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What is my best way of protecting oak skirting board and architrave?

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wanoennogs

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Name
Wayne
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I am removing my old skirting board and architrave. I am replacing it with solid oak. I want to give it a hard coating to protect it bumps and scratches. I am getting conflicting advice when searching. Is a clear hard varnish my best option to protect the skirting board and architrave? If it isn't my best option what is?


This is the wood I will be buying https://www.timber2udirect.co.uk/shop/torus-skirting/
 
I have similar skirting and architrave. I have used Osmo oil on all of the skirting and architrave.
 
Welcome to the forum. When you say "protecting".....what do you mean? The oak will be perfectly OK without a finish. The only thing I can think of that it might need protecting from are marks from a vacuum cleaner (or floor polisher), and arguably, it would be just as easy to sand any of them away as it would be to touch up an oil or varnish finish. So, I suspect you don't mean "protect". It is just an aesthetic choice, I reckon, combined with a consideration of the effort involved in applying the finish. In that aspect, I suggest oil is easier than water-based varnish which is easier than oil-based varnish. If you want to spend a fortune but save a coat or two, then Rubio Monocoat would probably sit just behind oil on the easiness league.
 
Having just completed a large area of oak flooring and skirting plus much experience in this regard, I would strongly recommend Osmo polyx oil. Proceed with caution re a water based varnish.... just not as good as an oil based finish in any way.
 
I've just finished a kitchen project with oak-faced ply and used Osmo as a finish. This includes end panels and plinths down to floor level, and it's holding up well and should be relatively easy to refinish in the future. If you've not used it before be aware it requires thin coats of application
 
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