What does Steller Floors use as finish?

Updated on Jun 13, 2025

All flooring materials, including Steller Floors, are subject to wear & tear from use and from elements like the sun and water or humidity. Here, we choose and mill the highest quality, solid wood materials and we feel it is our responsibility to protect the materials using best finishes.

Polyurethane protects the wear surface of your Steller Floor

Steller Hardwood Floors are coated on the wear surface using a satin polyurethane. This stable polymer has been used for decades to prevent wear on hardwood floors. However, recent advances in refining the chemistry of polyurethane and the ability to apply the materials at the manufacturing facility have allowed for high quality materials to be made thinner, reducing the golden tint that polyurethane used to bring to the wood. In addition to the benefits of modern polyurethanes, Steller Floors uses no-VOC, UV-cured, 100% solids composition, making it more scratch and slip-resistant than typical water- or oil-based finishes applied on site.

Does Steller Floors use oil-based finishes?

At this time, we only offer UV-cured polyurethane finishes.

Does Steller Floors offer unfinished hardwood floors?

Unfortunately, we cannot ship unfinished hardwood floors due to the risk of damage during transit caused by harsh climates or humidity. It is important for us to ensure that our customers receive only the highest quality and long-lasting flooring products, which is why we take every precaution to protect the materials during shipping.

Paraffin wax protects the non-wear sides of your Steller Floor

Steller Floors are made from high quality materials and milled to high precision under climate control. To seal in that quality, we also apply a water-based, waxy sealant to all exposed, non-wear sides of your floor. This additional sealant is intended to help your flooring resist liquid water and dramatic changes in humidity. No floor is ever water-proof, and most hardwood floors lack sealants, but Steller Floors help you by giving your more time to manage a leak or dramatic humidity change.

Interested in how to respond to a leak or flood with a Steller Floor? Click here.

These sealants allow you to have days to weeks of water and humidity resistance versus minutes to hours with unsealed floors. In addition, if planks do absorb water or humidity, the sealants will help the plan dry evenly, so that it can regain much of its original manufactured shape, versus warping or twisting. The sealants are so helpful in protecting your Steller Floor that when we ship you your floor, we additionally include a sample of our water-based sealants so that you can apply it to fresh-cut ends of planks!