoid this product.

Happy as Larry – Tried one litre and was impressed, so I bought a 10 litre drum and did the full floor throughout, I have never written a review in my life but I am so happy with the end result I decided to post here. Floor was put in 12 years ago and it hasn’t been touched since and I just followed the instructions and it came up beautifully.was quoted thousands and did it in 2 days on my own for under $500 really happy with results  Show details ·  1

inconsistent product – I bought 3 cans of the matt finish for my country style house, 1st can produced excellent matt finish, second can was very glossy and so was the 3rd, now I have significant differences in the finish of my expensive floor, I dislike the gloss on my country style floor and I believe that the 2 cans of matt is actually gloss. I an angry what it has done to my floor, I would like to know if Cabot has any process in place for quality control!!!  Show details

14years and still good! – Completed an extension to our home last decade. We had the new floor professionally finished and it looked great. However, between the old and new sections of the house, we had to make a wide hardwood threshold that would cover an uneven height difference between the old and new floors. We used water based CFP as the coating and it looked just as… Read more ·  1

good as the professional job. 14+ years on, the floor finish we paid heaps for, is looking well worn, but the threshold, which is in the highest traffic area of the house, is still looking good. Quite surprised that 3 coats of water based Cabots has retained great gloss after all those years of children and dog traffic. Preparation and Product. You can't beat that combination. Needs a six star rating.

Pros and cons – I contacted the rep before I used it and she was very specific about ensuring that no moisture was present when applied. I followed the instructions and have no cloudy areas but did have to apply 4 coats to get a suitable finish (oil based would have only needed 3 coats). The reason I went with water based is because I could remain in the house… Read more ·  1

and not move out for a few days. This convenience means that you slightly sacrifice on durability. I have a dog and the small scratches show up only slightly more than the oil based products - but all floors will scratch unless you shuffle along in socks year round and are pet, child and pulse free.

I would use it again over the oil based because the lack of fumes must be better for me, the finish is good and there is no yellowing.

Easily applied . Floor shines Great product I have used this products three times now over the years Show details ·  1